English Language Learners

English Language Learners

 

            When I started to read this brief I tried to put myself in the seat mind of a student whose first language is not English.  I realized how hard it must be on students, who speak little to no English, to try and understand academic language that not is in their first language.  Not only are these students trying to learning English but they are expected to learn academic language.  It is not just the words, but it is the grammar, the structure of the sentences, it is even colloquialisms that we use in out text and instructions.  These are just a few of the parts of reading that must be extremely difficult.  The question then turns to how do we as teachers teach students that are English language learners? 

            The brief goes into many different techniques and ways to help these students in learning the content while learning the academic language.  The techniques I think are all very good not just for English language learners.  They can be used for all students to get them interested in the subject matter.  Using, as the brief states, “…non-verbal means such as pictures, demonstrations, charts, and graphs,” (p.3) will be beneficial to all the students.  It keeps the material fresh and not just a lecture.  People, I believe, in general learn more when there are visuals attached to the subject they are learning, more so for those students in which English is not their first language. It’s the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  Many of the techniques for teaching differently, or differentiation will work in any classroom and if implemented, will help not just the English language learners, but all of the students.  For me I will have to figure out how do to this in my classrooms that will make the lesson, the teaching, work for all the students.  It has to be in a way in which the content will be taught to both the English language learners and the students that have English as their first language.

            One aspect of this brief that I found interesting is that the English language learners need English language instruction at the same time.  That is they need instruction in grammar, sentence structure and so on.    As the brief states, “the challenge for teachers is to make language comprehensible so that the academic content can be conveyed and understood.” (p.2). The students need the basic instruction on how the language works, in how it is read, pronounced, and structured.  This seems to go against what we discussed earlier that we need to teach our young children not just the grammar or the phonics but teach them the love reading, read for more than the words.  They, like the English language learners, still need the basics; they need to be able to pronounce the words, structure sentences and so on in order to read.  I just think that if we are teaching the English language learners the basics of reading a new language shouldn’t we be teaching our young children, who are also in the process of reading a new language, the basics??