Blog Entry 3: Interview with a Teacher of ELLs
Reflection:
For my blog entry 3, I interviewed Mrs. Brijalba who teaches English language learners in her Spanish for Native Speakers courses. I was able to gain an insight into how her course was run, as well as what a heritage language program looks like in action. Wright (2015) recognizes that these programs build on the strengths that the speakers already have, as opposed to a typical foreign language course (Wright, 2015, p. 105). These programs also help a student cultivate their mastery of their native language and reject the notion of assimilationism by not employing an English-only curriculum. This can ultimately allow the student to become bilingual in both an informal and formal setting, which is an incredible asset to have in their future endeavors.
Mrs. Brijalba also touched on her qualms with high stakes testing and how it can carry harmful implications upon ELL students. Policymakers agree on this concept as well and are aware that we can produce a better system that does not rely so heavily on state testing (Wright, 2015, p. 76). Mrs. Brijalba felt that her students felt an enormous amount of pressure to do well on these high stakes tests, which led to testing anxiety and higher levels of confusion. She also realized that other forms of assessment that she employs in her classroom, like ones that provide instant feedback, are much more accurate and reliable than the ones administered by the state.
As a future educator, I know that I will encounter this same difficult relationship between testing and my students’ success. Through this interview, I feel as though I have a better grasp on how to provide forms of informal assessment with less pressure and immediate feedback. I appreciate the opportunity to interview a teacher about this important group of students and has led me to the conclusion that ensuring individualized instruction should be at the forefront of my classroom.
Reference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
I enjoyed hearing about Mrs. Brijalba experience as an ELL teacher. It was interesting to hear that her schools program uses heritage language, this is the first that I was able to hear of a school using this program. According to Wright (2015), “is fairly new in the United States and refers to a wide range of programs, such as in school and after-school or weekend programs” (p.104). Hearing that this program allows the students to learn in a formal and informal way is considered a register. According to Wright (2015), “linguists, use this term to refer to the variations in language. These are in choice of words, the way you speak, and settings” (p.37). I agree that the NCLB, places anxiety to students that is not necessary. As educators we need to do all we can to invest in our students and help them to achieve the academic success they deserve, no matter the circumstance. Thank you for sharing Mrs. Brijalba’s story.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Adrene, thank you so much for your response! I am pleased to hear that you gained something from listening to the interview I conducted with Mrs. Brijalba, as I did as well. The heritage language program that you mention is indeed what she teaches and this program aligns itself with bilingual pluralist perspectives. Wright (2015) believes it is important for schools to elevate the status of languages other than English (Wright, 2015, p. 58). Oftentimes Americans believe that their language and culture is superior than that of others, so it important that we as educators begin to recognize that learning another language (e.g. Spanish) has several benefits. With this mentality, we can promote the continuance of bilingual programs like the one Mrs. Brijalba teaches.
DeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hello Brandon! It was interesting to learn about Mrs. Brijalba experiences. The public school system has created various programs such as the heritage language program, the dual language program, and others. These programs are placed in school to provide a smooth transfer for English language learner’s students. According to Wright (2010) the purpose of ESL programs is to help student’s master reading, writing, speaking, and listening in English. The heritage Language program sounds fairly similar to the dual language program. Because even though students receive content in two different languages the dual language program aim to develop both languages. This program also does not let the students forget their native language in order to learn a new language. The heritage language program also lets the students learn their native language along with their second language (Wright, 2010). This program is also offered in school along with mainstream English content.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2010. Print. First Edition.
It is great to see schools being more open to the idea of having multi-lingual students. Growing up, I always had content taught to me as a monolingual student. The school viewed other languages as language-as-problem orientation. Wright expressed language-as-problem orientation as the idea that English is the only language that should be used to teach all content (Wright, 2015, p.2). However, schools are starting to see multi-lingual students as language-as-resource orientation. Schools now encourage the use of learning multiple languages.
DeleteHi Shirin, thanks for your response! I definitely agree with your perspective on the role of bilingual programs in schools, in that, we must allow for the preservation of students' native languages. Instead of adopting the usual approach of language-as-problem orientation, we should look at strategic ways to implement instruction in both of their languages (Wright, 2015, p. 59). This will aim them in a direction to achieve biliteracy in their futures. With this added strength, students become more prepared for the world's changing landscape in which having command of two languages is extremely valuable.
DeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hi Kimberly, thank you so much for your response to my blog post. From my interview with the ELL student and the ELL teacher, it is clear that your experience is a common occurrence. By becoming acquainted with bilingual literature, we as future educators will make sure that we never repeat the mistakes of the past. Allowing a student to feel as though their language is a legitimate form of communication and not something simply reserved for home and family is something that I hope to stress (Wright, 2015, p. 59). Regardless of what field we choose to enter, we can collaborate with our fellow teachers to ensure that we meet the needs of each of our students (p. 60).
DeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hello Brandon! Such an interesting class or program that your interviewee teaches! I feel as if that program is super useful and helps a lot of ELLs be a great bilingual student. However, when it comes to state testing ELLs, there are a lot of issues that can come about. An ELL student is going to be much more stressed and pressured taking a test like this compared to other students. There are too many factors that go into why ELLs should not take the same test as monolinguals due to validity. According to Wright, "The validity of a score-based inference is at issue" (2015, pg. 124).
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Harlie, thanks for your reply! I agree that there are several issues embedded in our legislation as it pertains to bilingual education. Mrs. Brijalba makes it clear that the emphasis No Child Left Behind places on high-stakes testing is not something entirely beneficial to her students. In fact, the legislation of NCLB specifically redacted the term bilingual in place of the term limited English proficient, which automatically places the relationship the students have with their native languages in a deficit view (Wright, 2015, p. 74). Using rhetoric like that used in Title III has real-world consequences and furthers the idea that a student's native language is a problem, rather than a resource.
DeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hi Brandon,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your interview video with Ms. Brijalba. During the interview, she has shared many helpful information from her teaching experience that I find there are two useful strategies that I would apply in my future classroom to help ESL students in their learning process. The first strategy is formative assessments, which according to Wright, are used to evaluate a student’s productivity and understand during a lesson (2015, p.121). I think it is really effective to provide instant feedback right away for the students to learn from their mistakes. These formative assessments also give the teachers a quick idea of the students’ level and what struggles or difficulties the students might not understand during the lesson. Moreover, these kinds of assessment will not make students feel nervous and pressure while taking it. They allow students give their test results more accurate, and so their teachers can know what weakness they need to work on to help the students become better. The second strategy that I like is letting the students collaborate working together to complete a task in class. I believe students learn best when they are interacting with their peers during the class time. They tend to become more social, engaged, and helping each other out to complete their task that the teacher assigned to them. This reminds me of what Wright said, "learning is a social activity, and knowledge is constructed through interaction and collaboration with others (2015, p. 42).”
Reference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.
Hi Trinh! Thank you for watching my interview and sharing your thoughts with me! I am glad that there were bits of information in our interview that you will take to your future classroom. In regards to your response to formal assessment, I completely agree that they provide a form of assessment that lessens students' nerves. This is actually an extremely important practice as it can inform teachers of what they should do next in their lesson planning process (Wright, 2015, p. 199). There also isn't a requirement that teachers must make formal assessments count as a grade. This is an additional modification that we as future educators can employ in our classroom to alleviate the enormous stress that ELLs experience around stressful high-stakes tests.
DeleteReference:
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Pub.