This blog captures the experiences of an instructor in a pre-service ELL course carrying out a collaborative project with her university students and a small school district around questions and answers.
6. How much instruction can/should a student receive if the teacher speaks the native language (e.g. Spanish)? What instances are best for this? When should the teacher transition to English-only instruction?
Today I emailed Great Northern to see if they could give us more specifics on where this question came from. I think if we know more of the situation they are talking about, our answer will be more relevant to them.
I think relevancy is important in this particular scenario. It'll be interesting to see the context in which they asked this question.
I also did some more research so we have a sort of foundation so we sound like we know what we are talking about. There was a whole volume in a research magazine devoted to Bilingual Education and some of the articles look like they will be beneficial to read through so we have a starting point. But the articles are from 1992 so there is probably new information out there as well. But it's a start. Here's a couple of the articles:
Snow, Catherine E., "Perspectives on Second-Language Development: Implication for Bilingual Education." Educational Researcher, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp 16-19. 1992.
Moll, Luis C., "Bilingual Classroom Studies and Community Analysis: Some Recent Trends." Educational Researcher, Vol. 21, No. 2. 1992
I just learned my lesson. I typed up a long answer to the question and I posted it. The next screen said something horrible like, “sorry, we weren’t able to post your post.” AGH! Yes, it’s been deleted. Here we go again.
I haven’t heard from Great Northern yet, but I look forward to doing so.
I’m at home right now and I don’t know my library password, but I look forward to the articles Staci posted last week.
Without more specific information about the context of the question, I want to discuss the general ideas about it that I have. If a teacher is lucky enough to share the L1 language of one of his/her students, I say he/she should use that language. Obviously, future research might prove this assumption wrong, but that is my gut feeling. The answer depends greatly on the situation. If the student is struggling a lot in a class, I think it would be ok for the teacher at appropriate times to speak the L1 language of that student. If that student if overwhelmed, that may be one good way to help him or her find hope. Of course, when to speak the L1 language could be tricky with a room full of English speakers. Also, a challenge of this might be that the student depends on the teacher for special L1 instructions all the time and zone out the English for the rest of the time. I think open communication would help this. As long as the student and teacher understand the reasons why and perhaps when the teacher does and will speak the L1, it could be useful. Open communication, without hiding agendas, is typically the best way to go.
Another idea I have is that the teacher could send vocabulary and materials for the next unit home with the student a day or two early. This material could be in both languages, and the student could practice the English ahead of time. This would be a perfect time for the teacher to use only English. The ELL would hopefully feel confident with the English skills of this one unit. Plus, because he/she got the materials before the rest of the class, he/she would know more about the material than even the English students would. This would give the student confidence and motivation to participate in English.
Here is the email I received! This will help us out a LOT!
Good morning, Melody! We actually had a 1st grade student whose first language is Spanish. She speaks English well (enough), although we noticed several times that she was absolutely lost. A few of us speak Spanish though not fluently, but enough to communicate academically. I teach science to her and I will specifically use a word or phrase or even sentence(s) in Spanish to help her understand what it is I’m teaching. She seems to respond. My questions are 1) is this appropriate? 2) should I do more/less 3) is there a point where I should let academic English stand alone and not include Spanish?
Thanks and please give me a call with any questions!
Your comment just made me think, perhaps to encourage continued L1 literacy, the teacher should encourage the student on occasion to do the assignment in his/her L1. That would be cool. (Yes, "cool" is very academic, I know.)
I don't know what is going on with this blog, but I've posted several times since the one on May 8th, and none of them are here now. This is strange.
I received an email from the teacher at Great Northern. This will be incredibly helpful!
Good morning, Melody! We actually had a 1st grade student whose first language is Spanish. She speaks English well (enough), although we noticed several times that she was absolutely lost. A few of us speak Spanish though not fluently, but enough to communicate academically. I teach science to her and I will specifically use a word or phrase or even sentence(s) in Spanish to help her understand what it is I’m teaching. She seems to respond. My questions are 1) is this appropriate? 2) should I do more/less 3) is there a point where I should let academic English stand alone and not include Spanish?
Thanks and please give me a call with any questions!
Great to know. It now looks like we're not dealing with a necessarily fluent Spanish speaking teacher then so information on a fully bilingual teaching classroom wouldn't be the most beneficial. I still think it's a good background knowledge to share with them though. But I can see us tailoring even a little more specific to the teacher's capabilities and classroom setting. It seems like there should be a classroom model somewhere out there for this situation. So maybe we can find a project or study done with a similar scenario to see the pros/cons of a one student/one teacher bilingual education while in an English speaking classroom. And in the end find the optimum environment for this student.
