Reflection On Community Language Learning

For my ASL community experience I watched a movie with the sound off and closed captions on. This and caption boxes are the only way deaf people can watch movies. It was really hard to watch the movie without sound and only with the closed caption. I had to read really fast and be closer to the screen to see the words. Sometimes the actors talk too fast too keep up when you are trying to read what they are saying. It was frustrating because it was so easy to understand the movie when I had the sound on, but when I didn’t, it was a struggle to keep up and it wasn't’ very enjoyable. Also, I didn’t get all of the moods from the characters as when I did when I watched the movie with sound. I had to rely only on the facial expressions of the actors. Because the actors show emotion through

To learn a second languages is very important because people have better opportunities in life. For children from ages five and under it is the best time to learn as many languages. Angele Sancho Passe, the author of “Dual-Language Learners (Birth to Grade 3)”, talks about techniques for teaching English in a multilingual classroom and how reading in english to dual-language learners helps teach them oral language skills. Patton O. Tabors, the author of “One Child, Two Languages”, talks about writing case studies of children displaying different second language abilities. In the article, “Ways to Introduce Your Kids to Foreign Languages” by Grace Hwang Lynch, believes two-way bilingual immersion is a helpful way to introduce foreign languages

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the Community Learning and Development provision for ESOL learners in aim to support their assimilation and settlement process into the community as well as empowering them to use skills, they posses and gain, in the best possible way.

Grouping ELL students with “peer-buddies” or students appointed to assist the ELL student can give the ELL student more opportunities for using conversational English, allow them to receive minor assistance without interrupting the teacher, and give

In response to my discussion questions, my group member had an active discussion on their own understanding of second language learning. Almost all group

Some of the students have a low level of English in this group however so I make sure that concepts are fully explained and groups are mixed so as the low level English speaking students do not group together.

The teacher prepares the students to operate in a small group together. This practice can enhance the student’s cooperative learning skills.

Writing instruction has become one of the most important issues in educational practices. According to the United States Immigration Policy (2012) based on data from the Census Bureau, there has been a significant rise of Immigration into the United States, since the 1940's from less than 1 million to 10 million in 2010. A large increase in immigrants into the United States has increased the demand for English language instruction significantly (Mei Lin, 2015). With this in mind the educational practices taking place in today's schools become a center of focus, what should be taught in the classroom and what programs can give the best outcome.

As a result, the language differences of these students are erroneously classified as speech impediments or learning disabilities. LeMoine states, “rather than throw away their faculty methods, teachers [tend] to throw away their students with language differences” (LeMoine, 1999, p. 67).

The students that make up the school are mostly Latino, African American, West Indian and white. Language is the medium through which students gain access to the curriculum. (Tamara Lucas). For example, Maria was placed in a dual language classroom, since arriving from Mexico and when she entered middle school that was taken away. The teacher in her English class needs to realize it takes second language learners longer to develop fluency in academic English than in conversational English. (Tamara Lucas). Ms. O’reilly should take this inconsideration when it comes to the strategies used in the classroom. Social interaction will help Maria’s language development and a method that can be useful to promote social interaction is the use of group work. Using group work will allow Maria to not only expand her English skills but also learn from the other students. Tamara Lucas states; “Scaffolding learning for ELLs requires teachers to consider the relationship between students’ linguistic abilities and the tasks through which they are expected to learn”. Ms. O’reilly has set the goal of having all the students to be on the same level at the end of the school year, this might not be a realistic goal since each child comes from different backgrounds and learn at different speeds. Different scaffolding strategies should be use to accommodate the ELLs in her classroom. Group work, sharing about ones culture, knowing the child’s mother tongue and creating a comfortable environment where the students can raise their hand or ask questions without feeling dumb or like an

Within the Spanish speaking community at this charter school, there is little to no L1 used during the school day. The students’ instruction does now allow for the individuals L1 to be used. Occasionally, when the students are not having a silent lunch or when they are given recess, there will be murmurs in the students L1. Aside from the occasional conversations during recess or lunch time, the students do not speak in their native language at school. The teacher does

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?)

This portion of the Play Project was done back at Wendell Johnson. We met with Jihan and the teacher aides to discuss what we thought was working well in their classroom, and our suggestions to further facilitate language development. Since the last reflection, our goal was to come up with strategies the teachers could use to continue to promote language development for their children. Me and my other group members tried to attain this goal by providing handouts and examples of strategies that we thought would be helpful for the teachers. We used the acronym FIGS (Fill in the blank, Interactive Play, Gestures, and Speak) to help them remember the strategy. They seemed to respond well to this and thought it was a good way to remember the strategies.

* In the educational field, the teaching learning cycle is a model used in contemporary teaching in both school and adult educational settings. Rothery (1996 in Derewianka & Jones 2012, pg 43) who originally developed the model used this to aim at disadvantaged children for teaching literacy and writing in the KLA (Key learning areas) who were from socially disadvantaged areas. Over time the model has been phased across other areas of the English language such as listening, speaking, reading as well as writing. The key involvement of the teacher also known as ‘expert other’ in the teaching learning cycle is guiding the learner to understand key concepts in academic literacy through use of scaffolding strategies to transform students

With all the students having a difficulty in coping with their lessons, Mother tongue-based multilingual education may be helpful or not in solving this problem.