Creating Confidence: Teachers’ Strategies to Foster Self-Efficacy in Secondary ELLs

As Canada continues to welcome immigrants from around the world, public school systems are challenged to provide academic and social supports to students whose first language is not English. The purpose of this study was to examine how a small sample of secondary educators is intentionally working to support the development of self-efficacy in ELLs, including the potential challenges ELL educators face. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews with two ELL instructors with ten or more years of experience working with ELLs in Ontario public secondary schools. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed by the researcher. The results of this qualitative study suggest that the educator’s role in supporting these students extends far beyond the classroom and is dependant on establishing rapport with students through creating and participating in community building inside and outside of the classroom. In addition, the study identified large class sizes of mixed skill levels and improper initial placement of students within the Ontario ESL program as reported challenges to teachers’ efforts to foster students’ self-efficacy