I
interviewed a great friend of mine, Abby Lopez. During my interview Abby
mentions that her mother is from the united states and that her father is from Mexico.
Her parents met here in Texas and eventually got married here as well. Abby and
her two brothers were all born here and were raised in a primarily Spanish
home. Abby mentions her mother being bilingual and that helping quite a bit
once she started school and needed to learn English.
Abby talks
about being in ESL classes from the start of her education in pre-kindergarten.
She remained in ESL classes until the fifth grade and she believes it shaped
her into the fluent-bilingual speaker she is today. According to Wright, Abby
is considered to have additive bilingualism which “occurs when a student
develops proficiency in a new language without losing his or her home language”
(2015, p.21). Many things came up during the interview including how pro-active
her elementary school was in helping ELL’s. Abby mentions that her general education
classroom had many other students who also were ELL’s. Her teacher would sometimes
speak their heritage language to the class when she could tell they might be
having difficulty following instruction. She also mentions that her ESL teacher
would speak both Spanish and English to the class. She said she many times she
would read a paragraph or a page in English then immediately repeat it in Spanish
which she thinks helped her a lot. Abby mentions that most of her peers were
also learning to speak English which helper her feel more included. Wright
mentions something called content-based instruction, and after speaking with Abby,
I believe her teacher used this method. “CBI is an approach to second language
teaching in which content-area subjects and topics are used as the basis of
instruction. The content area provides a meaningful context for authentic
communication as learners collaborate to complete carefully designed academic
tasks” (Wright, 2015, p.62). Abby mentions her teachers using many images to
help her understanding and that there was a lot of classroom discussions.
Overall, I
believe my interviewee was given a great education and her ESL and general
education teacher seemed to strive for these students to reach their fullest potential.
Abby said that today she considers herself to be fluent in English but does
struggle with the pronunciation of some words every now and then. Thanks for watching
my interview and reading my reflection, I hope you all enjoyed!
Wright, Wayne E. (2015) Foundations
for Teaching Language Learners, Philadelphia, PA: Caslon publishing
Hello Rachel! I feel like Abby and my interviewee has a few things in common regarding their experience as ELL students. My interviewee also said that using images helped her learn the language the most. Having images helps students visualize the image associated with words along with their definitions. I learned vocabulary best through visuals also. I am glad that Abby had many classroom discussions whenever she was in school. Discussions probably gave her the opportunity to practice using the English language more. Abby mentioned that she struggles with pronunciation of some words sometimes, and my interviewee says the same thing. There are certain words she will get mixed up sometimes. Teachers need to truly understand the language, so they can best help their students. Wright (2015) talks about how language is the heart of teaching and learning and how teachers understanding phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics would help ELL students with vocabulary, grammar, and spelling (p. 31). Grammar is something that needs to be taught more in schools because the English language is complex.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Thanks for your comment Jeanie! I completely agree that our interviewees have a few things in common when it comes to their ELL experience. That’s great that they were both provided visuals to help their English grow. Using visuals are a great thing to use not only for ELL students but also in the general education classroom subjects. Visuals help students make connections to what they know about something to how it actually looks or works. When teaching in my field placement, I always make sure to provide my students visuals.
DeleteHello Rachel! I really enjoyed watching your VBlog interview video you had with the ELL student, Abby Lopez. It is great how some schools in the U.S. are resourceful accommodating to the needs of those students who lack the English language proficiency by providing them with ESL classes and teachers. It seems like Abby had a positive learning experience in her ESL classes. My interviewee on the other hand had somewhat of a difficult experience learning the second language in her ESL class. In the VBlog entry, you addressed that Abby’s ESL teacher would talk both languages in Spanish and English when it came to read-aloud. This is a beneficial teaching technique to apply in ESL classrooms. Evidently, it made it a lot easier for Abby to learn the new language at a quicker pace. It took her only six years to become a (FEP) fluent English proficient. Wright mentions a method called translanguaging, which I believe is exactly what the teacher implemented in her ESL classroom. “Teachers who work with ELLs also need to understand something about bilingualism even when they are teaching in English-medium programs. When teachers look only at English, or only at standard English, they render the students’ other languages invisible and deny the students the opportunity to use their home languages as resources” (Wright, 2015, p.39). In this case, the ESL teacher highly promotes and incorporates the method of translanguaging and bilingualism when it comes to read-aloud and classroom discussions with her ELL students. She promotes this learning process by first reading in English and then translating to Spanish. This helps students understand meanings of words and make connections between the two languages vice versa. By doing so, Abby was able to familiarize herself with the meaning of words and language itself. This teaching technique is beneficial because the teacher is not deterring the student’s home language rather she is encouraging to use the language as a resource to aid in students’ learning of acquiring a second language. This is what Wright believes in and mentions in the text. “…translanguaging can also refer to pedagogical practices that use bilingualism as a resource than ignore it or perceive it as a problem” (Wright, 2015, p.59).
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Sheena, and thanks for your comment! In my summary I also used the quote from Wright about teachers possibly rendering a students’ home language by denying them the opportunity to use the language as a resource (2015, p.39). I think it is important for students to have the opportunity to use their home language as a way to help them with their English learning like the experience my interviewee had. On the other hand, I think it would be almost impossible to have an ESL teacher on each campus that speaks the language as each ESL student. Schools are so divers and such a wide variety of languages can be spoken between all the ESL students, so I do think it would be difficult to ensure every student gets that opportunity. With that being said, I still think having a teacher who can speak your home language will be the most beneficial, it just is not practical.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA
Hi Rachel! I really enjoyed your video. It seems like my interviewee had a very different experience than Abby. I interviewed my friend Hi, and she said that she was one of the only children in her class who spoke Vietnamese and that her ESL teacher did not speak it either. She told me that she had some trouble learning at first because she could not understand what her teachers were saying. However, it is great that Abby’s teacher was able to teach in her heritage language because “students learn best in the language they understand best” (Wright, 2015, pg. 91). Also, it is great that Abby was not the only person in her class who was learning English. That probably made her learning environment more comfortable.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Emily, and thanks for your comment! From what you briefly explained about Hi’s ELL experience, it seems it was quite rough for her. I think my interviewee Abby, would have to agree with Wright that “students learn best in the language they understand best” (2015, p.91). Her home language was used to help her learn English and she says she thinks it made it easier for her. Essentially, I believe students can learn English without their heritage language, but it will help them learn quicker.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.