Reflection 6 - A case of effective language teaching

The students were asked to write a persuasive speech, and present it in front of the class. Through brain storming the students decided what topics had to be presented; some of them were abortion, working age, alcohol, and video games. Each student took a topic, and started to work on that. The teacher gave the students an example worksheet with the appropriate structure for the required speech; they had to start with an anecdote or a quote; to kick out the conversation they had to establish their point of view and make a strong statement about their topic. The students had to look for information on the Internet, and write down their thoughts in the worksheet given. The Chilean teachers made some corrections; after that they were ready to present their work.
From my point of view in this activity the teacher gave the students a really good support; he gave them an appropriate scaffolding. One particular student caught the idea immediately; he was quite motivated, and willing to share his opinion. He asked for help at every moment; even when he was on his free time. I think that this student was pretty engaged with the activity because he found that he could tell something interesting to share with the class. All of this was reflected on his final presentation because he was one of the strongest speakers, and the most eloquent.

Reflection 5 - A topic in language education that I want to know more about

I would like to know more about how integrate the first language and culture into the ESL classroom. I have seen how students get stuck when they try to explain something but they do not know how to say it in English, and it is worst when the teacher just speaks one language. Sometimes the students can be misunderstood , and the teacher will not get what the student is trying to say. It would be great to know some effective strategies for giving the students the opportunity to express some ideas in their native language; they can tell to the rest of the class something interesting about their culture and language. It would be great to have printed and online dictionaries in different languages, or to have some keyboards with different characters in order to make easy for the students to find some information and the correct word for what they are writing.
I found a good article that gave me another point of view of how we can understand or integrate the first language into the classroom; from the point of view of the author giving some space to the first language is teaching tolerance in the ESL class; students who feel discriminated or with lack of confidence can feel more motivated and willing to learn if the teacher gives them an opportunity to use their first language and culture.

http://www.ccsf.edu/Resources/Tolerance/lessons/lang01.html

Reflection 4 - If only he knew…

If he only knew that it is really important to have high expectations for the students; he could help them to master the new language and culture. In my teacher shadowing I have seen how important is to set clear goals for the students. It is critical that teachers trust in their students; they have to believe that the students can improve if they have good opportunities to show what they can do.
I think that the role of the teacher is to prepare the students far beyond the standard tests or the next assignment. For immigrant kids life has not been easy; they came here running away from war or poverty; some of them have lost their parents or siblings in dramatic situations; they came here with just a few pieces of clothing, and no money on their hands, but they deserve a good opportunity to improve their way of living. It is not fair to think that these kids just can apply for jobs that Americans do not want to do; it is important that teachers really believe in the students' potential; they have to trust in them and give them all their support.
One thing that has caught my attention is that some of the activities seem to be motivating and with a real purpose, but the students do not find any reason to do them. From my point of view these activities do not have any language or content objectives; the students do not see how the work done in class can help them to improve their writing or reading; they prefer hanging around with their friends and keep improving their speaking.
I found a good article that talks about high expectations; not only for ESL students, but also for students and schools in general.

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at6lk11.htm

Reflection 3 - Response to a question about English teaching

http://www.everythingesl.net/askjudie/?i=11117&n=0

How a teacher should be eclectic in their approach to language teaching?

Re: Teaching

by Francisco Rojas Lopez on Nov 19 2008 8:04 PM

From my point of view teachers should be eclectic most of the time specially in language teaching. We all know that students have different backgrounds; they learn in many ways; they are interested in different things. Teachers have to be aware of these differences; they have to appreciate them in order to make their instruction more effective.
It is necessary to understand that teaching demands a long-life learning; we can not teach in the same way year by year; we always have to be in contact with new research or new experiences that can help us to improve our teaching; we have to take the best of these different approaches and put them into practice and see what works and what does not. Also, it is important to have a strong teaching philosophy leading our decisions; it is important to have in mind some criteria at the moment of deciding what you are going to do; but also it is a good sign for your students because they know what expect from the teacher.
To learn a new language can be a really difficult task, but we are responsible for making this process successful and motivating for our students.

