Latino Children Learning English Connection to Real Life

In chapter six the authors of Latino Children Learning English quotes Garrod and Pinkering’s statement of “routinization greatly simplifies the production process and gets around problems of ambiguity resolution in comprehension” (Valdès, 2011, p. 171). This quote about using a routine in linguistic acquisition can be related to a class conversation we had about having a concrete routines in special education environments. Many special education students thrive in an environment where they know what to expect and when to expect it. I work with special education students and they are always looking at the agenda on the classroom board to make sure they know what will happen when. If something unexpected occurs, such as a fire drill, we have to first calm them down and let them know that the building is not burning down before we can start to take them out of the building, otherwise they start to scream and become very emotional. When my students’ class is a normal day they can function well in the classroom. In sum, I can agree with the authors’ argument of ELLs thriving with routines in place. If the ELLs know what types of activates their volunteer is going to do, it may get repetitive, but the students will eventually master the content.

The authors found that “some of the interactions were characterized by an extensive use of gestures and animation while the volunteer was talking…this strategy appeared to direct the student’s attention to the text and to help him or her in following along with the volunteer” (Valdès, 2011, p. 177). This phrase can be connected to my current ESOL field observation because my cooperating teacher uses a lot of gestures with his hands to help his students understand what he is teaching them. Also, when he reads a book to the kids he starts out by exploring the pictures with them before starting to read. Then, when he starts to read, he points to parts of the pictures that coincide with the words that he is reading aloud. I can tell the students understand what is being read to them by their facial expressions, for example last week we read a short story about a boy making a mess with pizza, the kids laughed at the end and started discussing how messy they get when eating pizza.

The question I would like to propose is, I have made a connection between the methods of instructions in special education and in ESOL, do you believe there are more connections?

What lessons can be learned?

Week: 6

Chapter: 6

Levi - Discussion Director

            I have chosen to use my last blog as a reflection of what I have learned from reading the Valdés et al. text, in correlation with how Valdés et al. used their last chapter as a summation and final explanation of their study of ELLs in one-on-one English.  The main concepts that I have encountered and believe to be the overriding concepts of the one-on-one study are: process, challenges, small steps, and change over time.

            Valdés et al. did not provide the reader with set formulas for how to teach ELLs.  However, they did provide the reader with general guidelines and helpful hints.  Using exaggerated gestures to "act out" meaning, supplying students with as much English interaction as possible, and incorporating student interests are some of my favorite ideas that they provided the reader with.  Without formula for how to teach ELLs teachers must be inventive with the process and delivery that they use when interacting with students.  Small steps must be taken and celebrated along the road to SLA.  The teacher, and especially the student, will be faced with challenges; being creative and willing to try anything will allow both parties to feel more comfortable and successful.  All teacher and students need to be aware that the process takes time.  Don't get frustrated and admit defeat. 

            I believe that in the United States we do not provide teachers or ELLs with enough time, funds, or resources to achieve to their greatest potential.  There are a lot of negative feelings toward immigrants and ELLs in our society.  It is time we got off our high horse and provided our children with what they need to succeed.  I do not see why there needs to be a dominant group.  We should forfeit the overriding power that we have feel entitled to in order to benefit our society in the future.       

            What is the next step?  What can we do as individuals and as teachers to help bridge the gap between the dominant and oppressed groups in today's society? 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Chapter 6

Researcher

After reading the final chapter I felt at a loss. For my research I looked into what others are doing to help teach student English. My hope was to find the “magic solution.” To my disappointment, I did not find the secret. I found two articles that stated similar ideas to what Valdez discussed ad presented as key principles for teaching ELL students. In the first article I found Danling Fu (2003) discussed how student in his program were native Chinese speakers learning English. Fu (2003) in summation shared a lot of the same philosophies as Valdez, including, immersion into English but allowing for support in the native language. Fu (2003) focused on teaching writing to students I never realized how difficult each writing style (Poetry, Narrative, expository) was until Fu (2003) described teaching it to his students. The second article I found by Taylor (1983) although older still held the same principles true. Taylor (1983) discussed the need for a communicative structure to teaching the “target language,” this directly correlates to the research Valdez et. al. conducted in our book with the “One-on-one Language.” Essentially, my conclusion to aiding ELL students in language acquisition is to motivate the students to show the “need” as Valdez et. al. describe (2011, p193) for learning the language. Additionally, providing meaningful, structured, and developmentally appropriate means for verbally communicating with native speakers. Finally, we need “[assess] student’s ability to engage in grade-level work without modification or accommodation and not on the accuracy of their production.” It is not an easy task but it is an achievable feat, the question remains; Are you prepared to help them?

Fu, D. (2003) An Island of English Teaching ESL in Chinatown Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Retrieved from http://www.college.heinemann.com/shared /onlineresources/E00481/chapter5.pdf on October 24, 2011.

