Informative Essay
English Language Learners
Imagine, you are sitting in a classroom looking at the teacher watching his or her mouth move but you have no idea what is being said. You try to piece together little words or phrases here and there but cannot come up with the right idea on your own. This is the case for many English Language Learners within classrooms today; the only difference is many do not even know enough English to piece together a phrase leaving them completely clueless. The controversial discussion of English Language Learners and their education can become quite heated. There is much discussion on these students and countless action plans, that we tend to forget this issue cannot only be talked about, but needs to be dealt with in the best way possible addressing all of the problems and providing ways to fix them. Two of the major ideas are English Immersion and Bilingual Education; both sides bring valuable solutions to the table, but I personally find myself torn on which will most benefit the ELL students. I have decided to look at both possible solutions, increase ones knowledge about these students education, and provide a good basis of information about the overall subject of English Language Learning.
In English immersion, the main focus is for ELL students’ to gain their education solely through the English language. All instruction provided for their education is in English and students are spoken to and expected to speak in English. It is often referred to as the “sink or swim” approach in that it does not provide the ELL students with the amount of needed help to
engage them further into their education. The students both understand the language and continue to grow with it, or become loosed at the idea and “sink”. Students spend so much time learning how to speak the language, that there is rarely enough time spent on learning about the English grammar piece of the language. In Robert Slavin and Alan Cheung’s article on “Language of Reading Instruction for English Language Learners”, immersion strategies say, “English language learners are expected to learn in English from the beginning, and their native language plays little or no role in daily reading lessons… Immersion may involve placing English language learners immediately in classes containing English monolingual children, or it may involve teaching ELL’s in a separate class for some time until the children are ready to be mainstreamed” (Slavin & Cheung 250). In this approach, students are taught in English; their native language takes a back seat in order to become strong English speakers. Learning English while speaking another language can slow the progress when learning the language. The less time students spend speaking their native language, the more successful this approach will be to their success in learning English.
By immerging the ELL’s in the classroom, they are able to further their education in the English language and decrease their chances of losing the little knowledge they have about the language to begin with. In another article titled, “The Case for Structured English Immersion”, by Kevin Clark, a writer for Educational Leadership, mentions that these immersion programs have the potential to improve the “English language development and linguistic preparation for grade level content…ELL students reach an intermediate level of English competence after a few years- and then stop making progress… they lag in their ability to apply the rules, structures, and specialized vocabularies of English necessary for grade level work” (Clark 43). ELL students
are able to continue and learn the basics of the English language at each grade level so they are learning the English grammar piece as well as being taught in the language.
It can be argued that teaching the ELL students entirely in English and not using their native language to help guide them will create a problem; putting them behind other students of their grade level and ultimately setting the student back further grade level wise in the future. Often times, in English Immersion, students are corrected from their teachers in English instead of correcting themselves which, “deny the speaker the opportunity to do self-repair, probably an important learning activity… instruction that emphasizes self-repair in this way was more likely to improve learners; ability to monitor their own target language speech” (Lyster 2). Although immersing students into an English speaking classroom may in some cases benefit the student, it cannot be ignored that total instruction in English is harmful to the students learning. As with any student, when a teacher catches them making a mistake, they are corrected; with ELLs however, when they make a mistake, they cannot be held to that same standard due to their little knowledge of the English language to begin with. If they are told the correction in English, often times the student will memorize the correction and not the reasoning behind it. It is unfair for us to ask ELLs to self-instruct themselves through something they know little about. ELLs need to be given special treatment in this case and by only giving instruction in English, they fall behind and become lost in their studies.
