Blog 4

Throughout this class, I have learned quite a bit about different teaching practices in regards to English Language Learners. I think it is quite helpful to be taking this class while we are out in the field every day to see some of the strategies mentioned throughout this course. I am the type of person that will not learn strictly by reading the book. I have to see things in front of me or a real-life example. That is why the interview blog was really helpful to me. I realized that the strategies that are mentioned throughout our reading are truly helpful. As I watched many of my classmates’ blogs, I realized that most of our interviewees had similar responses to the questions we asked.

I definitely plan to implement some of the strategies that I learned throughout this semester. As it was mentioned on many of the interviews, many of the strategies used for English Language Learners can be used for English-only students as well. I did not think about this concept prior to this class, but now I can see how some of those techniques, such as sentence stems, vocabulary cards, and icons/pictures, can assist with any student who may be struggling with a certain concept. Prior to being in the field, I did not know exactly what differentiating for English Language Learners looked like in the classroom. Through the required observations for this class, I see that once you get the strategy or technique down, it is actually easier than I thought to apply the strategy for those students. To my surprise, after taking this course, I have decided that I want to work towards getting my English Second Language Certification.

I do think that it might be beneficial for us to focus more on writing a second language. Just based on my experiences and observations this semester, it seems like educators tend to focus more on the oral practice of the second language. As these same students get older and continue to go through the education system, there is an obvious disconnect between the student being capable of speaking the language and writing it correctly. I think it would really help for us to know even more strategies of how to help these students.

As for the use of instructional technology within this course, I had mixed emotions about it. Two of the blogs we did, I found to be interesting. I liked that although this is an online course, we were still able to kind of “meet” some of our classmates through the first blog. I also liked the interview blog because it was interesting to hear from different educators in different school districts about their experiences with English Language Learners. It definitely gave me a realistic representation of how useful some of the techniques and strategies that we learn. As for the second blog, I found it to be a little less helpful. I understand the point of using the blogs, but just based on the amount of time we have along with all of our other assignments, I found them to sometimes be difficult to maintain. 

Blog Entry 3

Here is an interview that I conducted with a teacher at Eagle Springs Elementary, Mrs. Amanda Flowers. She gives me insight on her time as an ESL specialist. Click here to watch my video.

When interviewing Mrs. Flowers, I was able to get a first hand look on what it takes to truly teach an English Language Learner. She touched on a couple of different teaching models including pull-out, full immersion, and co-teaching. To my surprise, she felt like the best method was the full immersion method because the students are completely immersed in the language. She actually has a student that came to this school at the beginning of the year and spoke maybe 25% English. We have been in the school year now for about 6 weeks, and there has obviously been a drastic amount of growth with this student. Although she did not speak very much English, her parents wanted her to come to this school and be in a fully immersed class because they too believed this was the best way for their child to learn English. Mrs. Flowers stated in the interview that in order to differentiate for the student, she uses sentence stems very often and uses a lot of dialogue as well. She wants the students to have the opportunity to speak and converse often in order to build their academic vocabulary. She also stated that she believes that many of the strategies that are used for English Language Learners are also very beneficial to all other students. I never really thought about the use of those same strategies for English-speaking students, but it is obvious that those same techniques are necessary for some other students who may not be as quick as others to learn certain things. 

Blog Entry 2

I believe that research most definitely impacts teaching practices today. To start, we are taking numerous classes that are teaching us how to hopefully become a great educator. Within those classes, we use textbooks that include evidence from various sources and researchers. If this is how we are taught in order to prepare for the profession, then obviously research is something that certainly impacts teaching today. We get the majority of our teaching practices that we will use from information that is presented to us, often from research that has occurred. A reason that research is imperative is Second Language Acquisition teaching is because as stated by Brown and Lee (2015) “new findings and new approaches demand reconceptualization” (pg. 67). With that being said, as time passes, practices and the skills used to learn evolve. It can be found that people do not teach nor learn in the exact same way as they did 50 years ago. Fifty years from now will probably be very different from now as well. As future teachers, we must remember to be lifelong learners. We should constantly read research-based articles and books to ensure we are implementing both new and old techniques to help our students learn the most effectively that they possibly can.

It is crucial for anybody within the profession of Second Language Acquisition to use research, as well as have researchers who investigate how a second, foreign or additional language is best learned. According to Brown (2014), due to the last few decades of research, a complex storehouse of information in regards to Second Language Acquisition has been produced (pg. 66). Although it is impossible to know EVERYTHING about anything, this newfound research can greatly help not only future teachers, but current teachers as well. I have seen many students who have entered an English Second Language class, and failed because of the teaching practices that ensued throughout the school year. That is not to say that it is the teacher’s fault, they may have just been using the only techniques they know. With the access to the abundant amount of research on Second Language Acquisition, that same teacher has an opportunity to improve and/or adjust their teaching practices to hopefully improve the following year.

When I took my foreign language classes throughout middle school and high school, I was taught using both the grammar-translation method as well as the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach. I think that both methods worked for me, but I could be a little biased being that I had some prior knowledge of Spanish before I took the class. In regards to the communicative language teaching approach, it is an approach that goes “beyond the merely grammatical elements of communication into the social, cultural, and pragmatic features of language (Brown & Lee, 2015, pg. 31).”  I think this approach is crucial in the success of the students that are learning the second or foreign language. In the book, Brown and Lee (2015) state that CLT-based classroom practices focus on reaching the learners intrinsically to aide them in reaching their fullest potential (pg. 31). There is so much research in regards to how important reaching the students intrinsically, and through the use of the CLT approach, there should be an abundance of positive results shown. 

                                                                                                          

Hi, my name is Briana Clausell. I am a senior here at the University of Houston. I am a native Houstonian, and have been here all 21 years of my life. I look forward to starting my career in education. Thanks for watching! :) Click Here To Learn More About Me