Cultural and Linguistic  

Diversity  
Kristiana Salerno and Alyssa Soldano 
 
 
Cultural Diversity 
Important Facts: 
● Culturally diverse students have always been apart of U.S. classrooms. Diverse
students are those who are not apart of the mainstream American culture.
● Often students of different backgrounds require additional educational
considerations in order to receive an equitable education.
● The expected behaviors of students are based on the cultural norm, yet students
who come from different cultures and backgrounds may not be accustomed to the
cultural norm.
● Cross-Cultural Dissonance is when students perform poorly due to situations they
encounter or the environments they are in.
● Students considered to come from diverse backgrounds usually have lower
academic achievement levels than those of the mainstream culture.
● The major concern associated with is diverse students is their disproportionate
representation in special education.However, they do not belong in special
education because they are not classified with a disability.
● Teachers lacking knowledge regarding diverse cultures can lead to
misunderstandings in the classroom.
Teacher Strategies: 
● Culturally responsive instruction is the process through which teachers
demonstrate their cultural competence in the classroom.
○ This type of instruction empowers diverse students intellectually, socially,
and emotionally by using their culture to transmit knowledge, skills and
attitudes.
○ Teachers that incorporate this type of instruction into their curriculum
notice students cultural differences as their strengths and use them to
improve their academic and social achievement.
● Universal Design for Learning
○ This encourages teachers to think more flexible such as providing multiple
means of representation, action and expression, and engagement.
○ Catering to all types of learning styles.
● Teachers need to create a respectful and connected learning environments, relate
students experiences to prior knowledge and guide them to use own values and
strengths to make their own decisions, encourage higher order thinking in order to
integrate their experiences and values. 
Linguistic Diversity 
Important Facts:  
● Linguistically diverse students are defined as “students whose home language or 
native language is not English.”  
● These students may be referred to as English Language Learners (ELL’s), English 
Learners (EL’s), English as a New Language Learners (ENL’s), or language 
minority students.
● About 9%, or 4.5 million, students in the United States are linguistically diverse 
● Many students who are culturally diverse are also linguistically diverse but the 
two are not mutually exclusive 
● Being linguistically diverse on its own does not qualify a student for an IEP. 
Linguistically diverse students will only get an IEP if they test and get classified 
in their native language through the same process as a native English speaker. 
Teacher Strategies: 
● Students acquire a second language via five stages and the process takes, on 
average, 4 to 10 years 
● Linguistically diverse students may receive services (regulated under law in 
New York State) such as 40-minute periods with a specialized teacher and/or 
extended time to complete exams 
● Districts offer a variety of programs depending on number of English Language 
Learners enrolled in the district, personnel available, state policies, and funding 
● Two-way bilingual programs (learning content in a student’s native language 
and transitioning it over to English) are most effective 
● Activities that may enhance learning opportunities include sheltered 
instruction, cooperative learning, careful language use, demonstrations, and 
multimodal means of presenting information