Resource vs. Deficit Views About English Language Learners in Classroom Practice

Grounded in a critical sociocultural perspective, this ethnographic case study explores two ELL teachers' views about ELLs and their classroom practices over one academic year using linguistically oriented critical discourse analysis methods. Findings indicate that one female teacher with resource views about ELLs, who focused on what ELLs have and can do in her utterances, demonstrated shared production of knowledge in the classroom. However, another female teacher with deficit views about ELLs, who emphasized what ELLs do not have and cannot do in her utterances, enunciated and embodied teacher-scripted classroom practices. The findings illuminate how critical it is for educators to have resource perspectives toward ELLs. Resource perspectives cause teachers to recognize and use in their instruction the linguistic and cultural resources that ELLs bring to the classroom and thus foster the positive identity construction and academic achievement of ELLs.