Innovation in Language Learning

There are new discussions regarding pedagogical methods on how to achieve reading and writing proficiency in the second language classroom in socioeconomic disadvantaged areas. The low rate of students mastering a second language has fired up discussions in language teachers’ communities. The gap in the literature on how crucial it is to lead students to naturally communicate in the classroom by committing to use only the target language while listening, reading, writing and speaking as well as my experience teaching high school students inspired my research.

In this presentation, I will explore a model of a full immersion classroom that provides all students with the opportunity to reach their potential and leave high school mastering a second language. For this purpose, I will examine different discussions such as the belief that learning a foreign language can be detrimental for the development of the first language, the idea that it is difficult to impossible to achieve students’ learning goals that involve communicating in the target language at all times, and the hidden assumption that mastering a foreign language is useless in and for all communities.

Students of all levels of first language proficiency and socioeconomic backgrounds can achieve mastery of a second language by committing to a language pledge that is supported by the school language department and parents. Second language teachers can contribute to change the language acquisition culture that impedes students to master a second language once they are ready to transition to vocational studies or college education. I will discuss how differentiating the teaching material, the learning process and the product or students’ responses in the second language classroom become a methodological approach to facilitating the process of second language acquisition. Finally I will present academic growth results that developed in a literacy-diverse classroom of a significant socioeconomic disadvantaged environment.

Keywords: Language Teacher Training, Quality and Innovation in Language Teaching and Learning, Monitoring and Evaluation of Language Teaching and Learning