Feature Articles

Using Role-Play to Foster Transformational and Social Action Multiculturalism in the ESL Classroom
TATIANA GORDON
Hofstra University
This article discusses the use of role-play as an effective strategy for enhancing the quality of multicultural curricula in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom. The author critiques the use of the simplistic additive approach to multicultural instruction and furthers the work of those theorists who advocate the use of the more substantive paradigms: namely, transformational, social action, and reconstructionist multicultural curricula (Banks, 1991, 2006; Epstein, 2010; Pinet, 2006; Sleeter & Grant, 2003). The article discusses evidence, obtained through action research, that contextualizing language teaching through role-play enables teachers to render ESL multicultural instructional objectives more signicant and classroom activities more meaningful and engaging. It provides an overview of oral and literacy activities as well as literacy scaffolds and assessment tools developed in conjunction with multicultural role-play units. Included with the text are some instructional materials used in two elementary and secondary level units: Exploring Aztec Roots of Mexican Culture and Amending the U.S. Constitution. doi: 10.1002/tesj.32

The importance of validating students home cultures is a

bedrock of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) theory and practice. However, the development and implementation of multicultural curricula has not been without problems. Multicultural education researchers have pointed out that current multicultural curricula tend to be watered down and
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insufciently substantive. In many instances, curricula have the additive quality (e.g., Banks, 2006). Additive curricula will include one or two lessons that focus on an ethnic holiday or the accomplishments of outstanding individuals from a certain cultural background, but will fail to engage students in a more consistent, in-depth exploration of diversity. As token, supercial tributes to multiculturalism, additive curricula fail to focus on signicant concepts or big ideas. Moreover, lessons within additive multicultural curricula often reinforce commercial cultural stereotypes. For example, in such a version of the additive curriculum, Mexicos rich and complex culture will be reduced to ata, or Chinas ancient cultural heritage will be narrowly a pin represented by the Chinese New Year.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ACTION RESEARCH

