Interview with ELL Student
I interviewed my friend Natalie who is an English Language Learner. Natalie learned English starting in 1 st grade at Golden Acres Elementary in Pasadena ISD. According to Natalie learning English was far more simple than learning Spanish. She said that the Spanish language is more challenging to learn and comprehend than English because our words are shorter. Natalie also said that she learned English through social settings such as school, friends and going to the grocery store. In her household Spanish was the dominant language because both of her parents are from Mexico and know very little English. According to Wright Natalie is a heritage language learner because she comes from a home where a language other than English is spoken and she speaks and understands that language (p.5). Natalie also talks about how her teachers helped her learn English. That her teachers and aide would pull small groups to help students more one-on-one with their English speaking. Acco...
Hello Emily, I enjoyed watching your video blog entry. I am monolingual as well, English is the only language myself and my entire family speak. I also agree that there are many language barriers as someone whom only speaks English when communicating with English language learners and their families. I would like to possibly look into learning Spanish during the summer as one way to bridge this barrier. I also look forward to learning from this course to help me better teach my ELL students, because they deserve the best opportunities for success that I can give them. I also agree with your philosophy that students learn well in social environments, one of which can be school. I hope to further learn about using social interactions as a method of helping my ELL students in the future.
ReplyDeleteHi Christine,
Deletethank you for watching my video, I have always wanted to learn more languages but have never really tried too. The school that I am student teaching at does not have any bilingual programs therefore, we do not have any ELL students. Since the school I'm at does not have any ELLs it is really hard for me to have a better understanding on their learning at school. I agree though learning Spanish would definitely help teaching them in the future though. Thank you for watching my video.
Hello again! I do not have any ELL's in the classroom I am student teaching in either. I believe all of the bilingual or ELL students were grouped into one classroom for the entire third grade. I plan on observing and hopefully doing some teaching in that classroom later in the semester. I want to bring up this idea to my mentor teacher as well as that teacher in order to find a week or so that I could spend in that classroom and hopefully gain some real life experience with those students. Our book mentions, "In some schools in the past, ELLs were typically assigned to English as a second language teachers or specialists... who taught self-contained ESL classes all day or for one or more periods of a day," (Wright, 2015, page 2). I think my school is still using this practice, I will be looking into it further soon.
DeleteChristine,
DeleteI would love to go sit in on another classroom that is bilingual but in order to do so id have to go to a completely different school, which I can not do. I have substituted in the past which helped me gain knowledge on ELL students and classrooms. I need to straighten my prior knowledge on ELL students especially since the district I am in the majority are Hispanic.
Hello Emily,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing a part of your life with us! I'm not originally from Houston nor do I come from a monolingual family, however one thing we do have is a passion for teaching! Even though the roles are reversed, I was an ELL student during my elementary school, for about 2-3 years, and I know how hard it is not being able to speak and understand a language. It is great to know you are cognizant about the difficulty of having a language barrier, because for ELL students that feeling is heightened ten times more. So, I do commend you for trying your best to put yourself in that situation and do something about it by hopefully learning how to speak Spanish.
As Wright (2015) stated, "Teachers must get to know their students by obtaining information about their sociocultural background. This information will help teachers make the best possible decisions for providing effective instructions for their ELLs" (p. 24). Knowing that you are a reflective teacher, and that you want to learn and grow with your students, is a good character trait to uphold especially for your ELL students.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.
Hello Kohleen, thank you for watching my video, yes having a language barrier is extremely difficult especially when a student does not understand what you're teaching and it kills you that you can't have discourse. I took Spanish in high school, I did not try to learn it which I should have I just did what I had to do to pass. Then again, back then I did not know that I wanted to become a teacher. I without a doubt would love to try and learn it again so that I can help my ELL students.
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