This was a very interesting and informative article. The growing number of immigrants highlights the importance of a course like this. I appreciate this article as it shined light on many of the struggles ELL deal with daily. It takes time, patience, support, and courage to learn another language. For me, reading this article reminded me of my journey to America and the struggles I dealt with as a student. My parents did not speak English and living in community as a minority had its pros and cons. I learned the language faster, however, I was stigmatized for the way I spoke and learned by certain students and teachers. Many teachers did not know how to deal with a student like me which hurt my progress. For example, a teacher told me I should know the meaning of a word when I asked for its meaning on a …show more content…
Also, one of my English teachers told me I had a lot of work to do, but never took the initiative to explain my mistakes. They assumed I would just understand like the other students. Truth be told, ELL learn differently than native speakers. Today, all new hires are required to get an ESL endorsement at the district I graduated from and currently work in. ELL are also very diverse. Our school is using some of the same strategies used to teach Spanish students in Arizona and believe it will work on Arabic students who are significantly different. The Spanish and Arabic culture/ languages are too different to use the same strategies. A surprising fact I learned was the increasing presence of ELL in all U.S. states. I’m excited to see where education for ELL goes in the near future. I expect more attention than what we see, today. As an ELL myself, I have an easier time understanding my student. My experience has been a great tool in the classroom and comes to my aid when students have any concerns or struggles. Articles like this remind me of my past and refresh my perspective on helping students
I found it interesting that of the three ELL teachers interviewed, only one had a personal ELL experience. This teacher teaches at my middle school. She moved here from Poland when she was nine years old. She didn’t know any English besides basic words like colors and days of the week. This personal experience can help her immensely, because she understands the experience of her students and the students can relate to her. This teacher is the only one who is bilingual of the three I interviewed. Interestingly, it is also two of the three teachers first year teaching ELL. These two educators were aides in the program before this teaching job, and they both received their endorsements from the IRC. The other elementary teacher has been teaching ELL for twenty years, and has lots of experience.
Every person has an American Dream they want to pursue, achieve and live. Many people write down goals for themselves in order to get to their dream. Those never ending goals can range from academic to personal. As of today, I am living my dream. My American Dream is to become a nurse, travel to many places, have a family, and get more involved with God.
Of the several challenges that ELL students may face at school, one of the most important to remember is that these students not only have the pressure of learning at the same pace of their peers that have most likely spoken English their whole lives, but they have to do so while attempting to understand the English language. Graves' makes a paramount point on page 411 of his text where he states "it is not that English language learners come to school with a language deficit. They come with a lack of knowledge of the particular language that is used in the schools they will be attending-English."1 Therefore, it is easy to assume that even the most ready-to-learn student will have huge amounts of trouble trying to learn everything in a language that is foreign to them.
I was born in Sri Lanka, a small island torn by a civil war. As the violence grew, my parents decided to move us to the United States so we can have a better life. In 2001 my parents left everything they had to start a new life the United States. . I came from nothing. All Throughout my life, my parents worked hard to provide for my family so my brother and I can have a better future. Their sacrifice is what drives me every day. Their Sacrifice and hard work motivates me to work harder.
Current research on English language learners illustrates a variety of interventions available within the domain of education. The main focus of these interventions is to counteract the limitations ELL’s encounter, while increasing the likelihood of acquiring proficiency in the English language. Interventions prominent in educating these individuals include: teaching and using language-learning strategies, pairing an ELL student with a bilingual student...
However, there is big difference between elementary school, where most of the programs designed to scaffold the linguistic and academic needs of ELLs, consequently, elementary teachers are likely to be better prepared than their secondary colleagues (Rubinstein-Avila and Lee, 2015). Nevertheless, because the language of a child is not as extend as a middle school student, they tend to retain more vocabulary than the young adults. One of the advantages of an elementary teacher is that they receive more training on how to prepare to teach ELLs than a secondary teacher since single-subject teachers receive limited preparation for teaching content to ELLs, and as a result are likely not to use the instructional strategies needed to teach this population effectively (Rubinstein-Avila and Lee, 2015). (Rubinstein-Avila and Lee 2015) found that not all teachers showed interest or concern about teaching ELLs in the secondary school.