Bilingual Education is another approach that has been discussed when it comes to the education of the ELL students within schools today. The largest difference in this approach from English Immersion is that the ELLs are allowed to continue learning in their native language;
they use their language to help them translate English concepts, and are eventually transitioned into learning entirely in English when they have mastered the text instead of immediately starting their learning with the English language. Bilingual Education, “gives English language learners significant amounts of instruction in reading and/or other subjects in their native language…they are taught to read entirely in their native language through primary grades; they transition to English reading instruction somewhere between the second and fourth grades” (Slavin & Cheung 250). These programs show respect for the student’s native language rather than create ways to rid them of it and replace it solely with English. This approach is more open to the students transitioning process in becoming a bilingual young adult and transitions students at their own pace as opposed to being thrown into an English speaking classroom only.
Among the Bilingual Education programs, a small and growing number of schools have adopted the idea of two-way bilingual immersion programs. These programs put ELLs in the classroom with fluent English speaking students then combined, the students are taught to be bilingual; both English speaking and non English speaking students. April Linton explains that, “immersion education is not unique to the US, but as it requires a population of students (1) who come from two different home-language backgrounds, and (2) whose parents want them to learn the ‘other’ language,” (Linton 111). Because of the growing number of the Latino population in the US, there is a rising desire for bilingualism throughout the country. This is an effort for both English and non English speaking students to gain more knowledge about one another and place them on the same level of learning instead of ELLs being the group that is singled out to learn a different language. It also, “holds great promise as a strategy for diminishing – if not closing- the achievement gap… it enhances cognitive, linguistic, and cross-cultural skills” (Linton 112).
Two-way bilingual immersion allows all students to equally gain the knowledge they need to
succeed while giving all the same challenges of learning a different language. In doing so, all students are subject to similar struggles so not one specific group of students is pinpointed and English is not scene as the only proper language spoken. Josue M. Gonzalez, a professor at Arizona State University, states, “we’re the only country that believes things would be better if we only concentrated on English to the exclusion of all other languages” (Gonzalez). Gonzalez brings up valid point; the United States is the only country that believes our native language should be the only “expectable” language spoken to whereas other countries believe that learning multiple languages is more beneficial for their students and that there is not a more dominate language that needs to be learned over another.
It is argued however, that the Bilingual approach will slow productivity in the classroom because students would spend time learning a different language when the CSAP, or Colorado State Assessment Program, only tests the students on their understanding and comprehension of the English language. Because standardized tests are implemented ever year within our schools, there are limitations placed on teachers and their ability to teach another language due to the fact that the tests the prep students to pass are solely written and answered in English. So much of our school systems relay on the scores of these tests, that there is seldom time for teachers to integrate another language into their classrooms. Also the learning of another language before taking a test that is in English might impair the students’ ability and their scores might suffer because of it.
Although these two solutions both have their positives and negatives, I still do not think that either one is completely the correct way to go about bettering the education of ELL students.
Every student learns differently and has their own diverse struggles; coming up with just one simply solution would ignore those differences and possibly place struggling students at an even lower level of comprehension then they are at now. There has to be a happy medium and all students’ needs must be met before we can say the correct solution has been put into practice. I believe the correct solution is to teach every student individually and help them through their learning. Teachers must adapt to their students learning environment; giving every single student an equal chance to success, even if they struggle at first. ELL students should be provided with more one on one help, due to the stronger language barrier, and they must continue being helped until they are capable of speaking and succeeding on their tests individually. Implementing an idea along these lines would not be easy, but teaching is not an easy task and we must be up for the challenges we face so each of our students can achieve all they deserve to and more.
Works Cited
Clark, Kevin. "The Case for Structured English Immersion." Educational Leadership 66 (2009): 43.
"ENCYCLOPEDIA PROVIDES COMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT BILINGUAL EDUCATION." 28 Oct. 2008. LexisNexis. Academic. Morgan Library, Fort Collins.
Linton, April. "Spanish-English immersion in the wake of California Proposition 227: five cases." Intercultural Education 18 (2007): 111-12.
Lyster, Roy. "Negotation of Form, Recasts, and Explicit Correction in Relation to Error Types and Learner Repair in Immersion Classrooms." Language Learning 48 (1998): 2.
