On Preparing Effective Teachers for Linguistically Different Students

1974 NCTE Annual Business Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana

Background In this statement, NCTE members spelled out more specifically the kinds of preparation teachers of English need in order to be effective in teaching linguistically diverse students.  "Teachers are responsible for teaching all students who come to school, whatever their languages and whatever their dialects in those languages," the proposers pointed out.  They noted a continuing lack of teacher education programs for developing awareness of "the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic principles which apply to teaching users of various languages and dialects."  They warned that lack of such education can cause teachers to ignore or try to eradicate linguistic diversity, practices that produce unfair and even punitive treatment of students.  Be it therefore Resolution Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English strongly advocate and support the development of teacher education programs which prepare teachers to work effectively with the learning needs of students from diverse language and dialect backgrounds.