To know how teaching practices and pedagogies can be improved to support the ever-growing number of English language learners in New Zealand secondary schools, we first need to understand how ESOL departments are currently operating. Much of the research into English language education focuses on early childhood or primary school aged students, so there is a significant gap in the research of ESOL classes at secondary school level. There are specific challenges of second language acquisition and schooling for adolescent English language learners. Not only do they need to learn a new language for schooling, which often gets more advanced the older the age of the learner, but they are regularly involved in complex social interactions, and may find themselves acting as translators for their family who do not speak English. Unlike during primary school, secondary school English language learners are likely to find themselves in a number of different classrooms each day, with a different teacher for each class. Many of these mainstream teachers will not have been prepared to teach English language learners, potentially leading to increased challenges for the students and the teachers tasked with supporting English learning.

The goal of this research was to understand how ESOL departments operate in New Zealand secondary schools. Qualitative interviews were used to explore how ESOL lead teachers in 6 secondary schools in the upper North Island of New Zealand view the types of programmes used in their department, and how the department interact with the wider school, Ministry of Education, and other secondary school ESOL departments. Schools were chosen to represent the different types of secondary schools in New Zealand, including urban, rural, high and low decile, and varying student roll counts.

The data showed that the primary ESOL programme being used by the participating schools was the mainstream model of ESOL teaching, with students replacing their mainstream English class each week with an ESOL class, and remaining in mainstream classes for the rest of their timetable. The study also found that, while many ESOL lead teachers felt supported by school leadership, and felt they had good relationships with the mainstream teachers at their schools, the responsibility for English language learners was often placed solely on the ESOL department. The ESOL teachers’ statements suggest that the mainstream teachers did not have much knowledge of how to teach the English language learners in their classroom, and there was often not much, if any, professional development offered to them to expand their understanding of English language acquisition and how to include English language learners in their classroom. The main conclusion from the research is that both mainstream teachers and school leadership need to develop their understanding of how ESOL departments operate, and what teaching English language learners requires. Further research is needed to understand who is responsible for ensuring mainstream teachers are prepared to have English language learners in their classrooms.