I decided to answer this question because in this week, working with the ESL class at Lewis and Clark High School, I have seen the importance that diferentiated instruction has in teaching; how important it is to have high expectations for our students; how teaching through content can motivate them when they are doing a task; the importance of giving some space to the first culture and language in the class. An ESL/EFL teacher needs to have all of this knowledge in mind when he or she is planning or teaching a class. In this class where there are students from all over the world; with different ages and with a different previous instruction; the teacher needs to be aware of this in order to give the students the opportunity that they need to master the new language and to understand the new culture.

Reflection 2 - Websites that might help

In my teacher shadowing I have seen a lot of students with different backgrounds; with different needs and attitudes towards English and American society in general. One particular student has caught my attention because he does not like to be here; for him living in the U.S. does not make sense, and that makes learning English much more difficult. He is from Nepal; he has lived here just for three months which it has been really hard for him; he sees American culture quite different from his own culture and language; however, he pays attention to what the teacher says, and sometimes he tries to participate in the activities; he tries to speak as much as he can, and his listening comprehension is really accurate. I think that he needs more time to assimilate the new culture and language in order to understand and master American culture and English.
From my point of view a good way to help this student is giving him the opportunity to know more about the U.S. by himself; I think that Internet can provide this help because he can learn apart from what he is been taught at the school; he can find some interesting topics from American culture and relate them with his own experience; he can find similarities and differences that can make learning more meaningful for him.
A good website to know about American culture is http://www.americanfolklore.net/index.html; here he can find American legends; heroes and villains stories; spooky stories. It is a huge source of American traditions and culture.
Other website that might help is http://www.teachertube.com/ because apart from learning something about culture, he can know about American history; science and English in general.
National Geographic is an excellent website; here students can learn about many cultures in a matter of seconds, and of course everything is in English. http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/
Using these kinds of websites this student can help himself; he can understand better his new country and culture. He can guide his own learning and his own experience.

Reflection 1 - Podcasting my way to mastery of English

http://www.eslpod.com/website/

I would use these podcast series because there are a lot of interesting topics that I can use as an English learner; when we arrived here it was really difficult to deal with simple things; going to the grocery store was a really difficult challenge; we did not know what kind of language or vocabulary was necessary to keep up with the conversation.
In this website we can find topics related to daily life activities such as, shopping for specific things, reading food labels or talking about product quality. For each podcast we have the script and the vocabulary related to one specific episode. This kind of podcast will assist me back home because I can keep in touch with real stories in English; I can practice what I learned here; besides, I can learn new stuff that I could not practice here. I would use this website once a week in order to go deeply in each episode; I need time to assimilate the new vocabulary, and to relate this new material to something that I can use in a real context.

The Classroom Story

What strategies do you see from our Bilingualism and Biliteracy class?

I could see five different strategies:
1. Teaching through content
2. The activity was student-centered
3. The activity was meaningful and with a real purpose
4. Social interaction
5. High expectations

What are the most effective?

From my point of view the most effective strategies were Teaching Through Content, Social Interaction and High Expectations. The students wrote the letter with a real purpose; they wanted to get traffic lights in order to make the community life safer. They had a reason to write; therefore, the task was meaningful for them. They were involved in the process and could make decisions at every time; the teacher gave them his support and always trusted in them. At the end of the project the students were able to create more complex texts and improved their English skills.

What are the barriers to teachers to teach English in a way that is motivating to students now?

After reading chapter five I can say that some of the barriers are: when students believe that the task does not help them to solve problems immediately; they are not interested in learning; when the assignment is not understood by the students, this makes the content not meaningful; therefore, they are not willing to take risks.
The content; on the other hand, is selected by the teachers who have different interests than the students. Textbooks are designed by people far away of the schools and classes; thus, they do not know the students. When the content is centered in grammar and vocabulary the students just learn about rules and isolated words that are not useful to them, in order to solve problems in their personal lives. Teachers do not give the students the possibility to use language in a creative way. With these approaches students learn language that will be used in the future, not in their present lives.

What will you like to know about your future students?

- I want to know if they are willing to learn English.
- What their motivations are.
- What the students' strongest abilities are.
- If they have the support of their families.
- What they expect about me.

I am looking forward to work as teacher back home as soon as I can, and put into practice all what I have leanrt here. Also, I want to keep in contact with some of my teachers here in the U.S in order to tell them what I am doing with my students and what their improvement is.