Implementing co-teaching to support the language socialization process of immigrant students (La práctica de la coenseñanza para fomentar el proceso de socialización lingüística de los alumnos inmigrantes)

ABSTRACT This study describes a project in a school district in New Jersey that aimed at preparing all teachers to understand and address the needs of immigrant students and English language learners (ELs). Co-teaching was implemented between the general education and the ESL teacher in elementary school classrooms to educate, inform and engage content area teachers in the education of ELs, to create a system of accountability by having both teachers share instructional responsibility for immigrant students and to facilitate the language socialization process of these students. We identify specific aspects of co-teaching that support the development of content-based English language proficiency of immigrant students while also promoting more teacher collaboration and engagement with linguistically and culturally diverse students. By engaging in co-teaching, teachers needed more common planning time, learned to use specific scaffolding and instructional strategies and made language an object of study in the classrooms.