Pedagogical Language Knowledge: Preparing Mainstream Teachers for English Learners in the New Standards Era

This article reviews research that provides potential insights on preparing mainstream teachers to implement the Common Core State Standards and support ELs. The author argues that efforts to prepare teachers for working with ELs, with the goal of increasing language and literacy expectations, require helping teachers develop pedagogical language knowledge. EL teachers cannot teach English in the way that most mainstream teachers may initially conceive of this process and must instead purposefully develop language and literacy in and through core curricular content, understandings, and activities.