Multicultural curriculum theorists explore approaches that would enable teachers to break out of the connes of additive curricula (e.g., Banks, 1991, 2003, 2006; Sleeter & Grant, 2003). A number of innovative curriculum development models have been advocated. For instance, the approach known as the transformational multicultural curriculum is meant (as its name suggests) to transform participants in the educational process. This approach enables students to view concepts, issues, themes, and problems from several ethnic perspectives and points of view (Banks, 2003, p. 19). Banks (2003) emphasizes that the primary objective of the transformational approach is not the addition of heroines and their contributions, but rather the infusion of various perspectives, frames, and references, and content from different groups that will extend students understanding of the nature, development, and complexity of the United States and the world (p. 19). Transformational multicultural curricula are thus meant to overcome a narrow ethnocentric worldview by enabling students to appreciate and adopt new cultural perspectives. The range of topics addressed in the transformational multicultural framework is vast. For instance, students may nd out how ideas of social justice have been tackled by Latin
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American artists or explore the theme of the individuals place in the universe central to the Chinese artistic tradition. Students may also learn that a particular historical event or social practice may be seen in profoundly different ways by different cultures. For instance, a topic that merits examination in the transformational multicultural curriculum framework is the exploration of the North American continent by Christopher Columbus. Traditionally touted in North America as an important achievement of European civilization, Columbuss exploit is seen in South and Central America as just one controversial, albeit crucial, link in a complex chain of events that brought about the fusion of divergent cultural strains and the emergence of new cultures in the Americas (e.g., Eakin, 2007; Stannard, 1992). The social action curriculum, another multicultural curricular innovation, makes a case for instructional activities that empower learners by enabling them to develop the skills essential for assuming active roles in a democratic society (Banks, 1991; Epstein, 2010; Pinet, 2006). The social action approach aims at a deep-level restructuring of the multicultural curriculum. It imparts a dimension to instruction whereby students make decisions and take actions on the concept, issue, or problem they have studied (Banks, 2003, p. 20). The social action approach provides students with opportunities to explore ways of promoting the welfare of their communities, gaining social mobility within the existing societal structure, and becoming active agents of social change. Depending on the age and prociency levels of English language learners (ELLs), social action curricula might focus on the following topics: the role of citizens in the governance and legislature of a democratic society, local community organizations, issues that affect local and global communities, and individuals responsibilities in resolving these issues. Some sample social action multicultural activities cited by theorists include making a commitment to challenging racial and ethnic stereotypes, asking a principal to order sets of photographs that represent people of color who have jobs in different careers, or compiling an annotated list of books about various ethnic groups (Banks, 2003).
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The transformational and social action approaches parallel the multicultural reconstructionist paradigm advocated by Sleeter and Grant (2003). This approach is also concerned with replacing the traditional curriculum model with one that helps students become active agents of societal change. Advocates of the multicultural reconstructionist approach are concerned about the fact that, in the traditional curriculum framework, students are taught some basic facts about democracy, but not about practicing democracy through social action. An alternative approach, whereby students explore ways of making democratic ideas work for themselves, is proposed. Intended primarily for students from disadvantaged and disempowered groups, the multicultural reconstructionist approach places emphasis on analyzing the circumstances of students lives, developing social action skills, and using these skills to challenge the problems that affect students and their communities. Sleeter and Grant provide some examples of reconstructionist activities. For instance, they mention that young students can lobby to get home and school rules changed to meet their interest and needs (p. 212). The arguments about the need for deep restructuring of multicultural curricula are compelling, but their implementation in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom can be quite challenging. The main difculty, quite obviously, has to do with rendering sophisticated target-language vocabulary accessible to language learners (Met, 1991). Abstract concepts and respective target-language items, such as exploitation, social justice, legislature, and nonviolent resistance (to name just a few examples), present difculties for mainstream students, let alone for those whose English language prociency is at an early stage of development. This issue is well documented. Research has provided ample evidence that abstract, context-reduced academic language tends to be particularly hard to teach (e.g., Cummins, 1979; Met, 1991). And yet, the need to make rich, substantive, and empowering multicultural curricula available to ELLs appears to be pressing. In order to enhance the quality of multicultural curricula available to ELLs, Hofstra University faculty and education students adopted a model developed by the Hawaii-based Kamehameha Elementary Education Program (KEEP). KEEP is a
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research-based project initiated by a team of psychologists, linguists, and teachers with the purpose of promoting Hawaiian childrens language development (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). There are a number of reasons why the KEEP initiative has special resonance with the action research project conducted at Hofstra. First, KEEP has focused on enhancing instructional experiences of linguistic and cultural minority children. Second, the project has been concerned with infusing intellectual rigor in the curricula and placing instruction at the furthest reaches of students cognitive development. Last but not least, KEEP participants have placed special emphasis on promoting culturally compatible curricula. These three features of KEEP also dene the Hofstra project. A curriculum development strategy resorted to by the KEEP project is project consultation. This term refers to a curriculum development mode whereby novice teachers and teacher educators form a team so that the entire group operates in joint productive activity for the purpose of solving a particular problem (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, p. 127). Because it helps overcome teachers social isolation, the major barrier to change in the teaching process, project consultation has been reported by KEEP participants to be the most powerful means of enhancing instruction (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, pp. 127, 190). Following KEEPs lead, Hofstras teacher education program (Gordon, 2005) uses project consultation in its curriculum innovation efforts. Hofstra student teachers, cooperating teachers, methodologists, and student teaching supervisors form project teams that work collaboratively at every step of the curricula innovation. Whether project participants set instructional objectives, develop activities, or put together assessment instruments, they are involved in a group effort. Further, the Hofstra team draws on the KEEP projects success with the use of modeling, a proven means of imbuing instruction with substance. Whether Tharp and Gallimore (1988) are describing activities in which ELLs learn about food preparation, space ights, or local governance, they report on the effectiveness of modeling as a means of developing complex verbal skills.
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Hofstra University TESOL teacher education students and faculty chose to experiment with the use of role-play as a means of modeling language use. Role-plays, a tried-and-true technique in foreign and second language education, are game-like reenactments by students of various real-life roles and functions. Role-plays can also be dramatic reenactments of historic events or pieces of literature. This techniques effectiveness in lowering the affective lter, bolstering the communicative curriculum (Donahue & Parsons, 1982; Hayati, 2006; Heath, 1993; Magos & Politi, 2008; Scarcella, 1978), and developing learner literacy skills (Ernst-Slavit & Wenger, 1998; Whiteson, 1996) has been amply documented. Hofstra TESOL teacher education students and faculty have researched the use of role-play as a tool for teaching contextreduced academic language. Prior action research projects undertaken by the universitys TESOL Program demonstrated that this strategy can serve as a powerful means of facilitating students comprehension of abstract target-language items and rendering ESL instruction cognitively stimulating (Gordon, 2007). Another modeling technique used by the project participants is scaffolding. Scaffolds are instructional toolssuch as bridging, advance organizers, or schema buildingused to propel instruction into the furthest reaches of learners zones of proximal development, or ZPDs (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988; Wertch, 1990). Recent research has provided ample evidence regarding the efcacy of scaffolding in the second language classroom (e.g., Gordon, 2005; Walqui & van Lier, 2010). In particular, this project drew extensively on studies that have demonstrated the instructional benets of literacy scaffolds (Boyle & Peregoy, 1990; Carrier & Tatum, 2006). Although the role-plays that Hofstra project participants experimented with include various types of scaffolds, special emphasis is placed on literacy scaffolds, such as graphic organizers, sentence stems, picture dictionaries, and word walls. These literacy scaffolds are meant to enhance students written output and render their writing more sustained, lexically rich, and structurally target-like. Project participants placed emphasis on developing ELLs strategic competence; that is, their ability to overcome
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communication challenges stemming from limited second language prociency (see, e.g., Oxford, 1990). The team was especially interested in creating a classroom environment where self-reliant language users are capable of dealing with the difculties inherent in performing complex literacy activities. A few words are in order about the theoretical underpinnings of the assessment component of the project, which was informed by research that makes a case for the authentic assessment of ELLs language development (e.g., DelliCarpini, 2009; Genesee & Hamayan, 1994; OMalley & Valdez Pierce, 1996). These studies provide extensive evidence that the performance-based evaluation paradigm, with its use of context-embedded, hands-on, teachercreated, and varied assessment instruments, provides a fair, nuanced, and valid means of revealing whether ELLs have developed mastery of target-language items. An effective authentic assessment tool is re-presentation. In re-presentation activities, ELLs assume the role of a ctional or real-life character and summarize the material covered in class from the viewpoint of that character, while performing a real lifelike literacy activity (Gordon, 2007). For instance, in a re-presentation activity, a participant of a historical event pens a journal entry or a letter, a journalist writes a newspaper article, and a lawmaker puts together a court ruling or a deposition.

