Vblog Entry 2
In this video, I had the chance to video a high school senior, Kevin Zavala, who is from El Salvador. Spanish was his first language and he was forced to learn English when he came to America. When it comes to grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the structure of words, Kevin explains it was easiest for him to pronounce words. According to Wright, "Students are able to take much of the content-area knowledge and literacy skills they gained in their L1 and transfer them to their L2" (2010, pg. 55). However, Kevin had a lot of trouble trying to transfer the skills from one language to another. I thought that it was really interesting to learn how Kevin started off taking the TAKS test in his dominant language at the time. As his dominate language switched over to English, the test then became in English. According to Wright, "When CBI was introduced, ESL teachers used content areas such as math, science and social studies as vehicles for language instruction, though their instructional and assessment focus was on English language development rather than content" (2010, pg. 62). In the interview, Kevin makes a connection with this statement that Wright mentioned in the textbook. He mentioned how his teachers would teach the content area subjects in both language to help grow the new language as well as still providing them the knowledge of the subject. I found it very interesting when doing this interview to see how well the accommodations worked out in his favor. I hope to make the same accommodations if not better for my future ELL students. Thanks for watching!
Reference:
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Through my past school observations, I got to see a lot of Spanish speakers who were placed in English classrooms. They were given English instruction for all the school content and the teacher did not provide additional assistance to help them learn that content. The ESL students were left behind and a handful that could not pick up the language ended up having to repeat the grade. In this situation, Wright suggested that the best solution is for the school to provide sheltered instruction. Sheltered instruction is simplifying the English language so that ESL students can better understand the language and learn the school content (Wright, 2015, p.62).
ReplyDeleteI think that is truly sad when students, who should all be looked at as equals, are not given the same opportunity to learn. Our end goal should be for each student to be successful, with us as teachers providing them the proper knowledge. Another suggestion that Wright mentioned was teaching for transfer. According to Wright, "Effective teachers recognize and value the vast store of knowledge students have in their first language and provide instruction that enables students to draw on this knowledge" (2010, pg. 55).
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Kevin talked about how Spanish speakers speak faster than English speakers and it is important to understand how the rate of speech can affect comprehension. This may be a difficult transition to make for ELLs, and it can cause some difficulties with understanding what the child is trying to say. According to Wright, “an ELL must have adequate pronunciation, a smooth rate and flow of speech” (2015, p.151), among other variables. There are so many factors that ELLs have to think about while they are developing appropriate language skills, and it is overwhelming for me to even just think about. I never realized how many components are involved with each language and how much these components vary from one language to another.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
I can only imagine how difficult it must be being forced to learn another language to be able to survive! I found it shocking when Kevin said how speaking was probably easiest to learn and do when learning English. According to Wright, "Oral language is invisible (unless someone transcribes it verbatim)" (2010, pg. 151). But to him, hearing the sound of a word, and then trying to copy that word, was easy for him. Although when learning a language orally, it had to be done slowly and not in the rate of how we speak during a conversation.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
That is surprising. When I try to say words in Spanish, I have trouble creating many of the sounds produced in their language because I was not exposed to them from an early age. It is not always so easy to just listen and do as you hear. Your speech patterns are limited by what you have been exposed to as a child. According to Wright, the sounds in a word of for some ELLs tend to "run together" (2015, p.151). This is why it is so important for ELLs to practice speaking in everyday conversations so that producing these sounds becomes more comfortable.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
I was quite shocked myself whenever Kevin had mentioned that speaking was the easiest way for him to learn English. According to Wright, "Speaking is much more complicated than simply selecting the correct vocabulary words and stringing them together with proper syntax to make sentences" (2010, pg. 151). When I was younger, I struggled myself with writing proper sentences. I could not even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to try and speak another language and make sense of it.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Wright supplies us with many suggestions for effective methods to address students who are struggling with verbal communication in a classroom setting. If the student is having trouble conveying meaning, you should not let them sink. For example, the teacher can use a strategy that Wright refers to as, "revoicing" which is repeating what the student has said in a way that it provides further clarity (2015, p.158). For example, there was a student in the class that I was observing last year that was asked about an inference that they made based on a story. They could not figure out how to explain how they came to a conclusion based on past experiences. The teacher helped the student to find their words in order to explain the connection between what he was reading and what he was experiencing in the past.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.