Interview with a Second Language Learner
Click Here To watch my Entry 2 video!
For this
interview, I spoke with one of my coworkers who I believed would be a good
source of information since she didn’t start primary school in the United
States until she was in second grade. What stood out from the beginning was
that Laura was not tested in any form to identify her English language
proficiency as what Wright states is supposed to happen following the No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB) (2015, p.3). After the interview, I did think back to
Laura’s current age and the year in which she arrived to the U.S. and those did
not correlate to when the NCLB Act was established, so it made sense she was
not required from her particular school to be tested.
As far
as her learning process, Laura mentions that during her English as a Second
Language (ESL) classes, she was provided with guided instruction, for her teachers
tended to help her read words or phrases she had trouble with. I found this to
associate with Wright’s statement stating that teachers are to provide students
with a safe and approachable learning environment to maximize comprehensible
input (2015, p. 61). This way Laura’s teachers were able to provide a positive
learning experience since she was able to receive not only help form her
teacher, but also from her classmates as they were grouped together. In
addition, Laura mentions that most of her second language learning she did
amongst her peers and friends outside the classroom. This is to say that as
Wright mentions students being able to learn vocabulary and grammar through
their experienced interactions naturally, then there is no need to enforce instruction
involving memorization (2015, p.61).
All in
all, I really did enjoy interviewing Laura and learning about her experience as
a second language learner since I never had to go through what she did. Clearly
it’s never easy to learn a second language out of the blue, but I believe Laura
did a pretty good job of learning it and maintaining the language to this day.
References:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English
language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA:
Caslon Pub.
Hello Nancy. Great job on you video. Laura’s guiding instruction in class would follow Wrights (2015) description of Vygotsky’s scaffolding technique (p. 57). The use of scaffolding helped Laura in her struggling with reading. By Laura communicating with her peers and friends she was also learning language socialization skills. According to Wright (2015), language socialization is the process where learners acquire their knowledge of a language and are able to practice what they have learned with their community (p. 58). I can understand what Laura means when she said that while she was learning English, she could not practice at home since her parents only knew Spanish. It is difficult to be able to learn a language if you cannot practice it in multiple ways.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Eddy, thanks for your comment. I also believe that it is difficult to practice a new language when at home all you can do is speak your first language as it happened to Laura. That is why I find it important what Wright states as " Sociolinguistic Contributions", since it is important to get to know the social background of English language learners (2015, p.56). This way teachers can plan out how to best help students continue to develop their second language regardless of whether they are able to practice it at home or not.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hi Nancy, Yes, practicing a new language is definitely what you want to do. This will help the learner practice the skill of language socialization. According to Wright (2015), language socialization is students having various opportunities to practice what they have learned from the new language (p. 58). As it just happens, this can make all the difference in the world for the student trying to learn a new language. Especially one that cannot practice at home can still learn this skill within their own friend or community group.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hey Eddy. I like that you stated practicing a new language is what is needed. However I think as instructors we need to take that a step further by understanding our ELL students need individually and then creating a lesson plan that has them in mind as well as the other students in the classroom. Robert Linquanti from the YouTube video “Large Scale Assessment systems and ELLs” states “Every teacher is going to need to really think about the disciplinary language and ensure that students really have opportunities to engage in that.” (Cheuk, 2012) Being mindful that ELL students need a little extra attention and planning a cirriculum where all students, including ELL students, have the opportunity to succeed academically.
DeleteReference:
Cheuk, T. (2012, April 8) Robert Linquanti: Large Scale Assessment systems and ELLs. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfk4jESAtMk
Hey Nancy! When you mentioned about Laura’s learning method was amongst her peers and friends outside the classroom, it supports the Interaction Hypothesis. The hypothesis gives the opportunity for peers to communicate and provide corrections with each other in a conversation. According to the text, “some of these modifications may include simplifying the language, reducing the rate of speech, and using gestures” (Wright, 2015, p. 53). I can see why it helped her most of her experience with learning a new language because it seemed like a unconscious thing to participate in as opposed to a classroom setting where it might make a student more nervous. Also it gave her the motivation to learn about the new language so that she can communicate with other people. According to the text, “when learners are in conversation, making an effort to produce language that the person with whom they are conversing can understand, they are most likely to see the limits of their second language ability and the need to find better ways to get their meaning across” (Wright, 2015, p. 53).
ReplyDeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for your comment. Indeed, I find that it is extremely helpful for English language learners to practice their second language through socialization. Wright mentions the term "Language socialization", as the process in which students practice their second language within their community (2015, p.58). With this being said, teachers are to focus on not only teaching the language and its grammatical rules, but also to emphasize on language comprehension in order to help students develop effective communication outside of the classroom.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub
Hey Nancy. I wanted to add to what you said about socialization being key in students second language acquisiton. One of the YouTube videos provided called "SIOP Model for Teaching English Learners - Lesson Delivery" by Mayerson Academy showed a third grade teacher teaching a lesson on fact vs. opinion. In the delivery she had the students read the objective and then had a traditional instructional portion where she talked about the difference between facts and opinions. The students then went into an activity where they each got a fact or opinion and had to walk around the room reading their statement to other students to see if they could guess if its a fact or opinion. Now these are predominately ELL and special needs students so having this type of social engagement is insanely beneficial in a lesson plan. This gets the students who are not as comfortable in their L2 to begin to interact with others and work on their fluency. While doing that they are also learning content. This teacher is essentially how I strive to be. Ensuring that my ELL students are receiving the academic content they need while also working on becoming more fluent in their second language acquisiton.