CONTEXT AND PARTICIPANTS

Hofstra University is located in the town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, Long Island, east of New York City. Leading to the New York State Certication to teach ESOL, Hofstras TESOL Program is designed to prepare second language educators who will be working with young and adolescent language learners. Long Island is experiencing a striking shift in its demographics. This suburban area, which formerly had only a few immigrant enclaves, began to grow particularly diverse in the 1990s. This trend has continued. Today, two of the largest and fastest-growing of Long Islands immigrant groups are Latinos and Asians. Long Island residents have been acutely aware of the changes in the areas population prole; Newsday, a local newspaper, has been running articles with headlines such as Islands Little El
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Salvador (Jones, 2001) and Surge in LIs Asians (Endo, 2001). More recently, over the 20072008 period, the ratio for both the Latino and Asian groups in Nassau County has grown by 1%, with the Asian community accounting for 7% and the Latino group making up 12% of the overall population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). In certain areas of Long Island, the growth of immigrant communities has been particularly signicant. For instance, in the town of Central Islip, 44.3% of residents are Hispanic (City Data Forum, 2010). The rapid change in the demographics of the area has been accompanied by cultural rifts between language minorities and the communities in which immigrant families live and where their children go to school (Gordon, Zaleski, & Goodman, 2005). These disjunctures can be profound and have manifested themselves in nativist outbursts, such as a clash between local residents and Mexican American immigrants in the town of Farmingville (Smith, 2001). They can also be more covert, for instance, revealing themselves in the segregation of Long Islands residential patterns (Fields & Hendons, 2001). It is these disjunctures that a rich and truly empowering ESL curriculum is called upon to address by challenging ethnocentrism and expanding students worldviews. Student teaching is a strategic coursework juncture, where Hofstra TESOL teacher education students are able to experiment with curriculum development. Hofstras preservice ESL teachers are placed in a variety of Long Island school districts that have signicant numbers of students from Central and South America. The percentage of Spanish-speaking students in some of Long Islands Union Free School Districts is as follows: Brentwood, 56%; Central Islip, 40%; Freeport, 41.4%; Uniondale, 23.5%; and Westbury, 39% (U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Services, 2009).

