Professional Documents
Culture Documents
name is Nora Sanchez. She said that learning a second language to her was so that
she could communicate with her peers, and so she could understand the lessons in
school and succeed in her academics. She believes that a second language is learned
through teacher and student interaction, and also experiences rather than
bookwork. This way of learning through experiences rather than boring worksheets
curriculum is boring and alienating for many students. It also fails to stimulate them
in ways that develop complex forms of language proficiency (pg 17) which is how
Nora viewed it as well. When Nora learned English in elementary school, she said
that what really helped her was when her teachers were patient with her. She said
that her specific ESL class that she went to was really helpful because it was equally
taught in Spanish and English, but it was hard for her when she went back to her
regular classroom because all the instruction was in English, and her teacher didnt
speak any Spanish except the few words she learned in order to help Nora. Nora
remembered one specific moment for her when she was learning English that was
sort of a break through moment for her. She had really been struggling so far in the
school year, and she was working on an assignment where they had to read
something and then do a worksheet where they had to fill in the blanks. She was
really having trouble with it, but her teacher was helping her and wouldnt let her
give up on it. Nora ended up finishing the assignment on her own and went to show
her teacher, and it was one of the first times shed spoke an entire sentence in
English and she told her Thank you for helping me finish my paper, teacher and
her teacher got so excited for her, and made Nora feel excited too, and like she
and its called the silent period. When ELLs are very quiet and hardly talk in
school, then all of the sudden start speaking English in full sentences, it can be
surprising for teachers because they just assume the student wasnt learning, but in
Me Nora
Flexibility-the curriculum
in the course needs to be Believed she needed to learn
Patience a second language so she
able to be adjusted based from the
on the specific student could interact with her peers
teacher, school,
etc.
Acknowledgement that Language is learned through
standardized tests are hard teacher and student
for them and they will need interaction
extra practice
Bilingualism
Actual
experiences(no
work-sheets) Language is learned
so a student can
Native language succeed in school and
acknowledgement understand the
curriculum
Literature
Looking at my opinions, Noras opinions, and the textbooks opinions, most of
our beliefs about how and why language is learned are very similar, and we all three
agree on most of the main points. However, one big point that the textbook touched
on but neither Nora nor I did was the fact that literacy being taught in an ELLs
native language helps develop literacy in English. Because in order to learn how to
read, one simply has to read it makes it much easier to learn to read in a language
that you already know. Once youre literate in one language it makes it easier to
learn to read in another language, because once you can read, you can read (pg 20).
Now, when I have a kindergarten classroom in the future and I get students that no
little if any English, I can help them by taking everything that Nora and I said, and
combining it with the information in the textbook like the incorporation of the ELL
students native language, fun interactions rather than boring and easy work-sheets,
and the focus on developing an ELL students reading in their native language before
their reading in English, to make my classroom and students successful. I dont feel
like my thinking of how language is learned has been changed too drastically, but I
do feel like now I understand theres a lot more detail that goes into it, and all those
details are important in guaranteeing an ELL student learns with the best quality
possible.
Works Cited:
Crawford, J., & Krashen, S. (2007). English learners in American classrooms: 101
questions, 101 answers. New York: Scholastic.