| Summary: | This study sought to understand the needs of U.S. K-12 teachers as they guide students learning languages with non-Roman writing systems, which we have termed “Languages with Diverse Written Representations (LDWR).” While there is a growing body of research on the teaching of languages that do not use the Roman alphabet in the United States, relatively little research has looked in the K-12 context and across languages to find shared needs. However, some commonalities emerge in K-12 instructors’ experiences and challenges.
This paper describes exploratory focus group research conducted with instructors of Arabic, Mandarin, and Russian in Massachusetts elementary, middle, and high schools. Discussion showed that K-12 instructors working with languages that do not use the Roman alphabet form a coherent group with unique needs and challenges related to use of standards for world languages and finding and applying appropriate resources.
|
|---|