METHODS
Typically, the project team starts by identifying a signicant theme or concept that can enhance instruction by expanding ELLs worldview (the transformational multicultural curriculum experience) or by empowering ELLs to advocate for their interests
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in the broader democratic society (the social action or reconstructionist curriculum experience). Next, project participants identify the units conceptual objectives and incorporate modeling strategies that could help ELLs develop a mastery of the respective target-language items. Experimentation with role-plays has been a signicant component of the action research project. All Hofstra TESOL teacher education students are expected to develop at least one rigorous, developmentally stimulating role-play activity in the course of their studies. At the nal stage of the project, TESOL teacher education students proceed to develop authentic formative and summative assessment instruments. The formative assessment tools include follow-up comprehension questions and teacher observation. Additionally, literacy activities are used for summative evaluation. Closely aligned with the instructional objectives of the units, accompanied by detailed directions, and scaffolded with picture dictionaries, these literacy activities serve as authentic and holistic summative assessment instruments. The multicultural unit is deemed successful if students reveal comprehension of the target contentcompatible vocabulary by using it in their oral and written output. Special attention is given to students ability to use target-language items in proper collocations (i.e., word combinations) and in broader contexts. Action research is a team effort, with student teachers preparing the preliminary draft of the activities, after which the team reects on the activities effectiveness and explores possible ways of rendering instruction more rigorous and substantive. In a follow-up assessment of TESOL teacher education student performance, faculty and students discuss how multicultural activities can be further revised to incorporate social action and transformational perspectives.

THE PROJECT
Hofstra teacher education students developed a number of social studies instructional units that followed the social action and transformational approaches while also incorporating role-play (Gordon, 2007). For instance, in a primary-level unit focused on
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the U.S. system of taxation, students impersonate individuals who hold different jobs, earn salaries, and have taxes collected by a taxation agent. Students examine the uses of taxes (e.g., to build schools, to pay community helpers salaries) and participate in a debate as to whether high or low taxes are preferable. In another primary-level unit, students travel back in time to explore the great scientic discoveries (e.g., the development of paper and the invention of the compass in ancient China). Students use ancient Chinese methods to make their own paper and create their own compasses; they then discuss the advantages provided by the availability of these materials and tools. In yet another upperelementary-level historical role-play, students reenact the U.S. immigration experience from the turn of the 20th century, including the transatlantic journey, Ellis Island interview, and medical exam. This particular instructional unit was enthusiastically reviewed in a Long Island newspaper (Falco, 2004). Another upper-elementary-level role-play examines colonial Indias ght for independence; in this unit, students learn about Gandhis role in developing the principles of nonviolent resistance. Students reenact the salt march, a peaceful act of civil disobedience involving thousands of Indias citizens, who, guided by Gandhi, walked to the Indian Ocean and dipped their hands in its salty waters. This symbolic gesture was used to protest the prohibitive tax on salt imposed by the colonial administration. Each unit includes a capstone literacy re-presentation assignment, an activity in which students describe their experiences from their own viewpoint or that of an imaginary character. For instance, in the taxation unit, students write letters to lawmakers expressing their opinions about the optimal tax policy; after their trip to the past, students write directions for making paper and a compass; turn-of-the-century immigrants write letters home to their imaginary families in Europe, describing their arrival in the New World. Building a monument to Gandhi, students describe his contributions on the monuments pedestal. Props and costumes impart greater vividness to role-plays. The tax-collecting agent is dressed up as Uncle Sam; Ellis Island immigrants wear shawls and carry valises and suitcases. Literacy
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units also include the use of props. Immigrants pen their letters home with quills (pencils capped with feathers) on tea-stained antique-looking paper. Publishing materials include mock newspapers, postcards, student-created stationery, and other lifelike materials. ELLs written pieces are published in creative and evocative ways. Photographs of students wearing period costumes and stylized stationery are used to render representation activities more meaningful and engaging. Sample Multicultural Instructional Units To give the reader a better sense of multicultural instructional units, two are now described in more detail. Exploring Aztec roots of Mexican culture. This transformational multicultural unit focuses on Aztec culture. The unit is meant to give students an opportunity to study a truly distinctive culture without a parallel on the North American continent or perhaps even in the world. Discussing Mexicos Native American ethnic lineage, Enrique Krauze (1998), an inuential modern Mexican historian, points out that the process of mestizaje (racial mixing) is absolutely central to the history of Mexico. No other country in the Americas experienced so inclusive a process. . . . It permeated every area of life and became the framework and substance of a society (p. xiv). Ethnographers and cultural historians (e.g., Bethell, 1998) also point to the primacy of the Aztec culture in Mexico and describe the country as its custodian and beneciary. The unit deals with this cultural narrative. In the course of the unit, students not only explore the notion that ancient-time artifacts can survive until the present day, they also discuss the fact that Aztecs still live in some areas of Mexico and that many modern residents of the country are descendants of the Aztecs. Although all students are encouraged to celebrate and honor the richness of a Native American culture, Mexican American ELLs are expected to take special pride in their lands distinctive cultural heritage. The unit consists of a chain of mini role-plays that contextualize the use of target-language items such as pyramid, artifact, and archeological dig. In the course of the unit, students
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apply for passports and purchase tickets to go on an imaginary trip to Mexico, they climb pyramids (school staircases double as ancient Aztec structures), they participate in an archeological dig by rummaging through shoeboxes lled with shredded paper and discovering teacher-created Aztec artifacts, and they hypothesize about the signicance of the archeological nds and admire their aesthetic qualities. Furthermore, ELLs review new vocabulary items by using picture dictionaries and writing postcards home in which they describe their adventures in Mexico (see Figures 15). This activity has been implemented a number of timesmost recently by student teacher Alison Hinkaty during her 2010 student teaching assignment in Brentwood South East Side Elementary School. Third-grade ELLs in Alisons classroom discussed how their Mexican American peers in the ESL class may be great-great-great grandchildren of the legendary Aztecs who built the wonderful pyramids. Students could not wait for their trip to Mexico. When the plane (i.e., classroom chairs arranged in the formation of an aircraft) landed, the passengers excitedly clapped their hands. Once at the archeological site, archeologists rushed to the top of the pyramids and excitedly went about their search. In their letters, students wrote about the