6. How much instruction can/should a student receive if the teacher speaks the native language (e.g. Spanish)? What instances are best for this? When should the teacher transition to English-only instruction?
ReplyDeleteToday I emailed Great Northern to see if they could give us more specifics on where this question came from. I think if we know more of the situation they are talking about, our answer will be more relevant to them.
ReplyDeleteI think relevancy is important in this particular scenario. It'll be interesting to see the context in which they asked this question.
ReplyDeleteI also did some more research so we have a sort of foundation so we sound like we know what we are talking about. There was a whole volume in a research magazine devoted to Bilingual Education and some of the articles look like they will be beneficial to read through so we have a starting point. But the articles are from 1992 so there is probably new information out there as well. But it's a start. Here's a couple of the articles:
Snow, Catherine E., "Perspectives on Second-Language Development: Implication for Bilingual Education." Educational Researcher, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp 16-19. 1992.
Moll, Luis C., "Bilingual Classroom Studies and Community Analysis: Some Recent Trends." Educational Researcher, Vol. 21, No. 2. 1992
I just learned my lesson. I typed up a long answer to the question and I posted it. The next screen said something horrible like, “sorry, we weren’t able to post your post.” AGH! Yes, it’s been deleted. Here we go again.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t heard from Great Northern yet, but I look forward to doing so.
I’m at home right now and I don’t know my library password, but I look forward to the articles Staci posted last week.
Without more specific information about the context of the question, I want to discuss the general ideas about it that I have. If a teacher is lucky enough to share the L1 language of one of his/her students, I say he/she should use that language. Obviously, future research might prove this assumption wrong, but that is my gut feeling. The answer depends greatly on the situation. If the student is struggling a lot in a class, I think it would be ok for the teacher at appropriate times to speak the L1 language of that student. If that student if overwhelmed, that may be one good way to help him or her find hope. Of course, when to speak the L1 language could be tricky with a room full of English speakers. Also, a challenge of this might be that the student depends on the teacher for special L1 instructions all the time and zone out the English for the rest of the time. I think open communication would help this. As long as the student and teacher understand the reasons why and perhaps when the teacher does and will speak the L1, it could be useful. Open communication, without hiding agendas, is typically the best way to go.
Another idea I have is that the teacher could send vocabulary and materials for the next unit home with the student a day or two early. This material could be in both languages, and the student could practice the English ahead of time. This would be a perfect time for the teacher to use only English. The ELL would hopefully feel confident with the English skills of this one unit. Plus, because he/she got the materials before the rest of the class, he/she would know more about the material than even the English students would. This would give the student confidence and motivation to participate in English.
Here is the email I received! This will help us out a LOT!
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Melody! We actually had a 1st grade student whose first language is Spanish. She speaks English well (enough), although we noticed several times that she was absolutely lost. A few of us speak Spanish though not fluently, but enough to communicate academically. I teach science to her and I will specifically use a word or phrase or even sentence(s) in Spanish to help her understand what it is I’m teaching. She seems to respond. My questions are 1) is this appropriate? 2) should I do more/less 3) is there a point where I should let academic English stand alone and not include Spanish?
Thanks and please give me a call with any questions!
Bergen-
ReplyDeleteYour comment just made me think, perhaps to encourage continued L1 literacy, the teacher should encourage the student on occasion to do the assignment in his/her L1. That would be cool. (Yes, "cool" is very academic, I know.)
I don't know what is going on with this blog, but I've posted several times since the one on May 8th, and none of them are here now. This is strange.
ReplyDeleteI received an email from the teacher at Great Northern. This will be incredibly helpful!
Good morning, Melody! We actually had a 1st grade student whose first language is Spanish. She speaks English well (enough), although we noticed several times that she was absolutely lost. A few of us speak Spanish though not fluently, but enough to communicate academically. I teach science to her and I will specifically use a word or phrase or even sentence(s) in Spanish to help her understand what it is I’m teaching. She seems to respond. My questions are 1) is this appropriate? 2) should I do more/less 3) is there a point where I should let academic English stand alone and not include Spanish?
Thanks and please give me a call with any questions!
Great to know. It now looks like we're not dealing with a necessarily fluent Spanish speaking teacher then so information on a fully bilingual teaching classroom wouldn't be the most beneficial. I still think it's a good background knowledge to share with them though. But I can see us tailoring even a little more specific to the teacher's capabilities and classroom setting. It seems like there should be a classroom model somewhere out there for this situation. So maybe we can find a project or study done with a similar scenario to see the pros/cons of a one student/one teacher bilingual education while in an English speaking classroom. And in the end find the optimum environment for this student.
ReplyDelete