Taylor, B (1983) Teaching ESL: Incorporating a Communicative, Student-Centered Component. TESOL Quarterly, Volume 17, Number 1, March 1983 , pp. 69- 88(20).Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL).Retrieved from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tesol/ tq/1983/00000017/00000001/art00006 on October 24, 2011.

Creative Comprhension Ideas

Week: 5

Chapter: 5

Levi - Rigorous Researcher   

            This chapter of Latino Children Learning English focused on the students' ability to retell the stories The Three Little Pigs and/or The Three Bears.  The focus of this part of the study was on the amount of English that each student was able to successfully use in their retellings.  The retellings from the two or three years that each child participated in one-on-one English were compared. 

            This chapter did not focus on comprehension of the stories.  Rather, it focused on the students' abilities to use the pictures as a framework for their retelling.  It is not within the scope of the one-on-one English study to discuss comprehension, so I thought I would explore ways in which teachers could teach and assess ELLs comprehension.

            The first article I found talks about using CD-ROM storybooks (although today we might use something slightly more technologically advanced) to teach ELLs how to read.  Pearman (2008) suggests that using interactive storybooks can allow students to use less cognitive power on comprehension in order to concentrate on decoding the English words.  This is possible because of the interactive pictures, video clips, animations, and sound effects.  Once the students have begun to develop their decoding skills they will rely less and less on the pictures and other built in features. This type of program can be used to scaffold comprehension, but could allow the student to rely on the animations and other features as a crutch when reading, thus not allowing the student to be able to transfer their skills to books.  I believe that if used carefully and correctly this program could provide ELLs with a fun interactive way to expand their English language understanding.

            The second article I found talks about utilizing comic strips to enhance language output.  Zimmerman (2008) suggests that using comic strips allows students to creatively express themselves in both pictures and words (L2).  I believe that the creation of comic strips could also be used for comprehension.  A student could retell a story by creating a comic strip.  The use of speech bubbles would allow the student to use language to help tell the story.  I believe that this tactic of drawing pictures might work with older students with little L2 output.  Students could still show understanding and comprehension ability without needing to use L2 to show their understanding.

            I think that both of these tactics are fairly abstract.  Do you think that they would be useful in helping ELLs to feel more comfortable at the beginning of their English learning journey?

Pearman, C. J.  (2008).  Independent reading of cd-rom storybooks: Measuring comprehension with oral retellings.  The Reading Teacher, 61(8), 594-602.

Zimmerman, B.  (2008).  Creating comics foster reading, writing, and creativity.  The Education Digest, 74(4), 55-57.     

The Change in English Language Learners Acquisition of English

The major theme of chapter five was change. There was a change in the students’ proficiency, growth of English acquisition, fluctuation of English acquisition, and there was a change of the authors’ assessment methods in order to measure the students’ English acquisition.

One word I chose to describe the change that took place in this chapter was proficiency. The students in the One-on-one English program began not understanding the English language, but by the time they ended the program they could understand the volunteers, form multiple sentences on their own and know the difference between past, present and future tense words.

I chose growth to describe the changing of the ELLs’ proficiency. At the beginning of the program the students that were chosen were selected because they were beginners of the English language. By the time they finished the program, 2-4 years later, they had become multi-dimensional with their English. At the end of the program the students could narrate a story, use conjunctions, and use conventional dialogue markers, where as before they were unable to perform these tasks.

The students fluctuated in their learning of English, some students would make achievements in their English acquisition demonstrated in an assessment, and then in the next assessment the results showed that the student had regressed. Usually when the students regressed it was after summer break and the assessment results would show they had improved before school let out in the summer.

The final word I would like to use to describe the theme, change, portrayed in this chapter is assessments methods. The authors varied their assessments of the students’ English acquisition throughout their time in the program. In order to assess the ELLs’ acquisition the authors observed and assessed the students’ lexical growth, emergence of verb systems, sentence structure, turn types, language usage, and grammatical accuracy. The authors’ observations and assessments of the ELL can be connected to our class learning of the Functional Behavior Analysis, because in special education the students are observed by professionals that determine what behavior they are lacking or gaining that is making them not function properly. In the book the authors were observing the ELLs to determine what they are lacking or gaining of the English language.

My question I pose to you is: keeping in mind the over-population of classrooms, do you believe that the students in the One-on-One English program could have become as proficient, and changed as much as they did, had they not attended the program?