Figure 1. Passport
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Figure 2. Ticket

Figure 3. Aztec artifacts

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Figure 4. Mexico picture dictionary

Figure 5. Postcard from Mexico

hot weather in Mexico, about missing their families in Brentwood, andmost importantabout their archeological nds. Amending the U.S. Constitution. Focusing on the process of amending the U.S. Constitution, this secondary-level social action instructional unit is meant to foster a social action multicultural perspective. In the course of the unit, students participate in an activity in which they change the rules of their school and also explore the notion that the U.S. Constitution is not set in stone, but can be revised to reect the needs and interests of various communities. This unit facilitates mastery of abstract concepts and relevant target-language items such as Senate, Constitution, bill, amendment,
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and vote. The opening lessons in the unit are meant to help students connect the legislative process to their own lives. Impersonating rule makers or senators, students propose a bill that would entail a change in their school rules (e.g., We want to be allowed to play outside for 10 extra minutes tomorrow, We want to use cell phones on campus). Students debate and vote on the proposed rule and write a letter to the principal describing their bill. Once the bill has been signed into law, students enjoy the new right (which may be granted for only 1 day) and report on the senate deliberations and the passing of the bill in the Classroom News newspaper. In the next activity, students learn about lawmaking on the national stage. In this activity, using picture dictionaries as an aid, students participate in a mock U.S. Senate session to pass an amendment to the Constitution. In the nal activity, students write newspaper articles about the amendment (see Figures 610). This activity has most recently been implemented by student teacher Ana Rosa during her fall 2010 student teaching assignment in Freeport High School.

RESULTS
Evaluation of multicultural units has demonstrated that role-play is a powerful language development tool that yields instructional gains on multiple levels. For instance, formative assessment instruments, such as observations, suggest that as a result of roleplay participation, young ELLs hone their strategic competence and are able to cope independently with the challenges inherent in performing complex literacy tasks. Arguably, because students understand the meaning of real lifelike activities, they quickly begin to refer to picture dictionaries and other literacy scaffolds when penning their written pieces. The use of questioning for the purpose of formative assessment further suggests that young role-play participants develop in-depth comprehension of targetlanguage concepts and are able to make connections between their prior knowledge and the newly acquired target-language items, integrating these into a coherent analytical framework. Thus, when Ms. Hinkaty asked students who had found an Aztec musical instrument what they thought it was for, one of the students
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Figure 6. Letter to the principal

mused, Aztecs used this instrument when they made the pyramids and celebrated. Students comments also revealed their understanding that modern residents of Mexico are direct descendants of the indigenous Native American people. Maybe her great-great-grandmother lost this necklace, right? offered a student. Re-presentation capstone activities have further demonstrated the mastery of target-language vocabulary by role-play participants. In the following letter, for instance, four new words (i.e., pyramids, Aztecs, archeological dig, instrument) occur within the short stretch of just one paragraph:
Dear Mom, You wont believe this. I went to Mexico. I went to see the pyramids. There were 200 steps. They were made from [sic] Aztecs. I
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went to the archeological dig. I found a Musical instrument. The weather is hot here. I hope you got this letter.

