Micro-level teaching strategies for linguistically diverse learners

Language instruction in secondary education is dominated by standard language ideology—a view of language that sanctions one (“standard”) variety at the expense of other (“nonstandard”) ones. While it is clear that students need access to privileged rhetorical forms, it is similarly clear that most current pedagogies do not facilitate such access for many students, and, in fact, may work to alienate some students from academic processes. Some instructional approaches have been proposed in the past (i.e., linguistically informed instruction and genre) that offer strategies for more effectively teaching linguistically diverse learners. What is needed is not only a synthesis of the strengths of such approaches, but also an understanding of the fluencies students already possess. Language curricula in secondary schools should intentionally build from the micro- to the macro-level, from the existing linguistic knowledge of students to increased facility with academic and other privileged genres and registers.