Chains That Bind Chains That Break

Throughout this chapter I felt very suppressed and almost caged in. I correspond these themes with the reading because the means of measuring a student’s growth in language acquisition occurs in a variety of levels and dimensions; however, these dimensions are not measured with standardized test. As Valdes et. al discuss in chapter five, “L2 development is not a rapid process in children, it does not move to grammatical accuracy, and it is directly dependent on the eyes (or ears) of the beholder”(p.169). This passage spoke to me because it is a subjective world and one teacher may see great growth but another educator may look at the same data and not see any growth. I feel like there is such a disadvantage to ELL students. The picture I illustrated came out of the passage above. I utilized color and symbols to tell my story. An eye and an ear are represented in reference to the quote from Valdez et. al above, because they are the means of obtaining information for an ELL student and the means of which to be judged by educators. The eye is green to represent the freshness and growth of the ELL learner of his or her L2. The ear is blue to represent trust and wisdom. Trust in those educating the ELL student in their new language and wisdom because the ELL student will attempt to acquire new knowledge. The chain the center represents all that holds back an ELL student, standardized assessment, social injustice, lack of confidence and a range of other factors that create a “high affective filter.” It is colored in purple because ultimately the chain possesses power of the learner and leads to his or her own success or failure in language acquisition and eventually school over all. The text in the illustration speaks to the binding nature of standardized tests to ELL student success and will in due course lead to the breaking of our students. What can we do to break the chain and allow our students to be successful?

Ten Words Describing Chapter 4

While reading chapter four, I gathered a list of ten different words, which seemed to reflect the chapter and also seemed to fit what one would see in an ESL classroom from the teacher and student's point of view. The ten words I have highlighted and further described below are: trajectories, participating, interactions, unknown, challenges, analyzing, receptive, productive, questions, vocabulary.

Trajectories is demonstrated in chapter four in the way that there were synopsis of several ELLs all on the same path to learn English, but despite the fact that they are on the same path, all of these children were at different levels with different backgrounds that factored into their trajectory.

It was interesting to see the level of participation that the ELLs portrayed. Despite the level of confusion, many of the beginners took intelligent guesses. Others participated using their L1 when discussing objects they were looking at. This leaves a great amount of hope that their knowledge in L1 can transfer over easily to their L2 and the barrier is just language rather than knowledge and language in some instances. It makes you wonder how important, if at all, it is that teachers all their students to use their L1 especially when something new is presented to them so they can easily build background knowledge and then focus on the language.

I was amazed to see how technical it is in the developing process. The ELLs were involved in these developing stages: responding physically to requests, imitating, responding by saying yes or no to questions, repeats, comments spontaneously, produces responses, describes and so on.

With these students, there was more unknown than known English yet they still had much determination despite the long road ahead of their acquisition.

It was important to take note in the different ways the volunteers and ELLs approached the challenges they both came across and how they overcame those challenges.

I picked analyzing because this chapter allowed for the reader to analyze a numerous amount of different interactions between an ELL and a volunteer. The reader was able to analyze the children's personalities, experiences, abilities, and even appearances to paint a picture of an image of the child in their head, which made it feel like you, the reader, were a part of the journey too.

The ELLs needed to learn English in a receptive sort of way through interpersonal interactions in order to comprehend the language overtime.

In the same manner, the ELLs were given the opportunity through one-on-one interaction to not only comprehend, as in receptive, but to produce English in a productive way and it too changed overtime.

Taking note in the sorts of questions being asked to the ELLs was interesting. Since the volunteer simplified each sentence to only a few words, some being repetitive phrases, helped with the development of new vocabulary.

Lastly, I decided to add vocabulary to my list since after reading this chapter and seeing the improvements made and how all minds work differently, it is difficult to fathom the process of second language acquisition with the fact that language is so rich of vocabulary words.

In what ways and circumstances do you think you would need in order to flourish in learning a new language?

Time vs. Dominant Group

Week: 4

Chapter: 4

Levi - Idea Illustrator

      Time is the guiding principle for second language acquisition (SLA).  Valdés et al. (2011) documented the progress of several English language learners (ELLs) over the course of two years.  During these two years the students' abilities to comprehend spoken English and speak English was analyzed.  In most cases the students progressed from single word responses to choice or yes/no questions to providing multiword spontaneous comments; many were also able to provide brief explanations within a given context.  I believe that providing these students with time to interact with the English language has allowed them to, in many instances, make great progress in SLA.  I believe that more time to interact with English would have allowed them to make even greater progress.  With that being said, I found a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lbw3KRyymo&feature=related ) that reverses the tides.  That is, in this setting it is the English speaking students that are learning Spanish.  While watching this video I was reminded of our class discussion on the Social Dominance Theory.  As a reminder, the "Social Dominance Theory attempts to explain why society seems to be underpinned by a hierarchy of groups, ranging from dominant to subordinate.  According to this theory, many myths, policies, and practices in society unfairly advantage dominant groups over subordinate groups" (Diversity Concepts/Theories handout).   In the video the students, native English speakers learning Spanish, are presented as achieving great feats.  The video even goes so far as to use a professional NASCAR driver to advocate the superiority of these students.  The power of the dominant group enables these English speaking students to achieve superior knowledge by learning a second language.  Returning to Valdés et al., the Spanish speaking students are not raised to a superior level by attempting to learn English.  It is my opinion that the students who are participating in one-on-one English (Valdés et al.) are not even being provided by their school with the resources necessary to learn (although Valdés et al. are taking a step in the right direction).   The issue of the dominant group and their power is evident when comparing these two sources.  What can we do as a society to help close this gap? And, even more immediately, what can we do as educators to close the gap in our own school and classroom?