Role-plays are celebratory, fun-lled activities, and their affective benets have been in evidence. Questions such as Miss, are we going to go to the Aztec pyramids again? speak for themselves. Mexican American students poise and beaming faces suggested that these youngsters derived satisfaction from knowing that their cultural heritage inspired an exciting activity. Mastery of target-language vocabulary was also in evidence in the secondary-level unit. Upon having lived a simulated legislative process, students in Ms. Rosas class displayed a mastery of the target-language items, such as bill, law, and Senate. Having assumed, if only for the duration of a few classes, the positions of senatorial authority, students were cognitively, linguistically, and emotionally empowered to discuss political issues that had personal resonance for them. For instance, students

Figure 7. The Classroom News newspaper

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Figure 8. Constitutional amendment scaffold

said, I dont like the Arizona law. It is not fair and I hope senate will pass the Dream Act, referring to two recent pieces of legislation: the Arizona immigration law aimed at identifying undocumented immigrants and the Dream Act, meant to enable college-age children who were brought to the U.S. illegally while minors and who meet certain educational and legal parameters to apply for temporary legal status, which could eventually lead to permanent legal status and eventual U.S. citizenship. Summative assessment instruments have further revealed the attainment of the units instructional objectives by ELLs. ESL senators came up with ingenious bills. They proposed, for instance, that immigrants should be able to run for the ofce of U.S. president. When reecting on the experience of developing and implementing multicultural instructional units, preservice teachers pointed out that they viewed role-play as an
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Figure 9. The Washington Post article

exceptionally effective way of contextualizing challenging targetlanguage items. Preservice teachers who work with elementarylevel students have been impressed by young learners engagement level and willingness to stay on task when performing literacy activities. Ana Rosa and other preservice teachers who work in the secondary-level classroom have spoken about the crucial importance of rendering ESL lessons intellectually rich and substantive. As Ms. Rosa put it, They do not act out, when they are engaged and proud of their work. Preservice teachers learned rsthand that when the ESL curriculum is infused with substance, rather than being supercial and meaningless, problems commonly associated with having resistant learners in the classroom are easily resolved.

CONCLUSION
It is hardly surprising that role-plays are effective in teaching abstract target-language items associated with transformational,
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Figure 10. U.S. Senate picture dictionary

social action, and reconstructionist curricula. Because these activities provide visible and palpable (rather than verbal) denitions, they resolve the problem inherent in teaching contextreduced language. Often, where a lengthy, belabored explanation would have still failed to clarify word meaning, a dramatic skit captures it instantly. Role-plays can be thus described as virtual denitions that evolve in real time, enabling ELLs to explore phenomena and events that are removed from their day-to-day experiences. Re-presentation literacy activities are equally effective. Flowing out of role-plays and being literacy role-plays themselves, these meaningful, authentic literacy tasks engage learners, excite them about writing, and create opportunities for ELLs to produce sustained written output.
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The use of props and costumes further contextualizes language use. Relevant materials can elucidate the meaning of difcult concepts such as ballot and bulletin, bill and law, and render the implementation of the transformational and social action approaches feasible in the ESL classroom. Whereas the projects discussed here have demonstrated the effectiveness of role-plays, they have also raised some questions. The pervasive concern has been about the ways of infusing instructional units with even greater depth and substance. Specic questions that call for answers include the following: How can novice teachers be helped with setting the signicant instructional objectives inherent in transformational and social action multicultural curricula? How can ELLs assume a more active and participatory role in enhancing the curricula available to them? What is the role of teacher educators in fostering ELLs active participation in the multicultural curriculum development?

THE AUTHOR
Tatiana Gordon is a recipient of several awards for excellence in ESL teaching, including the 1998 Fulbright Memorial Award. She currently teaches TESOL methodology at Hofstra University, in Hempstead, New York. She and her students investigate teaching strategies that render ESL instruction more rigorous and substantive.

REFERENCES
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