CUIN 4361 Blog Entry 2
Links to my 2nd blog: CUIN Blog Entry 2
Overview
I interview with my friend, Stephanie Zuniga, about her experiences of learning English as a second language. Like me, Stephanie grew up in the US with her family from a foreign country, only that her family speaks Spanish, and she is the first in her generation to learn English as a second language. Growing up, she managed to pick up English language by watching her childhood tv shows and then reading a lot of books, which were mostly given to her by her teachers. Eventually, she was able to socialize with her friends at school in English fluently. This is one of the few things I found interesting, because some people made some misconception that ELL students are born in a foreign country. However, there are some ELL students who are born in the United States and are exposed to English language growing up. According to Wright (2010), language plays a major role in developing the identity to students, and they formulate and reformulate their identities as they deal with an attempt to resolve the conflicts between what they encounter at home, school, and dominant society culture (Wright, 2010, pg. 15).
We even talk about how teachers help the ELL students to the classrooms, especially when we agree that teachers should form positive relationships with the students and understand what they need to become successful in their education. According to Wright (2010), teachers who respect their students' home language and cultures can be most effective in helping students to make necessary transitions in order to develop their language skills (Wright, 2010, pg 25). I believe this is true, because if we can learn to understand the student's culture and form positive relationships, then they are more likely not going to be able to learn and have lower self-esteem. That's not what I want in the classroom.
Reference
Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.
Overview
I interview with my friend, Stephanie Zuniga, about her experiences of learning English as a second language. Like me, Stephanie grew up in the US with her family from a foreign country, only that her family speaks Spanish, and she is the first in her generation to learn English as a second language. Growing up, she managed to pick up English language by watching her childhood tv shows and then reading a lot of books, which were mostly given to her by her teachers. Eventually, she was able to socialize with her friends at school in English fluently. This is one of the few things I found interesting, because some people made some misconception that ELL students are born in a foreign country. However, there are some ELL students who are born in the United States and are exposed to English language growing up. According to Wright (2010), language plays a major role in developing the identity to students, and they formulate and reformulate their identities as they deal with an attempt to resolve the conflicts between what they encounter at home, school, and dominant society culture (Wright, 2010, pg. 15).
We even talk about how teachers help the ELL students to the classrooms, especially when we agree that teachers should form positive relationships with the students and understand what they need to become successful in their education. According to Wright (2010), teachers who respect their students' home language and cultures can be most effective in helping students to make necessary transitions in order to develop their language skills (Wright, 2010, pg 25). I believe this is true, because if we can learn to understand the student's culture and form positive relationships, then they are more likely not going to be able to learn and have lower self-esteem. That's not what I want in the classroom.
Reference
Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed your video with Stephanie. I had the similar experiences with Stephanie when I was first learning English. I believe that most of the people would like to use watching TV when they first begin learning English. Because by using social media can help students learning a language efficiently. However, Stephanie said that she felt the struggle with using English in socializing, such as using the slang. According to Wright, "knowing a language means being able to use it to communicate effectively and appropriately with other speakers of the language” (2015, p.36). I also felt it's hard to understand the concept of communicating with other native English speakers who are using slangs frequently. Sometimes, it makes me feel awkward and will make me decreasing my confidences for learning English. Maybe using slags is easy for the native English speakers, but is too complicated for someone who is ELL.
Hi Fei. I'm glad you enjoy the interview. A lot of people grasp their first language from other people they grew up with, or from social media, and at young age, we were able to imitate our first language and then gradually improve them. When learning a new language, things are slightly different because the concepts are mostly unfamiliar to us and it takes more time to get the hang of them. It's easier to learn a new language at a young age rather than at adolescence years, but that's doesn't necessarily mean it's completely impossible. We learn through our own methods to grasp a new language.
DeleteHi, I enjoyed listening to your interview. Your friend Stephanie was able to learn English and Spanish which is fantastic, especially living in Texas. From what I was listening to, it seems as though she did not have much support or ESL instruction in school. It appears she learned English from primarily television and books. According to Wright, “the student can acquire a language and its structures naturally as they use it for meaningful communication” (Wright, 2010, p. 45). From listening to your interview, it seems that she learned best by media input. I am curious to know what other types of formal training she had during her elementary years. As teachers it is necessary that we provide rich support, literature, graphic organizers, flash cards, and any other types of tools and resources to help educate students.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna. Thanks for your reply. You're right about Stephanie learning her English from media input. She also reads a lot, so that's improving her comprehension skills as well. But it depends on the kind of students who are trying to learn a new language, because not all of them likes to read, so as teachers, we have to provide many different methods that can motivate them and help them adapt to the new culture. And you're also right about providing support and resources that can help educate students. They need to learn in different ways in order to grasp the new concepts.
DeleteHello Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your interview with Stephanie. Stephanie mentioned that something that helped her as she was learning English was reading. According to Wright, (2015, p. 185) reading is an excellent source of comprehensible input that enhances second language development. From personal experience I can relate to Stephanie. I also feel like books helped me when I was learning English. Reading helped because I could always go back and read what I did not understand. I think reading is a great way to help our ELL students. Thanks for sharing your video!
Hi Yerali! I'm glad you enjoyed the interview. And I'm also glad to know that you have similar experiences with Stephanie. Reading does help some students to learn new language, but there may be some who do not enjoy reading, so as teachers, we have to encouraged them to read, write, and speak a new language all together so that they'll be able to adapt to the classroom environment. Knowing the students' strengths and weakness is, after all, our first step to help them out.
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