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In my interview with Cesia, we discussed the different times that she used her first and second language. During the interview, she marked Spanish as her primary language and English as her second language. There were several times where we discuss how she used the different languages and her primary language was used in the home to speak with her parents while her secondary language used with her sisters and at school. This type of learning is additive bilingualism for her as she learned both languages and has not lost the ability to use Spanish but has also learned English. Cesia learned how to speak English at a young age and was not able to remember much of the different things that occurred to her as she learned English due to them occurring in elementary school. There were a couple of examples where she had wished that there were more pictures and that the vocabulary that she had been learning was a little more explained. Cesia grew up in a Transitional Bilingual Environment...
Hi Andrew! What program is it that you were using in high school? When I taught at a charter school about 80% of the school was ELL and they all had to attend a program called Rosetta Stone. It was an online class for them to learn English. My personal opinion, it was not very helpful or maybe the students were not grasping the concept. While working there, I worked with a teacher who only spoke English and the majority of the class spoke Spanish. Eventually, it benefitted the students because they had to step out of their comfort zone. I think with you being there in the classroom you will be great benefit to the students to learn English. According to what you said, i think students are going through additive bilingualism where they are having to add English to their language as well. This can become difficult for some but with your help you can encourage them to learn two languages.
ReplyDeleteHello Marcela, I am not sure which program I used, but I do remember it was a state course program. I was not very effective and the teacher did not enforce use to complete the assignments either. I agree that is is additive bilingualism, but eventually it is very likely to turn into subtractive bilingualism as many of the students will eventually be much stronger in English and use less Spanish. This will cause them to remain at a lower level of Spanish for most of their lives but grow in English understanding.
DeleteHi Andrew, the last time I've taken any class other than English was in high school, and just like your classes, my Spanish class was filled with 25-30 students and lots book work so I didn't get a chance to fully understand how to have proper conversations in this language. I wish I had learned more so that I could get a better look into the culture of the language, however, I don't mind teaching myself this in order to have better relationships with my ELL students. You mentioned working in a classroom with ELL students and that sometimes it could be difficult to teach content since there's a language barrier. This is a very tough situation. I also have ELL students that do not speak English and I see them struggle to understand the content everyday. As much as I want them to learn English, I don't want to strip their culture away or make them feel as if their native language is wrong. Assimilating students and forcing them to learn a ton of English too quickly can lead to conflict at home, which can also lead to difficulties both academically and socially (Wright, 2015, p.19).
ReplyDeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
Hey Jeroy, I appreciate the input. I have been trying to do my best to make my students feel like their culture belongs in the classroom, but also have them realize that almost everything they will be doing in school in their future is in English. A lot of the Spanish support have ends after 5th grade and I get worried that the students will be struggling with English in the future but I also do not want to rip away their cultural identity. I have found that pushing them can be a delicate line to walk on.
DeleteI think you implementing their culture while also informing them of the reality of their future in higher level education is great way of building relationships while also pushing them to their highest potential now. I have seen schools that expect students who have been in the ELL/ESL programs since elementary school to know English fluently, but this isn't always the case. Involving their parents and finding out how their home life is effecting their growth can give you great insight on why some students are struggling.
DeleteHello, it seems like we all forget Spanish when we don't use the language regularly. My mentor teacher is bilingual as well which helps out since my classrooms are 90+% Spanish children. Most of them know English, but I've observed at other schools where there were a few kids that didn't speak any English. We never used pictures for them. We would use a software program that could translate English to Spanish or we would give them handouts that had English and Spanish on them. I liked the format those schools used, but I think using pictures is even better. You never know when technology will crash and it's very tedious, but you can use the same pictures in math classrooms for multiple different lessons.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the first part on how to retain a second language, "researchers and educators seem to agree on the need for students to receive comprehensible input and to engage in meaningful interactions with other speakers of the target language" (Wright. 65)
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
Hi Andrew. A lot of the schools in Texas have a majority of Latino students, so I think it’s great that you took at least you made an effort to learn Spanish. You at least have some understanding of Spanish so you can communicate with the students in some form. I’m sure if you told your students that you’ve tried to learn Spanish they’d appreciate that effort. It really sucks that your teacher only focused on native speakers. Students who want to learn a new language miss out because that problem.
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew! I can relate to you with how my own Spanish courses were. The last Spanish courses I took were in high school. For three years I took Spanish 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Like you I did not learn much in these classes because there was no real meaningful interactions. Wright even states there is a “need for students to receive comprehensible input and to engage in meaningful interactions with other speakers of the target language” (p. 65). I feel as though most language courses are like this but hopefully they change in the future. This would help with teaching students new languages and help ELL students in course work.
ReplyDelete