I enjoyed this experience very much! I interviewed one of my friends, Ashley. I felt like I was able to understand her experience about growing up in America on a much deeper level after interviewing her. She was born in Korea and was adopted by an American family in Houston, Texas. She grew up speaking Korean before she was adopted when she was four years old. According to Ortega, the biological window for children to acquire their complete L1 is between the ages of four-six (Ortega, 2013, p.12). Ashley’s L1 is Korean. The family that she was adopted by only spoke English.
Her experience in an ESL classroom was a very positive experience for her. She seems to have had a great teacher that helped her tremendously throughout her schooling. I feel as if what her teacher did with using blocks with letters on them to teach her how to spell words is a useful strategy to use. I feel that since she did struggle with the concept that one single letter is not a word, like how a single character is a single word in Korean, this helped her to better understand how to spell words in English.
Since Ashley was taken out of her general education classroom to a separate room to work with an ESL teacher she was able to get the personal and effective one-on-one time that she needed. “These teachers/specialists would pull students out of their classrooms a few hours a week and provide our ELLs specialized instruction and support” (Wright, 2015, p. 2). I feel that because Ashley was pulled out as much as she was this also really helped her to learn the language as fast as she did.
I feel that ESL classes are very important for students who are trying to learn the language.
Reference:
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caston, Second Edition.
Hey Mackenzie! I enjoyed watching your video because it was interesting listening to someone's experience who was born in Korea. So many of the interviews are with people from all over the world and it's great to get an idea of what works for ELLs in the classroom from people who have come from many different places with a variety of languages as their first language. I like how Ashley pointed out that her teacher using the letter blocks to help her grasp English spelling was something that worked well for her in her process of learning English and that after first grade, she moved on to working with how words were used in a sentence. It sounds like Ashley had a lot of experience early on as an ELL with morphology, "the study of the structure of words," syntax, "the study of the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences and the rules governing the arrangement of sentences in sequences," and with semantics, "the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences" (Wright, 2015, p. 32-33). I'm sure all these subsystems of language were difficult for Ashley to grasp as a young ELL, but it was especially interesting to hear how she struggled with learning that each letter belonged to its own separate sound and how multiple letters came together to form single words, since Korean words were represented by single symbols. Wright points out that "morphemes are the smallest units that carry meaning or have a grammatical function" and that "one of the challenges of teaching a new language is that the rules of morphology differ across languages" (2015, p. 32). This would have been the case for Ashley and her teachers helping her make that transition from Korean to English because there are certain rules that vastly differ with the two languages. It's so important that teachers pay close attention to ELLs and their specific struggles so that they better understand where their students are coming from and what they may need more attention and help with during their process of learning English.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Megan, I completely agree with you! I believe that Ashley not only benefited form the pull out program her elementary school implemented, but she seemed to have a great ELL program and teacher who understood the basis of the English language as a whole. As Wright (2015) explains, teaching English to ELL students “includes teaching students how to use language appropriately…all teachers need to develop an understanding of the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of English…as well as the dominate linguistic and cultural norms or social practices” (p. 40).
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Calson, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Megan Proulx,
DeleteI agree with you that Ashley had an amazing experience in her ESL classroom. Ashley was given lots of support and help throughout her experience in that ESL classroom setting. Wright describes scaffolding as a process in which educators can help students within a “metaphoric space where children can reach a higher level of knowledge and performance… and the assistance within the ZPD is scaffolding” (Wright, 2012, p.57). I think that the scaffolding that Ashley was given really helped her in her language learning process. Her teacher would create very hands-on activities for her to help her to learn the language faster. Like you pointed out, she did struggle with the structure of words and this support is what made her learn at a fast rate.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Megan Wright,
DeleteYes, she did seem to have an amazing ESL teacher. As a teacher, it is important to figure out what works best for the person that you are trying to teach. Wright says, “the teachers to identify appropriate supplemental education materials for use in the classroom” (Wright, 2015, p. 24). Ashley’s teacher found what worked for her in order to learn the language and then put it to work when they would meet. Since her teacher knew the basic foundations of English, like you said, it was easy for her to teach Ashley those foundational aspects of English as well.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Hello, Mackenzie. I appreciate that your friend, Ashley, shared her experience of entering the school system in Houston. Her journey began as four-year-old adoptee from South Korea, and she said prior to her time in the U.S., she only spoke Korean. She recants how she was pulled out of class for English as a Second Language instruction, beginning in Kindergarten, about three times a week. In this type of instruction model, a certified ESL teacher pulls students “out of their regular classrooms to provide ESL instruction… Though students need daily instruction, some schools are able to offer ESL only 2 or 3 days a week” (Wright, 2015, p. 107). Her routine ESL participation progressively declined. In third grade, she attended for about 30 minutes once a week. Ashley explained how the ESL pull-out opportunities focused on identifying objects in kindergarten and reading and comprehension in the first and second grades. She also mentioned how she was the only student in her ESL classes. This makes sense, because “Pull-out ESL is a commonly used model, particularly in elementary schools where ELLs make up a small portion of the total school population” (Wright, 2015, p. 107). This model is criticized for having low efficacy. However, I am glad that it worked out in Ashley’s best interest. Does Ashley still know Korean?
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Audrey,
DeleteSince Ashley was adopted, she didn’t speak Korean for a long time since her family did not speak Korean, so sadly she does not remember much of the language. If you don’t use something, you lose it! Wright explains as “bilingual education programs that reflect a holistic bilingual perspective bringing the two languages together in intentional strategic ways” (Wright, 2012, p.59) was not the case for Ashley. Even though she had a very positive experience in her ESL class, I feel that she was not able to bring the two languages together and ended up losing one of them.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition
Hey Mackenzie! I really enjoyed this interview. I found it interesting to hear Ashley's experience. I liked hearing about how she learned little by little in her first few years of school. Every year seemed to build from what she learned before and I believe that that was a smart way to teach someone the English languages. I really found it interesting when Ashley talked about her ESL teacher. Her teacher seemed like a wonderful person, and I hope to one day impact my students the way that it seemed like she helped Ashley. Ashley mentioned that she would go to her teacher for any questions or confusion that she had when she was trying to learn the English language. She said that her teacher not only helped her learn the core subjects in English, but also helped her learn how to properly greet people, and have conversations with people in English. This reminded me of a part in the text that discusses why it's important for teachers to know about language. Teachers are agents of socialization and they might be the only ones to truly help someone with their first interactions with English (Wright, p. 29, 2015). The way teachers organize their practices helps students adjust to everyday routines, the system of values and beliefs, and the means and manners of communication at school and in society, and that is exactly what her teacher did. It might have been a whole different experience if Ashley didn't have a teacher that she trusted like that.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition