Since my first Spanish class in the 7th grade, I have hoped to eventually become a bilingual speaker. In my desired field (Speech Language Pathology) only about 3% of Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) are bilingual. Being that the US is the world's 2nd largest Spanish speaking country, there is a high demand in the field for bilingual, spanish speaking SLPs. At my current university the University of Houston (Go Coogs!), I have roughly 22 credits to fullfill in Spanish within just 3 credits. Studying abroad for 2 weeks in Mexico over Winter break will allow me to earn 5 of these credits quickly, while being exposed to Mexican culture. Also, my 2 weeks in the language immersion program will force me to learn Spanish effectively and increase
Over seven million people just in the US have some sort of speech disorder. Just think about how many it is around the world! There are many different types of speech disorders, such as: stuttering, lisping and, mumbling, to name a few. Many of these disorders become noticeable during early childhood, however, this is not the only time a speech disorder may occur. Many people that suffer from strokes or other traumatic accidents encounter struggles with speech through their recovery. Those who struggle with speaking after an accident, though, have more access to treatments than children that are born with speech impediments. The treatments that are most known for children include: phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. There are speech
The number of English language learning (ELL) students in the U.S. has grown dramatically in the last decade. According to a 1991 national study, there are over 2,300,000 students in grades K through 12 who are English language learners (August & Hakuta, 1997). This number has grown by over 1,000,000 since 1984. The majority of these students are Spanish-speakers (73%), followed by Vietnamese-speakers (3.9%). Because the overwhelming proportion of ELL students are Spanish speakers, the issue of bilingual education is largely a Latino one.
“Evidence-based practice is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values” (ASHA). Staff of ASHA embarked upon the new idea of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) in 2005. The goal of EBP is the integration of: clinical expertise/expert opinion, external scientific evidence, and client/patient/caregiver perspective to provide high-quality services reflecting the interests, values, needs, and choices of the individuals we serve (ASHA). The four steps of EBP include: framing the clinical question, finding the evidence to suppose the question, assessing the evidence, and making the clinical decision. Researchers have studied the status of current implementation of EBP in the field, challenges to implement EBP, the debate of adopting EBP framework in our field, and the use of EBP in SLP practice and EBP knowledge.
1. Many people have multiple reasons why they want to be able to help others in their everyday jobs. My attraction to being a Speech Language Pathologist is because I want to be able to people overcome their speech problems. As a Speech Language Pathologist I want to be able to help people that have speech problems, overcome this problem and be able to be independent without needing the help of myself or other people that are trying to talk to them. I personally know their feelings and have actually been in their shoes to know how frustrating life can be trying to talk and have someone else talk for you.
When I first started school, I remember how difficult it was for me to make the transition from Spanish to English. My Mom left me at the door of the school in the morning, but since I was placed in an English-only classroom, the next time I opened my mouth to speak to anyone was when she picked me up again that afternoon. I didn't know what anyone was saying around me, and to make matters worse, my teacher didn't speak a single word of Spanish. That day, like every other day, I came home crying because I felt like an outsider. That year was very difficult for me because I ended up in the back corner of the classroom not participating. As a result, I had to take several years of summer school in order to catch up, something that could have been avoided if I had been placed in a bilingual program. Several key advantages to bilingual education are that it allows for an emotionally safe transition, students don't fall behind in their lessons, and parents are not alienated from their children's education.
How many windows can being bilingual open for you? Living in the immensely mixed United States, having the ability of speaking multiple languages has been one of the handiest skills I have ever obtained. Benefits of being diverse in more than one language have been seemingly endless. For instance, polyglot contenders have the upper hand straightaway when applying for highly competitive jobs. Apart from that, you are sure to experience much more culture in your lifetime as well as a more preeminent ear for listening to a wide gamut of individuals. It’s easy and very useful to have the fluency of various languages, as it will influence you now and for the rest of your life.