Slavin, Robert E., and Allen Cheung. "A Synthesis on Language of Reading Instruction for English Language Learners." Review of Educational Research 75 (2005): 250.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Learning Investigation #2
Nicole Eulberg
February 16, 2009
Learning Objective #2
Thinking back to the kind of reading and writing I was asked to do in primary and secondary schooling, for me is easy. I remember learning how to read different short stories and become skilled at writing upper and lower case letters which eventually turned into learning cursive during my primary schooling. Secondary schooling consisted of much more writing and reading. The writing turned into essays that consisted of 3-4 pages and the reading turned into 12-20 pages a night. The change in work load was considerable but doable as well.
Going back to my primary schooling experience however, I remember also learning the “correct” and “incorrect” ways to read and write. In my second grade class, I specifically remember by teacher telling all of us that it was unacceptable to begin a sentence with the words; and, but, because, or so. Every writing activity my teacher assigned us mostly reiterated to us how wrong it was to start a sentence with any of those words and from second grade on I have always thought that if I did break that rule a sentence was incorrect. When I was taught how to read, many of my teachers stressed the importance of looking up words I do not know and going back and reading parts of a story I did not understand. Like my experience with writing, I have also kept doing the same “correct” thing since then. My primary school experienced really stressed the “right way” of doing things, whether it was reading or writing, there was only one right way to do everything which defiantly impacts how I read and write still to this day.
Transitioning into my secondary education, there was still a stress on certain aspects of both reading and writing that were the same, but there were even more additions to the “one right way” of doing reading and writing activities. My freshmen English teacher reiterated the importance of word choice when starting sentences, but also added that as writers it was inaccurate to use contractions within sentences such as don’t or aren’t, just to say a few. In reading, it was still stressed that we look up words we didn’t understand, but along with that we were to answer questions about what we read and the pages that were assigned to us to read increased as was expected. Using both the knowledge I had from my primary education as well as my gained knowledge from my secondary education, I was confident I had all the parts I needed to become an intelligent writer and a solid reader.
My teachers, I feel, taught me the “one right way” because it truly was the only correct way to write and read based on the curriculum they had to teach us. For students like me who grew up with parents who introduced us to some of these concepts before we began school. This however is not the case for some other students. Referencing back to Rose, he discusses how he felt less prepared language wise while in school. I think this is the case for many students who are not taught these concepts of reading and writing in the English culture. For example, many Hispanic students are taught to say in their language, shirt black instead of black shirt as we would see as correct in our English culture. Because the curriculum tells the teachers that the verb goes before the noun, which is what they teach in their classroom. Growing up in an English family prepared me along with other students in knowing that that is the correct way to describe something; for Rose, he feels less prepared because he did not grow up in a home where he was spoken to in this way therefore he had no previous knowledge of how to say certain things in the “correct way”. I think that Rose’s experience is very similar to those of students today and we as teachers need to figure out how to make them equally prepared so they do not start off at a different level.
Shifting into college is a huge change for all students. For me, I found that the way I write has to change based on with professor I have for a certain class. Disagreeing with a professor is nothing you put in a paper because you have to play the game and not voice your own opinion if it is not the same as the professors. If you do voice your disagreeence then be prepared to have your grade suffer. Also for my writing, it was also brought to my attention that the rules of starting a sentence with because and so etc. is not an actual rule, in fact some teachers encourage it because the words can create smooth transitions. In general I would say that conventions have not impacted me as a writer after I came to college because I almost throughout every “correct” thing I was taught. I learned that there is more than one way of doing certain things and the various ways of doing them are stressed more often then not.
February 16, 2009
Learning Objective #2
Thinking back to the kind of reading and writing I was asked to do in primary and secondary schooling, for me is easy. I remember learning how to read different short stories and become skilled at writing upper and lower case letters which eventually turned into learning cursive during my primary schooling. Secondary schooling consisted of much more writing and reading. The writing turned into essays that consisted of 3-4 pages and the reading turned into 12-20 pages a night. The change in work load was considerable but doable as well.
