FACULTY and STAFF
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, and INCLUSION (DEI) and COACHING ATHLETES LEARNING ENGLISH (ALES) By Fritz I. Ettl Rodríguez & Brooke Kandel-Cisco and training circles, specific ESL and language teaching practices have not reached coaching professionals.
Association for Applied Sport Psychology annual conference, 2019. “No English? No Problem!”
Sports provide significant potential for building language, creating community, and supporting identity development for language learners. In response, we have been collaborating to better understand how to help coaches adopt coaching practices that support language development and enhance communication with athletes who are learning English (ALEs). In this crossdisciplinary approach, we are exploring the application of English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom teaching considerations by sports coaches to support communication, athlete learning, and overall positive sport experiences. We use ALE to describe any athlete, immigrant or not, who speaks a language other than English as a first language and who is in the process of acquiring English. While scholars have begun to explore the opportunities sport offers for culturally responsive coaching practices, there is a dearth of research connected specifically to language, coaching, and ALEs. We gathered anecdotal evidence and insight from various coaches and sport psychology professionals who confirmed a need for additional research-informed practices for coaches working with ALEs. We learned that while the use of direct translation with ALEs has been part of the conversation in coach education 20
Our hope is that we can raise awareness of linguistically responsive approaches, research the impact of those approaches, and create resources to support coaching professionals. We have begun to share our work at professional conferences and through webinars where we invite coaching professionals to attend to the language and pedagogy they use when coaching ALEs. Informed by our work as ESL teachers, we also share considerations for enhancing the comprehensible input coaches provide to ALEs. For example, at the United Soccer Coaches Convention, we modeled how coaches can intentionally rephrase and repeat when providing verbal instruction, and we shared examples of visuals and diagrams that further support comprehension for technical and tactical soccer concepts. At the annual conference of the Association for Applied Sports Psychology we led a panel of sport psychology professionals currently working with
Association for Applied Sport Psychology annual conference, 2019. “No English? No Problem!” - Tweet from Oscar Gutierrez, Mental Performance Coach at Cleveland Indians
United Soccer Coaches Convention, 2020. Tweet from Vince Ganzberg, Education Content Coordinator, United Soccer Coaches