When visiting just about any school across America, students who attend come from all over the globe. This raises the question across America about bilingual education. This can create many challenges in and out of the classroom. The classroom should be a safe place for all students regardless of what native language they speak. In the essay Lost in translation written by Eva Hoffman, describes a foreign student who tries hard to fit in. Instead, Eva begins to feel angry, hurt and confused because people laugh at her. In Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education by Elizabeth R. Howard, Julie Sugarman, Donna Christian Center for Applied Linguistics Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary San José State University David Rogers Dual Language Education of New Mexico. Guiding principles gives great ideas to educators to stop kids from making other students feel the way that Eva felt. After reading several articles about bilingual education, it is evident that all children in school should learn English but never lose their native language. When all the students speak one language, students will be less likely to make fun of each other. A good educator should learn enough foreign languages to aid them in effective communication in their classroom although; if an educator does not speak a foreign language, they should recruit within the classroom students to be peer mentors. However, a teacher should be willing to listen and encourage the students. Above all a good educator should be a good role model to their students by respecting their heritage and their language.
I became inspired to become a speech-language pathologist when I first watched the film, Paulie. This film depicted a small girl, named Marie that had a speech impediment, which caused her to stutter. In order to improve Marie’s speech her mother would pronounce certain sounds and practice daily with her. While watching this film I began to realize that there is a number of individuals in our population that have different speech impairments. As I noticed how the character of Marie struggled with her speech impairment I sought to research the different treatments for individuals similar to Marie, and came across speech therapy and speech-language pathologists. I have always been fascinated by language and how it is essential in communication. I view speech-language pathologists as having a major role in helping
Learning Spanish is becoming more beneficial to communicate in America, because of the large percentage of our population consisting of Mexican
According to the estimates, bilinguals make up more than half of the global population (Grosjean, 2010). Bilingualism can be described as the ability to use two with certain degree of proficiency, whereas linguistic skills of monolinguals are restricted to just one language (for further definitions of bilingualism, see Moradi, 2014). Being bilingual means that both languages are always active to some degree, even in contexts that require just one of the languages. The ability to manage attention to two languages the entire time requires higher involvement of the non-linguistic executive control system (Abutalebi & Green, 2007; Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2012). Numerous behavioural studies have demonstrated a beneficial effect of bilingualism
The term bilingual refers to “all those people who use two or more languages or dialects in their everyday lives” and currently, more than half of the world can be classified as bilingual. Due to this growing population of individuals, there has also been an increase in interest and research on the bilingual population relating to aphasia, especially when it comes to recovery patterns and treatment. (Ansaldo, Marcotte, Scherer, & Raboyeau, 2008, p. 540) This field presents many challenges because, due to the complexity of behavioral patterns seen in the bilingual population as a result of concerning two or more languages, recovery does not always follow the same patterns from person to person (Ansaldo & Saidi, 2014, p. 1). In order to look
As I mentioned earlier I have been studying Spanish for the last four years and many of the classes I have taken have shed light on various aspects of Spanish, Mexican, and Latino/a culture. They are a population that has a strong presence within the country and that is not something that is going to change, so doing more research could only be a benefit. The third professor that I think I could work well with would be Dr. Stormshak because of her interest in different forms of intervention techniques while working with at-risk youth. This sounds similar to the work I did this past summer and that is what I would love to do in the future, so being
Attending such international schools abroad has been an eye-opening experience as I was immersed in a multicultural environment with friends stemming from all corners of the globe. Due to my mixed background, I have never really felt like I belong to just one culture, which has always fuelled my curiosity and desire to discover different cultures from around the world. I also have ancestry stemming from Mexico, which has made Latin America a region of particular interest to me as I learned much about the region from my father. In 2009 I had the chance to go to the Dominican Republic with my Family and I was very
This encourages me more to teach Spanish, since our country is now the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. I want to help high school teenagers in this country be able to not only speak their native language of English, but to also be able to speak the second most spoken language in the United States, which is
The goal of most high school students is to eventually go on to a college or university. Research shows that taking foreign language classes in high school improves the likelihood of being accepted to, succeeding in and graduating from college. If not required by the college or university, seeing foreign language courses on potential students’ transcripts is appealing to the schools. Many post-secondary schools, including the most prestigious ones such as Princeton and Stanford, often require incoming students to have taken foreign language classes in high school before being admitted (Damschen). After being admitted, bilingual students seem to be more successful in college than monolingual students. According to a study done in 2001, college students who had taken at least three years of a foreign language in high school showed to earn higher grades in college and were less likely to drop out (Horn ...