| Summary: | Foreign language diversity is increasing amongst the student population in Iceland generating an urgent need for mixed ability teaching approaches. The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers’ perceptions about differentiated instruction in the language classroom in order to improve my own teaching practices and become more responsive to the needs of my students. A secondary purpose is to add to the knowledge base of differentiated instruction in the foreign language classroom. This study will also give insight into foreign language classrooms in Iceland. The questions I plan to investigate in this research are: 1. How do teachers understand and perceive the term differentiated instruction? 2. How do teachers use differentiation? 3. How can the perceived challenges to differentiated instruction be overcome? A qualitative research method using a grounded theory approach to inquiry was used to investigate teachers’ perspectives on differentiated instruction. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data for this study. The data collection was based on 2 focus group interviews and 6 one-on-one interviews. The findings revealed concept confusion between individualized instruction and differentiated instruction amongst those with Icelandic as a mother tongue. Teacher responses indicated that they want to meet the needs of learners, which is often accomplished by respecting student interests; however, teachers often feel overwhelmed and uncertain of how to meet students’ needs appropriately. Some teachers felt a lack of resources played a role in the scarcity of differentiation in the language classroom. The findings also pointed to an increased implementation of differentiated instruction when the teachers collaborated. This is a relevant topic in which the findings will aid in developing my own teaching practice, and has the potential to provide significant data that could contribute to improved foreign language teaching and learning. Aukin tungumálafjölbreytni á meðal íslenskra skólabarna ...
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