Going back to my primary schooling experience however, I remember also learning the “correct” and “incorrect” ways to read and write. In my second grade class, I specifically remember by teacher telling all of us that it was unacceptable to begin a sentence with the words; and, but, because, or so. Every writing activity my teacher assigned us mostly reiterated to us how wrong it was to start a sentence with any of those words and from second grade on I have always thought that if I did break that rule a sentence was incorrect. When I was taught how to read, many of my teachers stressed the importance of looking up words I do not know and going back and reading parts of a story I did not understand. Like my experience with writing, I have also kept doing the same “correct” thing since then. My primary school experienced really stressed the “right way” of doing things, whether it was reading or writing, there was only one right way to do everything which defiantly impacts how I read and write still to this day.
Transitioning into my secondary education, there was still a stress on certain aspects of both reading and writing that were the same, but there were even more additions to the “one right way” of doing reading and writing activities. My freshmen English teacher reiterated the importance of word choice when starting sentences, but also added that as writers it was inaccurate to use contractions within sentences such as don’t or aren’t, just to say a few. In reading, it was still stressed that we look up words we didn’t understand, but along with that we were to answer questions about what we read and the pages that were assigned to us to read increased as was expected. Using both the knowledge I had from my primary education as well as my gained knowledge from my secondary education, I was confident I had all the parts I needed to become an intelligent writer and a solid reader.
My teachers, I feel, taught me the “one right way” because it truly was the only correct way to write and read based on the curriculum they had to teach us. For students like me who grew up with parents who introduced us to some of these concepts before we began school. This however is not the case for some other students. Referencing back to Rose, he discusses how he felt less prepared language wise while in school. I think this is the case for many students who are not taught these concepts of reading and writing in the English culture. For example, many Hispanic students are taught to say in their language, shirt black instead of black shirt as we would see as correct in our English culture. Because the curriculum tells the teachers that the verb goes before the noun, which is what they teach in their classroom. Growing up in an English family prepared me along with other students in knowing that that is the correct way to describe something; for Rose, he feels less prepared because he did not grow up in a home where he was spoken to in this way therefore he had no previous knowledge of how to say certain things in the “correct way”. I think that Rose’s experience is very similar to those of students today and we as teachers need to figure out how to make them equally prepared so they do not start off at a different level.
Shifting into college is a huge change for all students. For me, I found that the way I write has to change based on with professor I have for a certain class. Disagreeing with a professor is nothing you put in a paper because you have to play the game and not voice your own opinion if it is not the same as the professors. If you do voice your disagreeence then be prepared to have your grade suffer. Also for my writing, it was also brought to my attention that the rules of starting a sentence with because and so etc. is not an actual rule, in fact some teachers encourage it because the words can create smooth transitions. In general I would say that conventions have not impacted me as a writer after I came to college because I almost throughout every “correct” thing I was taught. I learned that there is more than one way of doing certain things and the various ways of doing them are stressed more often then not.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Learning Investigation #1
Nicole Eulberg
February 9, 2009
Culture is a part of every person and within that culture or community a certain language is revealed. Each and every person comes from a different background which means we all differ in language and how we use it. Most people may speak English however not all people pronounce words of the English language the same nor do they use the same language in a given community setting.
I was born and raised in a white suburban town outside of Denver called Arvada. In Arvada, there was little diversity if any at all and for the most part everyone in the town spoke the same. My parents raised me to speak clearly and use various words or phrases in give situations. While speaking to my teachers throughout my schooling, I never used the word “like” as a filler and always tried to use bigger words to sound more educated. Because of my parents, and mentors over the years, I became aware of how to speak in certain situations or communities rather that helped me later on in life.
When I turned 16 I got a job working at Washington Mutual Bank as a teller. Getting hired for this job meant that the language I used to talk with my friends was no longer expectable in this community. I had to start speaking professionally while at the same time not speak over the customers head using bank terms that I learned in training. This certain community really taught me how to deal with customers and how to speak effectively to them in a way that they not only understood, but appreciated as well coming from someone at my age.
