Summary written by MLRC School Network member, Iryna Zhurenko (International School of Beijing)
In their quantitative study, Lehman and Welch (2020) examine teacher knowledge of language policies in English-medium international schools in East Asia. They explored whether there were differences in knowledge between schools affiliated with CIS, IB, and ACS WASC, whether teachers followed these policies, and if the policies defined the roles of classroom and ESL/EAL/ELD/TESOL teachers. The study surveyed 544 participants (387 teachers and 157 administrators) from 15 countries and city-states in East Asia, using a cross-sectional survey design and analyzed the data with SPSS software. The findings revealed that 82.2% of administrators and 61.5% of teachers reported the existence of a formal written language policy in their schools. However, less than half of the respondents consistently followed the language policies, and a significant number of teachers (38.5%) were either unaware of or stated that no formal policy existed.
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