An Investigation of How English Language Learner Teachers Are Addressing the Needs of Bilinguals Students Who Have Language Impairments

This study investigated how English language learner (ELL) teachers are addressing the needs of bilingual students who may have language impairments. Specifically, regarding ELL teachers’ preparedness to work with students who have language impairments, adaption to work with bilingual students with language impairments, and their collaboration with speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The researcher created an online survey that included several multiple choice, Likert-scale and open-ended questions. The first conclusions of this study are that ELL teachers frequently work with bilingual students, though they do not feel that they have been prepared well enough to work with them. In addition, out of the five educational programs that were listed (Dual Langauge, English Immersion, Sheltered Bilingualism, Transitional, and Pull-out), there is limited knowledge on the effectiveness of Pull-out and English Immersion when working with bilingual students who have language impairments