Post #8 - Learning Language in Literacy

"Think about what you have read about language learning or language use and any explicit and/or implicit messages you have heard about language? And what have you seen and heard in your fieldwork and mentoring experiences?"

"How do these different “voices” contribute to your understanding of the bilingual education issues? How does this impact the education of linguistic minority students?"

One thing that I have heard repeatedly in my field work is bilingual conversation amongst students. There have been times at St. Martin de Porres where kids will be talking to me in conversational English and then will switch into conversational Spanish. These students do not struggle to speak in English, and yet they will still bring in a few Spanish words into our conversation. I can’t help but notice that this has occurred more than a few times. I feel that the students who switch between English and Spanish do it to form a closer connection between me and the student. These students know that I can speak both Spanish and English and I can’t help but wonder if they speak to me in Spanish to create a friendlier conversation between us. I feel that they aim to establish a sense of cultural familiarity with me.

From my observations at St. Martin’s, I noticed that there is no real language barrier between students and teachers. However, in previous schools that I have mentored in I have encountered a growing number of students that struggle to communicate through English discourse. I believe that bilingual education can be a great tool in schools that have a population of students that do not claim English as their first language. I feel that the lack of bilingual education will only hinder these students because they need a scaffold that can communicate to them in their own language throughout the learning process. I have come to see English-only teaching as a dangerous path in education because it forces students to either sink or swim. I think that students who are not native English speakers will struggle in English-only classes because they will not be able to communicate with instructors. As a result, they will be forced to either quickly assimilate into the English language (which gets harder as you get older), or simply quit and stop trying to assimilate in the new language. On the contrary, through bilingual education students will be taught in their native language and their target language (English) will only be their subject material in school. Through this, students will have an easier time learning the English language because they will have someone to assist them while they learn the language.

What do YOU think? Do you think bilingual education should be implemented in every school? Do YOU see a language barrier at YOUR school site?

Post # 7- Ideas, Thoughts, Comments on Case Study

Recently I have been looking over my field notes and I’ve been trying to find a theme that resonates across all of my observations. I found myself highlighting similarities between my notes and was surprised to find out that I had written so much on the style and structure of teaching in classes. I had constantly detailed the different ways in which teachers make students enhance their literacy capabilities. From my notes I found that there are two ways in which teachers make students learn Basic English sentence structures. In the first method, students are given the opportunity to write on anything they want as long as they use either a declarative, imperative, or exclamatory sentence in their descriptions. They are given the chance to write about what happened to them at home, what they saw in recess, what they like/dislike, what they wish for, or what they hate. On the other hand, teachers at the school site also restrict their students writing choices. For example, at times teacher A would make his students learn how to write sentence structure by answering question from a text book. The process of formulating these answers did not require much thought since the students merely copied what the textbook said. For example, one question read “What is a Declarative Sentence?” The student would then open the book, look up Declarative Sentence, and copy the definition on a work sheet. I noticed that several students got bored of this type exercise and frequently turned to talking to one another. Conversely teachers that used the first method of giving more freedom on writing saw their students more engaged in their assignments. It seemed as if these students were more interested in writing on their personal experiences rather than looking up definitions from the book.

Stemming from my observations I think I’m going to focus on teaching style when it comes to letting students have options and freedom in their writing. Through this trajectory in my investigation I see other questions coming up:

-What do the students write about when they are given this freedom?

-Which is method is more successful in teaching students the different styles of sentence structure?

-Can promoting student-choice in classrooms spark an interest in learning to read and write?

What do YOU think? Any feedback appreciated!!!