DeleteReference:
Mayerson Academy. (2012, June 26). SIOP Model for Teaching English Learners - Lesson Delivery. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVGbz4EqyGs&feature=youtu.be&t=1m34s
Hi Nancy! I found it very interesting and shocking that there was no form of testing for English language proficiency prior to the No Child Left Behind Act. Luckily the NCLB exists now for students like Laura. According to Wright, "the word bilingual was removed, and that NCLB uses the limited English proficient (LEP) label depicting students from a deficit view" (2015, page 74). Programs for ELLs are necessary because of the large amount of ELLs throughout the United States. Luckily Laura had a good experience with her schooling and was fortunate enough to have teachers and friends who helped guide her through her learning of the English language. Wright states that the "NCLB requires each state to develop ELP standards and ELP assessments designed to measure ELLs' progress in meeting those standards" (2015, page 75). I am glad this is in place now because ELLs need to be treated just like any other student.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Marissa, thanks for your comment. I am also glad that schools are now required to do some type of testing to check for students' English proficiency through the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, I also agree with "Title 1", which focuses on helping students who are considered economically disadvantaged to attain a fair and high quality education, including second language learners (Wright, 2015, p.76). Since the majority of English language learners come from a low socioeconomic status home, this has a great benefit on quality instruction to help students develop English as their second or additional language.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hi Nancy, I found it astounding that there was no test to see where your English stood, instead they just put you in an ESL classroom. It is always difficult learning a second language, whether you are an English Language Learner, or learning another language. It is important to remember that “interaction is essential for SLA to occur.” (Wright, 53) So if you were trying to learn a second language and you had no one to interact with it would have made it more difficult to learn English. It is good that while in the classroom y'all were put into groups to be able to help each other and interact with each other to help build your English speaking abilities.
ReplyDeleteHello Nayab, thanks for your comment! I find the idea of "natural approach" towards a second language learning to be a nice practical way of learning through social interactions (Wright, 2015, p.61).This way, students practice the language through meaningful peer interactions in the classroom in order to develop comprehension of the language. As well this is aligned with the idea of “communicative language teaching” as a teaching method that involves meaningful communication throughout classroom activities to promote the practice of English language in students daily interactions.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hi Nancy! I agree with you, the natural approach is probably the best way to learning a second language. It is through interaction that people learn best, that was how I learned my second language, granted it was not English, but still when it comes to learning a second language it is important to have those social interaction. When students are interacting with their peers it helps them build a connection with not only the student but with the language as well. Meaningful teaching in the classroom paired with interaction is all you need for a great second language learning environment.
DeleteHi Nancy, I find it highly negligible that your friend was not given the opportunity to test her English proficiency. There is no doubt that this impacted the educational experience that she had. From my own interview, it was to clear to me that an individualized education was something that severely lacked and it pains to me see these injustices occur. The purpose of Title I is to “ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education”; however, the success of this measure was clearly lacking in the realm of English language learners (Wright, 2015, p. 76).
ReplyDeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hi Nancy, it is enjoyable to watch your interview video with your coworker Laura. As I hear that Laura has learned English the most through interaction activities with her English teachers and classmates. She was able to improve her English over time by socializing with her peers along with the time she learned new knowledge content through lectures from the teachers. According to Wright, “Language socialization refers to the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge and practices that enable them to participate effectively in a language community” (2015, pg. 58) I think it is really helpful and effective to be able to interaction with small group technique that encourage ESL students to be social and helping each other to improve their linguistic skills and their language learning process.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Trinh, thanks for your comment! As I mentioned to some of our peers, I also agree that one of the best ways to learn and practice a second language is trough socialization. A good a teaching method, as mentioned by Wright, includes "communicative language method" which focuses on meaningful communication (2015, p.62). As well, "content-base instruction" which focuses on meaningful context and communication based on the content being taught (Wright, 2015, p.62). With this being said, with these teaching methods ELLs can incorporate experience both in and outside of the classroom.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hello Nancy,
ReplyDeleteYour interview was interesting to hear about an ELL student that was placed into an ESL program before testing was even started. If she was not tested, then it was before home language surveys. It just shows how far it has come to help ELL students. Even though there are test in place today, they still are not perfect, and all schools need to err on the side of caution. According to Wright (2015), “although official ELP test can be helpful, they provide only a snapshot of a student’s performance at the date and time of the test was given. A more dependable determination of an ELL’s proficiency in English is the teacher’s informed observations” (p.4). I feel this is the exposure Laura was given from her teacher. Hearing how Laura’s teacher gave guided instruction, she also allowed students to be a part that helped in Laura’s success as well. The teacher gave Laura the extra support she needed, not only through her own instruction, but also by the help of grouping Laura up with her peers.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory,
Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hey Adrene! I cannot seem to fathom that up until the No Child Left Behind Act there was no testing taking place for English language proficiency. Thankfully now there are laws such as NCLB preventing ELL students from being in a developmentally inappropriate atmosphere. According to Wright, in order to, “identify ELLs, most school districts administer a home language survey at the time of initial school enrollment to determine whether students have a ‘primary home language rather than English'.” (2015, page 75) By taking the steps to identify their ELL students school districts can be sure to have all of the necessary accommodations and professionals on site by the time school starts to ensure their success.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.