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.
Brianna, I was really glad to hear your interviewee mention the Sheltered Instruction method because it is something I am not too familiar with. We have read about it on the Brown and Lee textbook and the PowerPoints Dr. Avellaneda has posted but I have never heard it in the school setting. I see that this method is used as a way to modify the content that is given to students and that it is always in English. This has made me want to learn more about the Sheltered Instruction approach. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your feedback. My teacher is a fan of the full immersion method. She feels like this is beneficial for students because when they are pulled out from class, she feels like they are missing other information which puts them behind. She believes that it is easier for students to stay caught up when she can accommodate them as she is teaching that lesson.
DeleteAs Maisa mentions, it was definitely interesting to hear about the sheltered instruction. According to Snow (2014), a sheltered model involves separating L2 learners from native speakers to emphasize content instruction through language. I agree with your interviewee that the best way to teach a student depends on the level of the student, but that immersion would be best. I think this would work best as they are able to directly learn from their peers by being in the same setting as them. I also like that she mentions that training and cultural awareness would help a teacher improve their ability to teach ESL students. Training is helpful for obvious reasons: they learn by being taught and then applying it in the classroom. I believe that if a teacher is not culturally aware of their students and their cultures, they will not be able to go far. Being aware of your students helps build a stronger connection between teachers and students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with her as well. Training is very pertinent for teachers to ensure they are teaching to the best of their abilities. The same can be said for cultural awareness because the teacher has to know how to adjust on an individual level with each student. When someone is not culturally aware, they may not be able to understand how to best teach and accommodate those students.
DeleteHi Briana,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the full immersion method is the best method to use. I believe that having ELL in full immersion would help better their English. Being fully immersed, these students can practice the use of the English language in an authentic environment. Students will also be able to listen to others speak in English and see their assignment and lesson in English which gives them more practice and also learn the English language more naturally. Thank you for sharing!
Hey Briana,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed listening to your interview. I really like the fact that your teacher thinks that full immersion is best for the students to learn a new language. I agree with this method because it gives the students to hear the language being spoken in the classroom by peers and educators. This experience will help ELL students learn English in a more efficient way. I also liked the strategy your teacher used with the sentence stems to help that student with oral communication.
Hello Briana!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me to hear how some research initially said that immersion can either be beneficial or hurtful for the student. According to Medick, Christian, and Fortune (2011), years of documentations has shown that immersion is is highly successful for second language acquisition. Immersion may have some consequences that I think many may not think about. I have a family member who moved to the U.S. from Mexico during kindergarten. He was put in a classroom where they only spoke English. He was so rattled by the whole experience that he began to refuse to speak Spanish at home. His silent period also included not speaking at home. I think that taking this kind of a reaction into account when selecting a method is so important. Great interview and keep up the good work!