Ever since I can remember I have always had an interest in people who are not from the United States. It was always their language that gave me an excitement about their lives back home and their now life in the United States. Once I became a Junior in college my advisor told me I should consider an ESOL Endorsement, However at the time I knew nothing about it or what it meant. After furthering my research and learning more about the endorsement and classes, I knew it was something I would be interested in while furthering my teaching career in my future. I was excited for a new journey while learning about English Language Learners (ELL). I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and now knowing that I can become an ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) teacher is like a dream come true. While doing classroom observations with English Language Leaners I
The day I felt like dying, my heart stopped like the breaks on a roller coaster. It was July of 2017, I was on a visit to California. My sisters, friend, and I went to the Great America Amusement Park. This would be my first roller coaster experience.
The answer to these questions is summed up with one answer. That answer is preparedness and effective planning. Teacher should follow the five p’s of the Gangster Disciples. The five p’s are as follows: “proper preparation prevents poor performance” (BlackGanGsta, 2014). Therefore to prevent poor performance among ESL students schools need to evaluate their neighborhood, interact with parents and community members, and change the delivery of instruction to ensure every student is learning.
In the USA, some district place ELLs in ‘shelter’ classes, where ELLs receive different treatment “under the guise of ‘preparing’ them for mainstream L1 education, whilst in truth they are simply deprived of sufficient academic contact with the target language and are separated from peers, who are of course native speakers” (Ball). This different preparation affects students greatly. To the point, many Hispanic students born in the country, by the time they graduate, have only a respectable level of Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) nonetheless they did not quite develop their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Preventing them to pursue a college education and access better-paid
It was about two years ago when I arrived in United States of America, and I still remember the day when I left my native country, Honduras. As I recall, one day previous to my departure, I visited my relatives who live in San Pedro Sula. They were all very happy for me to see me except my grandmother Isabel. She looked sad; even though she tried to smile at all times when I was talking to her, I knew that deep inside of her, her heart was broken because of my departure the next morning. I remember that I even told her, “Grandma, do not worry about me, I’ll be fine. I promise that I will write you letters and send you pictures as much as possible.” Here reply was, “I know sweetie I know you will.” Suddenly after she said that I started to cry. For som...
My personal language learning experiences influence the instruction on my EL students by my ability to be patient with them and try to understand where they are coming from. I have learned that I do not appreciate when conclusions are assumed because of external factors in which I have no control. I try and take that knowledge and apply it to my EL students. One of the most important lessons I have learned and apply to my teaching is one of love. Love is powerful and strong. It possesses the unique ability to stretch across any language, social, political, or any other barrier prevalent in a child’s life. As a child all I desired love and that is what I consistently and tirelessly offer each of my students EL or not.
English is my primary language and I would like to think that I have mastered the English language. However, who ever ends up reading this journal entry might think differently. Do to my experiences with learning the English language, I do show empathy to ELL’s students. Not only are they learning a new language, but they must also use this new language to comprehend and learn academic areas such as science, math, and social studies. I can hardly begin to imagine what it is like to come to a new country and school and to have to learn a new language.
As a future teacher, it feels intimidating thinking about having English language learners in a classroom full of English speaking students. I have never thought about having students who do not speak English in a classroom until recently because of our class discussions and the reading assignments. Therefore, since I am going to be an educator, I am glad to be aware that having ELL students in my future classroom is a possibility. I want to be a successful teacher for every student who walks into my classroom, rather they speak English or not. Chapters one, two, and three in Working with English Language Learners, written by Stephen Cary, are influential and have marvelous ideas on how to assess non-English speaking students, how to gain background knowledge about the students and
Overall, language and culture are very similar in array of ways. When ELL students assimilate to a new culture they learn new behaviors and habits which is regulated by language usage. Language and culture are effectively implemented into ESL classrooms through the use of authentic materials and texts, like T.V sitcoms or sample writings. Teacher’s own identity shapes the way he or she teaches in the general or ESL setting by emphasizing what was critical during their educational experience, such as punctuality, independence and collaborative work. Lastly, inviting in parents to participate in read alouds’ and use a variety of multimedia material are just a few ways to instill goals and skill in ELL students.