Around my friends however, it is an entirely different community. We all laugh and tell stories using the word “like” in between every other word or so. In a way sometimes I sound like a valley girl because of words that I use such as “whatever” of “Shut up”. Those words would not be considered professional in any way in my work community nor would they be expectable in a school atmosphere when communicating with teachers or my future students. My favorite community of language however is texting. Texting makes every word so much easier to say not to mention it saves you time. In my community of texting, if I was going to say “see you later “or “Love you” if would be “cu l8er” or “luv u”. The texting community uses abbreviations because it saves the texter time while writing a message. As students however, using this language when writing a paper is frowned upon and in most cases can count against you for quite a few points depending on the teacher. This again shows school is a different community in which language differs.
In just a few examples of various communities I have shown you how language is different based on a given setting in my everyday life. For me, being raised in the community I was has affected me in the aspect of when and where I use the above language and how I might sound different from someone who was raised in say an African American community or the streets of Brooklyn. A community member of my community uses these words in the above ways because it is what they grew up knowing and as stated previously, each culture is different, with it, comes the different language communities.
February 9, 2009
Culture is a part of every person and within that culture or community a certain language is revealed. Each and every person comes from a different background which means we all differ in language and how we use it. Most people may speak English however not all people pronounce words of the English language the same nor do they use the same language in a given community setting.
I was born and raised in a white suburban town outside of Denver called Arvada. In Arvada, there was little diversity if any at all and for the most part everyone in the town spoke the same. My parents raised me to speak clearly and use various words or phrases in give situations. While speaking to my teachers throughout my schooling, I never used the word “like” as a filler and always tried to use bigger words to sound more educated. Because of my parents, and mentors over the years, I became aware of how to speak in certain situations or communities rather that helped me later on in life.
When I turned 16 I got a job working at Washington Mutual Bank as a teller. Getting hired for this job meant that the language I used to talk with my friends was no longer expectable in this community. I had to start speaking professionally while at the same time not speak over the customers head using bank terms that I learned in training. This certain community really taught me how to deal with customers and how to speak effectively to them in a way that they not only understood, but appreciated as well coming from someone at my age.
Around my friends however, it is an entirely different community. We all laugh and tell stories using the word “like” in between every other word or so. In a way sometimes I sound like a valley girl because of words that I use such as “whatever” of “Shut up”. Those words would not be considered professional in any way in my work community nor would they be expectable in a school atmosphere when communicating with teachers or my future students. My favorite community of language however is texting. Texting makes every word so much easier to say not to mention it saves you time. In my community of texting, if I was going to say “see you later “or “Love you” if would be “cu l8er” or “luv u”. The texting community uses abbreviations because it saves the texter time while writing a message. As students however, using this language when writing a paper is frowned upon and in most cases can count against you for quite a few points depending on the teacher. This again shows school is a different community in which language differs.
In just a few examples of various communities I have shown you how language is different based on a given setting in my everyday life. For me, being raised in the community I was has affected me in the aspect of when and where I use the above language and how I might sound different from someone who was raised in say an African American community or the streets of Brooklyn. A community member of my community uses these words in the above ways because it is what they grew up knowing and as stated previously, each culture is different, with it, comes the different language communities.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Memory Vignette
Nicole Eulberg
January 27, 2009
Memory Vignettes
“Error marks the place where learning begins” (Rose in the Lives on the Boundary pg.88). While growing up and still to this day, I have made many mistakes, some big, some small, and some that I think back to and say “wow really I must have not had a brain that day”. Thinking about this more, I am positive that I am not the only one who has and still does make mistakes; I am also positive that I along with many others have learned a life lesson or something about myself through making that mistake in the first place.
