Hello! For
this Vblog, my sister, Mae, has agreed to share out her personal experiences as
an English Language Learner. I specifically wanted to interview my sister because
she just graduated from High School recently. Her English development was known
to be a positive learning experience because of the support through family and interventions
at public schools.
Mae’s primary
language is known to be Vietnamese, but our parents wanted to strictly focus on
her English development. She was given many positive reinforcements that
allowed her to find little to no difficulty in English comprehension. Fortunately,
my parents adopted an acculturation perspective which allowed both my siblings
and I to adapt or lessen our priority of learning English without having to
sacrifice Vietnamese (Wright, 2015, p. 20). In the interview, Mae mentions that
although she communicates with our family and grandparents in Vietnamese,
School was her greatest influence of English language development through
small-group interventions that focused on everyday concepts in Elementary. In
addition, after the video, she explained how she was able to incorporate her skills that she learned in the
interventions and apply it when assisting exchange-students from Spain to become
familiar with English through phonological and syntax (Wright, 2015, p. 35). Communication
and encouragement are key factors that allow my sister to feel at ease with her
L2 development.
After the video, I continued to interview my sister about her friends’ obstacles in
learning English. Although my sister had no problem learning English, she helped
her friend in building their vocabulary and comprehension through rewording instructions
and conversing on a daily basis. She mentions that knowing basic words through
children book is often a good start when first developing English. Her teachers
were unable to rephrase the instructions to “where students are able to draw [attention]
on what they know and can do in one language to make new meanings in another (Wright,
2015, p. 40). In order for students to succeed in their courses, teachers must
take account of the cultural differences of their students and be flexible of
adjusting their instructions. Although Mae's teacher did not allow a positive reinforcement, it challenged her friends to reach out for help from their peers. After interviewing my sister, I really hope to be as flexible as possible with my ESL students. I will be able to provide the additional resources such as library books, but I hope to build a strong rapport to where my students will discuss their struggles.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Here is the link if it does not play below: >> click me !! <<
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ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteCongrats your recent graduation, Mae! It’s interesting to know that even though Mae was born in the United States, English wasn’t her first language. Now that I think about it, most of the minority students’ first language isn’t English regardless of where they were born because their parents speak a different language. I feel like that is a misconception that people (myself include) tend to have—that ESL students are always born in other countries. I like that Mae’s teacher pulled her out of class to address a mistake. Not only did she stop potential embarrassment for Mae, she created an opportunity to work with her one-on-one. One of Mae’s advice to students who are learning English is to watch a favorite movie. I can vouch that this is effective because that is how I learned the other languages I speak! I’m sure kids and adults alike would love this method as well because it is engaging. Mae also mentioned that making friends would help language development. This is a very simple, yet most effective method because “researches have argued that interaction is essential for SLA to occur” and that leaners “need opportunities to interact with other speakers” (Wright, 2015, p. 53).
Wright, W.E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy and practice. (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Calson.
Hello Mia! My sister says thank you for the congrats 😊! I agree that Mae’s ESL instructor did a good thing by pointing out her mistake off to the side. I think part of the confusion Mae had may have been related to the format of the question. With the given accommodation, Mae should’ve used her opportunity to have the test read aloud in English. I think a problem that tied into this may have been she was too embarrassed to request assistance in front of her peers (Wright, 2015, p. 131). I think in order to prevent this from happening to my future ELL students, I would let students know that I may assist the student with the directions of the test.
DeleteHello Mia,
DeleteYou talked about the common misconception that ESL students are foreign born. I think that is a frequent assumption that causes a disconnect between teacher and student. While it is important for a teacher to know their students, I believe a teacher should really get to know their ELLs. This way, they are doing everything they can to accommodate and understand those students. Wright (2015) says information about the student’s ethnicity and culture may help explain some of students’ behaviors in class and suggest things the teacher can do to be sensitive to his or her culture. When Mae’s teacher pulled her into the hall, to clarify a question that was missed on an assignment, the teacher showed care and concern by not embarrassing Mae in front of the class.
Hi Michelle!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was neat that you were able to interview your own sister for your second vlog! You guys must have had very similar introductions to the English language growing up as well.
Your sister mentioned in the interview that she would often get pulled out by interventionist to help with her English language development. over textbook states that the pull out ESL model has been highly criticized as the least effective model. (Ovando & Combs, 2011)
I can see why it would be the least effective model because it is not coordinated with what students are learning in their regular classrooms and may embarrass students who have to be pulled out in front of their English-only peers (Wright, 2015). Did your sister feel as though she was a low priority and that she, as an English language learner, was a second class citizen within the school?
I also read it and never text book but there are few benefits of pulling out students for ESL instruction. Much of what I read correlated with what your sister said about being pulled out. For example, students were able to be more active, engaged, and vocal during their ESL time because the teacher would create a safe environment that would lower the affective filter for her ELLs (Wright, 2015). So perhaps, if your sister at first was not able to answer the days of the week that were weekdays even if she knew what they were in the classroom, when she was pulled by an ESL teacher and asked the same question she was able to answer correctly and then tell her ESL teacher that she DID know what those days of the week were.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015, Print. Second Edition
Hello Fatima! Thanks for sharing the information in regards to disadvantages and advantages of ESL pull-out sessions. This method is known to be least effective. If it cannot be prevented, a technique for future main instructors could do is to do informal observations of their ESL students. Not only is this known to be the easiest way to assess ELLs, but observing students interact with their peers can allow us to modify our lesson (Wright, 2015, p. 139). I believe if teachers pay attention to these observations by allowing discussions with open-responses and a range of higher-thinking questions, they would be able to create the safe environment you mentioned.
DeleteHey Michelle!
DeleteI agree! Not only should teachers allow open-responses and higher thinking questions, but they should also make accommodations such as "linguistically accommodated testing" procedures and simplifying language used in the classroom to clarify for dual-language learners. (Wright, 2015, pg 130)