Ethnolinguistically Relevant Pedagogy: Empowering English Language Learners in Physical Education

People from diverse cultures interpret languages and gestures differently (Columna & Lieberman, 2011 Columna, L. and Lieberman, L. 2011. Promoting language through physical education: using sign language and Spanish to engage everyone, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). It is not surprising, therefore, that communication differences may have negative implications for teachers and English language learners in K–12 physical education environments. To address this issue, we advocate preparing physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates to implement ethnolinguistically relevant pedagogy to better accommodate students with diverse linguistic backgrounds in K–12 physical education settings. Ethnolinguistically relevant pedagogy (Farr, Seloni, & Song, 2010 Farr, M., Seloni, L. and Song, J. 2010. Ethnolingusitic diversity & education: language, literacy, & culture, New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) is a blending of intercultural language education and intercultural competence (Byram, 1997 Byram, M. 1997. Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence, Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. [Google Scholar]; Byram, Gribkova, & Starkey, 2002 Byram, M., Gribkova, B.Starkey, H.2002Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching: a practical introduction for teachers. Language Policy Division, Directorate of School, Out-of-School and Higher Education, Council of Europe. http://lrc.cornell.edu/director/intercultural.pdf (http://http://lrc.cornell.edu/director/intercultural.pdf) [Google Scholar]) with culturally relevant pedagogy (Gay, 2000 Gay, G. 2000. Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice, New York, NY: Teachers College Press. [Google Scholar]). In this article, we discuss ethnolinguistically relevant pedagogy and strategies for implementing such pedagogy in physical education settings.