I agree very much with Rose’s quote because there is no such thing as a perfect person. Everyone in a way needs to fall down because if we do not we never learn how to get back up or how to not make that same mistake again. I remember when I was young, my mom and I were walking through what is now Macy’s. I loved touching everything I saw and when I say a beautiful crystal bowl, I knew I just had to touch it too. I went up to the stand and touched the rime of the bowl, in doing so I knocked it off the stand and it shattered right in front of me. My mom turned to me furiously, grabbed my hand and spanked me, not lightly, on the back side. From that point on I never touched anything in a department store again. I learned from my error and gained the knowledge of what touching crystal objects can result in.
Making mistakes is virtually unavoidable and I personally am thankful for that. Without falling and making mistakes, I would not have grown and matured into the person I am today and without future mistakes, becoming the person and the teacher I want to be could not be attained either. The people that continuously fall and learn how to pick themselves up after doing so are the people who learn the most about themselves and at the end of the day can touch others lives because they can relate to similar mistakes. For me, knowing that gives me huge inspiration to become a teacher and help coach students through the mistakes they will make. I want each of them to realize it is okay to mess up because at the end of the day that mistake will have made them a stronger person.
January 27, 2009
Memory Vignettes
“Error marks the place where learning begins” (Rose in the Lives on the Boundary pg.88). While growing up and still to this day, I have made many mistakes, some big, some small, and some that I think back to and say “wow really I must have not had a brain that day”. Thinking about this more, I am positive that I am not the only one who has and still does make mistakes; I am also positive that I along with many others have learned a life lesson or something about myself through making that mistake in the first place.
I agree very much with Rose’s quote because there is no such thing as a perfect person. Everyone in a way needs to fall down because if we do not we never learn how to get back up or how to not make that same mistake again. I remember when I was young, my mom and I were walking through what is now Macy’s. I loved touching everything I saw and when I say a beautiful crystal bowl, I knew I just had to touch it too. I went up to the stand and touched the rime of the bowl, in doing so I knocked it off the stand and it shattered right in front of me. My mom turned to me furiously, grabbed my hand and spanked me, not lightly, on the back side. From that point on I never touched anything in a department store again. I learned from my error and gained the knowledge of what touching crystal objects can result in.
Making mistakes is virtually unavoidable and I personally am thankful for that. Without falling and making mistakes, I would not have grown and matured into the person I am today and without future mistakes, becoming the person and the teacher I want to be could not be attained either. The people that continuously fall and learn how to pick themselves up after doing so are the people who learn the most about themselves and at the end of the day can touch others lives because they can relate to similar mistakes. For me, knowing that gives me huge inspiration to become a teacher and help coach students through the mistakes they will make. I want each of them to realize it is okay to mess up because at the end of the day that mistake will have made them a stronger person.
Monday, January 26, 2009
My desire to become a High School English teacher
Hey, my name is Nicole and I am a Sophomore at Colorado State University. My desired field of teaching is English. For quite sometime now I have always wanted to teach but struggled with what my subject of focus would be. I have never understood math or science, but always loved History and English. My Mom teaches English at the middle school level and after observing her class I decided English was my calling, however middle school children were not. As I began to recall my high school teachers and my experiences with them as far as the influence they had on me, I realized that I too wanted to become an influential teacher as they were to me and since then have felt the largest impact I am capable of making is and will be high school students.
As a high school English teacher, I hope to run a well organized class room that challenges students in literature as well as in their writing. I want the students to succeed in every aspect and hope that they themselves have the desire to succeed as well. It was my experience that the classes I wanted to do well in were classes in which the teachers took the time to get to know each of their students and had the right balance between challenging and fun. I am and will continue to strive to be that teacher everyday.
As a high school English teacher, I hope to run a well organized class room that challenges students in literature as well as in their writing. I want the students to succeed in every aspect and hope that they themselves have the desire to succeed as well. It was my experience that the classes I wanted to do well in were classes in which the teachers took the time to get to know each of their students and had the right balance between challenging and fun. I am and will continue to strive to be that teacher everyday.
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