English Language Learners

Currently, I’m teaching a group of high intermediate Academic English students from China and Saudi Arabia. They are all on a path to enter an American university and complete their bachelor's or master's degree in a variety of majors. My class size is 14 students and I teach them in the classroom 6 hours per week.

S. school system despite speaking, reading and writing English. The classroom environment was foreign. Not only did I need to learn academic content, I had to learn the cultural nuances as well. I remember feeling overwhelmed and sometimes overburdened. The use of pictures, artifacts, diagrams and video clips during lessons help to some extent, even so, the study “suggests three ways that teachers can enhance knowledge construction of ELL students: (1) Teachers should take time to understand the cultures of their ELL students, (2) Teachers should be open to new possibilities of meaning, and (3) Teachers should take time to listen to the storylines each ELL student brings into the classroom learning environment” (Strickland, 2012, pp.

I had the honor to be placed in Mrs. Lundman, an ESOL endorsed teacher, second grade class at Galaxy Elementary School to complete my field observation and it was an amazing experience. Galaxy Elementary just reopened about three years ago because they were rebuilding it as an e3 school (energy, environment, and engineering). When I first entered the class, the first thing I noticed is how decorated the class is. Many posters and colorful projects done by the students on the walls, a colorful carpet on the ground with different centers for the students, and how big and pact her office space was. Also, the objectives for each lesson were listed on the boards. All of the students in the classroom were of Haitian decent except for one boy and one girl who were Hispanic. In total in her class, she has seven ESOL students out of her 25 students, all at different level for their English proficiency. This class is a general education class with all kinds of students from gifted, ESE, at grade level, and ESOL students. According to Claire McInerny: “In the U.S., roughly one in 10 students is an English language learner”, which is a pretty big number of ESOL

For the past two years I have worked as a teachers’ aide for special education classrooms. I have had the privilege of working in over fifteen different schools and over thirty different classrooms ranging from kinder garden to the adult transition program. For the past three months I have been working in an adult transition classroom with five students. Four out of our five students are non-verbal and have severe behaviors. The school is located in the small city of Corona, CA with Hispanic students being the majority group. In the classroom I am the only aide who can fluently speak and write Spanish. Being bilingual has helped me in my job because all of our student’s parents are Spanish speaking and are originally from Mexico.

While I’m in class, I will make sure that I listen to what my instructors are saying and how they say to do something. It is also very important to take notes on what is being taught in the class, and whatever your teacher may right on the broad. In order to receive a passing grade and really pass the class I will have to complete all of my homework.

The immigrant poupulation in the United States is rapidly growing . Every year numerous immigrants cross the border to pursuit the “American dream”. Many come to escape their country’s violence, others come to seek better job opportunities, and the list just goes on. They all have one thing in common which is to get want a better life. A better life for them and their family. August & Shanahan remark that English Learners make up more than 10% of the school-age population and the number just grows(cited on Alt et al, 2013). Like non english learners students , english learners are required to take all of the standarized tests in school if they have been here for at least 12 months. How can a student be ready to take a standarized test after

America has always been a place where people from all over the world have strived to travel in hopes of creating a better and more promising future for themselves. In today’s classrooms, teachers are experiencing the culture and language related effects of that endeavor. With an increasing amount of non-English speakers entering the country each year, the population of students who speak English as a second language or no English at all increases as well. Not only are these students entering with knowledge of another language but they also enter with the history of another culture. These students are taught and raised to love their traditional languages and cultures. To take these aspects away from them in order to make them understand our way of life is not fair nor is it educationally beneficial. Some say foreigners need to assimilate because they are entering our country and by trying to accommodate their tradition, schools will end up hurting American students’ educational progress. This is not found to be true in as many cases as one would think though. By incorporating home or second language and diverse cultural exploration in combination with Standard English and American culture into the classroom, all students will benefit in multiple areas of learning and life.

“We have a high diversity of ethnicities within our school which is seen by the fact that we have more than 30 languages spoken within our ESL department. We are also a Title school so we have many transient students, Atlas students, and economically disadvantaged students many of which need extra services such as RTI interventions, weekend backpack meals, and ESL services.”

Everyone has a different interpretation of the word, “invention”. However the word is simply defined as; a new device, method of process developed from study and experimentation. An invention is just a mental fabrication; it’s a falsehood (Dictionary.com 2013).1 Although in the essays, “Why I write” by Joan Didion, “Life in a new Language” by Eva Hoffman, and “Basmati Rice: An Essay about Words” by Audrey Thomas, each author has their own view on the English language, how they each began inventing their own writing styles, and also their reasons for why they chose to become writers. These are the three things that make their definitions of invention very particular and their own.

Homes all across Australia speak more than one language. This includes the large amount of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander languages and dialects present across the country. The growing diversity of Australia is reflected in the amount of students who are classified as EAL/D learners. EAL/D learners are students whose first language is either a dialect or language other than English.

In an effort to gain useable and positive feedback from English language learners, teachers must use ongoing assessments. Whereas standardized tests only give information on students during a certain part of the year, ongoing assessments will allow teachers to monitor students’ progress throughout the year. Informal assessments are very beneficial in monitoring the progress of students. One type of informal assessment is the use of role playing. During role playing, students are given opportunities to speak in English dealing with different situations. This assessment will let the teacher observe how well the student is comprehends the scenarios and how they respond to them. This type of assessment is effective because it allows students to put the English language into use increasing their English

ESL students are students that speak English as a second language. Presently, there is many different system to characterize this type of students (qtd in Shi, Steen 63). For example, they can be seen as “English Language Learners (ELL), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), English Language Development (ELD), English Language Service (ELS), and

Vocabulary plays a significant role in English as second language learning process. For the majority of English as Second Language(ESL) learners, the ultimate goal of learning the language is to understand (read and listen) and communicate (write and speak) with little difficulty and the lack of sufficient vocabulary may be the constraint of such goal (Folse, 2004). As the bedrock of English and as well as language, vocabulary also facilitates the development of other language skills: lexical richness leads to the progress in the use of language, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing skills (Nation, 1994). Reversely, The improvement in such skills may enhance learners vocabulary size as the exposure to more learning materials improves the capacity to acquire new vocabulary. (The importance of learning vocabulary/ why vocabulary?)

How difficult is it to understand the English language? The Earth is made up of a variety of languages that have its difficulty of understanding and English is nowhere near the difficulty level of the Mandarin or Hungarian language. But even if a fluent Latin American speaker migrates to an English-speaking country like the United States, it may be a difficult transition for the individual to learn that language. They must take ownership of a language which means that one must consider possessing the knowledge of the dialect of the country. Obtaining ownership of a language is a necessity because in order for an immigrant to get by in a new country they must secure their cultural identity and it is essential for everyday purposes.

During my lifetime I have faced various challenges whether it is physical or emotional but, the most extreme obstacle I have faced is different languages. In my lifetime I had learned many different verbal languages as well as many written languages all which had different obstacles for me to overcome. In my life, I have faced many hardships. Because of language, I was able to do so much more. English brought me closer to society, Chinese connected me with my background and music gave me a path.