Education Commons^™

Creating Safe Zones For Lgbtq Esl Students, Krista B. Royal

Krista Bittenbender Royal

It is important for language teachers to foster an environment in which all students feel safe, and while many of us think that we hold ourselves to this ideal, we may inadvertently be excluding students whose identity is not always visible. Whether we realize it or not, we very likely have students who identify as LGBTQ in our ESL classes. What are we doing to be considerate of their identity? When we present family vocabulary, do we provide language for same-sex partners? Do we allow for LGBTQ identities when we ask students to write or speak about their perfect boyfriend …