Blog Entry 1
January 19, 2018
Blog Entry 1
CUIN 4361
CUIN 4361
Hello my fellow CUIN 4361 classmates! My name is Nadia Richardson and I am currently a Junior at University of Houston. The POWERHOUSE! I am an Education major getting my certification in middle grades. I have two younger sisters and they helped me realize how instrumental teachers are in a child's development. I am so excited to get to know everyone in our class!
Blog Video 1:
I think it is great that you know how to speak another language. Especially in Texas, where it’s the state with the 2nd highest number of ELL students (Wright, 2015). Something that stood out for me from your video was your beliefs about language immersion. You said that language immersion was the best way to learn, but I don’t think that is true in all cases of language acquisition. I think that language immersion is great, but only when you already have a strong foundation/knowledge of your native language. For example, think about elementary kids who are still so young and have not fully developed their native language, if you immerse them in a new language, then that can have some negative effects (Wright, 2015).
ReplyDeleteI have been student teaching in a middle school for almost 6 months now, and I have first hand seen the negative effects of full on immersion. Students’ self esteem goes down, they are less likely to speak up and some kids straight up tell you that they hate coming to school. That is why I think that schools should take on more of an additive or emergent bilingualism approach. Schools shouldn’t want to completely replace a child’s native language, instead they should add to it or give them opportunities to learn and develop both languages at school (Wright, 2015). I do think that immersion is great for older individuals who have already mastered their own native language, but I just don’t think it’s what schools should be doing. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts soon!
I see your perspective Angelica Ortiz. Initially, I did not see it as a problem for full immersion because that is how I learned to speak Spanish. Something that I did not take into consideration is my own age when I learned to speak Spanish, which was 14. I had already mastered my native language. Thank you for catching that because it actually influenced the posts that I made on other blogs. I think it is important that we help students to flourish with their native tongue as well to prevent the 'melting pot affect.'
DeleteJust to add because I forgot to include a reference. I would rather include acculturation. Wright describes it as when immigrants and their children simply adapt to the language of their new culture opposed to completely sacrificing their cultural norms and values (2015, p.20).
DeleteHi Nadia,
ReplyDeleteI loved watching your introductory blog and hearing your own experiences with learning the Spanish language! According to Wright (2015), ELLs are active learners who are on their way to English proficiency and I see that with you too! I believe you are an active learner of Spanish and are on your way to becoming proficient in the Spanish language, so cool!! I feel the same way about speaking Spanish. I've learned it in school and really enjoyed it but I just was not able to practice using the language and lost it all. I do understand basic speaking but like you said, "if you don't use it, you lose it."
I think immersing your future ELL students in your classroom and correcting them is a great idea. The only thing I would be cautious about is making sure the students don't feel embarrassed or reluctant to continue speaking Spanish if they interpret you correcting them in the wrong way. That will all depend on the classroom environment and your relationship with them, which I'm sure you will have no problem with. According to Wright (2015), there is a huge need for bilingual citizens in our country and I love that you are so invested in learning the Spanish language and also want to encourage your ELL students to embrace their native language alongside learning English.
Thank you for your feedback Farah. Learning Spanish has been such a difficult process for me and everyday I am still learning something new about the language. I definitely want to be as versatile and helpful to all of my students, so I have been finding new ways to practice. I do think immersion will be a great methods, but I will probably avoid that for my younger ELLs. As you stated I want to avoid feelings of reluctancy or embarrassment. I know the difficulties that come with learning a second language and I would never want them to abandon their native tongue. On page 19, Wright says that helping them adjust to the culture is vital for academic success (2015), but it does require them to assimilate.
DeleteI know it has been but that experience will help you understand the struggles of your own English Language Learners as they are learning English. I agree, assimilation will not be as beneficial for younger students because they are still in the process of learning their own native language as well! Definitely, I think that is the hard part sometimes. Figuring out how to help our ELLs while making them feel comfortable and safe in learning English as well.
DeleteHi Nadia!
ReplyDeleteIt is great to meet another Nadia! I really loved your enthusiasm throughout this video; I can definitely see how proud you are to learn Spanish as your second language! I really enjoy hearing about your high school experience; your teacher seems amazing! I agree 100% that students need to be immersed in the second language to learn first hand how to speak the language because they can learn directly from native speakers the dos and don't of the language and learn to correct their mistakes immediately. I love that your Spanish teacher made your class so exciting by speaking in Spanish the whole time to motivate the students to try and understand what he was saying rather than explaining it. I think that motivation plays a key role in the success of ESL students. I also really love that he connected not only the language but the Spanish culture to his class. According to Wright, It is important that ESL student hold on to their culture and values instead of fulling adopting the American Culture. Promoting multiculturalism can help acclimate students for the diverse world and the social issues that come with this diversity ( p.20-21).
It is so nice to meet another Nadia. I do not think I have actually really met anyone with the same name. I do love the Spanish language and culture because it is completely different from American culture. I do believe that immersion is best for learning language, but only after a student is confident in their current language abilities to avoid abandoning their native tongue. I think that speaking Spanish the entire time for me and English majority of the time is actually beneficial for ESL students. Wright (2015) paraphrases an excerpt from Long stating "learners need opportunities to interact with other speakers and reach mutual comprehension" (p.53). His interaction hypothesis proves that students can from their peers simply from conversations and corrections.
DeleteHi Nadia! I think that it is fantastic that you are still pursuing bilingualism even with setbacks such as “summer loss” and lack of opportunity to practice your second language skills! It sounded like you know how to form a sentence and communicate if not fluently, then effectively. I agree to some extent about immersion. It does help because there is plenty of opportunity to practice the second language, but there are plenty of issues associated with the viewpoint that Wright delineates as, “language-as-problem orientation” (p. 2). Some of which are devaluing, or perceived devaluing of home language and culture, subtractive bilingualism, and lower self-esteem and self-efficacy (Wright, 2015, pp. 2-3, 22). I like that you mentioned using a game activity for learning vocabulary in your college Spanish class. We use this type of collaborative learning in my CTs Kindergarten class, and while there is a great distance between kinder and college, the learning theory and outcome is the same. Students have fun and learn during the process. I think I would like to see more of this strategy in higher grades and more content. Point: Learning doesn’t have to be boring.
ReplyDeleteWright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.