Hello! I am Rachel Estopare
and this is my Video Blog Entry 3: Interview with a teacher.
For this Blog, I had an
elementary teacher/friend from Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Ms. Sydney. She has been
working as a Physical Education teacher for two years now and has a lot of
experience working with ELLs. Sydney has worked in other environments with ELL’s
such as after school tutoring and coaching so she has a wide variety of
teaching experiences. Being in so many different situations gave Sydney a great
understanding English Language Learners.
In the video, Sydney mentions how age can affect students in different ways when it comes to learning. According to Ortega (2013), " Language aptitude and traditional intelligence may share a subset of academic abilities implicated in both types of test; language aptitude and early first language ability may share a common substrate of grammatical sensitivity and analytical kinds of abilities" (p. 165). Students who speak multiple languages can overlap in constructs and age can play a vital role in that. In the video Sydney also spoke about having to explain instructions in a different way for ELL’s or sometimes even simplify it based on their age. I related this back to the book and found it interesting her perspective versus Ortega’s (2013) when he mentioned, "even in the case of unrelated multiple languages, moreover, already knowing several languages can give an overall advantage, simply because better vocabulary learning strategies have already been developed by the time the L3 is being learned" (p.48). Every teacher goes through different experiences and for Sydney it wasn’t quite on path of the books, but different perspectives can help teach different ideas.
In the video, Sydney mentions how age can affect students in different ways when it comes to learning. According to Ortega (2013), " Language aptitude and traditional intelligence may share a subset of academic abilities implicated in both types of test; language aptitude and early first language ability may share a common substrate of grammatical sensitivity and analytical kinds of abilities" (p. 165). Students who speak multiple languages can overlap in constructs and age can play a vital role in that. In the video Sydney also spoke about having to explain instructions in a different way for ELL’s or sometimes even simplify it based on their age. I related this back to the book and found it interesting her perspective versus Ortega’s (2013) when he mentioned, "even in the case of unrelated multiple languages, moreover, already knowing several languages can give an overall advantage, simply because better vocabulary learning strategies have already been developed by the time the L3 is being learned" (p.48). Every teacher goes through different experiences and for Sydney it wasn’t quite on path of the books, but different perspectives can help teach different ideas.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition.
London: Routledge.
Hey Rachel!
ReplyDeleteIt was nice getting to know Ms. Sydney through your video and I liked hearing about her experiences working with ELLs. I understand what Ms. Sydney discussed regarding age and the learning of a new language. There are many languages that are very different from English, thus making the transition of learning English difficult. One of the most important things that I believe teachers can do to help ELLs is to allow the students to take their time to learn the new language. The text discusses that working memory helps us integrate new information with known information already encoded in long-term memory (2013, p. 90). If students are not given the adequate time to fully process the new language, they will fall behind and that will impact their academic learning.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Kanwai,
DeleteThank you for your comment. I really like the idea you have about how teachers can allow adaptation and time for ELL's a new language. The other concept about working memory integration is a great point because younger students are grasping new information daily in our education system its keen for teachers to remember. Ortega (2013) says, “If styles are preferred ways of processing information, strategies are conscious mental and behavioral procedures that people engage in with the aim to gain control over their learning process. (p. 208).” Which I believe is a similar idea to students processing information, time and how working memory can correlate.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
ReplyDeleteHello Rachel! I thoroughly enjoyed watching your video blog three! Thank you for sharing your experiences so far, and the knowledge that your current mentors have about educating ELL’s with us. I really enjoyed the insight of a physical education teacher. It seems like your interviewee has a deep understanding of what motivates her students, and as Ortega “The more contemporary motivation… [ does not place] the emphasis on quantity of motivation…instead has turned to an exploration of various qualities of motivation” (p. 175). I think this is important because this further emphasizes your statement that every teacher goes through different experiences!
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
Hi Megan,
DeleteThank you for your kind thoughts about Ms. Sydney. She did seem to really grasp her students and their culture on a deeper level, which I too enjoyed. As she was talking about her students she also mentions how she tries to connect on a deeper level. As Ortega (2013) explains, “Languages are almost always learned with and for others, and these others generate linguistic evidence, rich or poor, abundant or scarce, that surrounds learners” (p. 57) and she she has similar belief.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
Hello Rachel! I completely agree with you about the fact that relating students culture into the lessons can definitely help students create a deeper connection with the objectives. As Rowland (2014) explains, “There are also individual differences between children acquiring the same language; some children are faster and others are slower, and some children are born with cognitive impairments that prevent them from acquiring language without a lot of specialist help” (p. 4). Thank you again for sharing your video with us!
DeleteRowland, Caroline. (2014). Understanding Child Language Acquisition. Routledge. London and New York.
Hi Megan Wright! This is the first comment I see in which you highlight their culture. I agree as well. I always feel like I learn better when I am connected to a topic. According to Ortega, in a classroom where culture, inserted in the climate of a foreign language
Deletesetting, and where choral repetitions were a familiar script for students, students were less likely to repair after prompts (Ortega, 2013, 76). This means that they will be more involved and immersed in the earning when their culture is involved.
Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hey Rachel! Thank you for sharing your interview. I really enjoyed it because she is an educator who deals with students not only in a different atmosphere other than just a classroom, but she handles kids of all ages with so many different and complex struggles. I think being a PE teacher probably helps her, because kids humbly want to be there, they want to learn and they want to have fun. "As Vansteenkiste et al. (2006) explain, self-determination theory construes humans as volitional beings who are growth-oriented, that is, predisposed to lifelong learning and development." (Pg. 175) With that being said, I think that the excitement of being in PE, the ambition to learn in the gym and a good PE teacher, like your friend, motivates students to learn. I see it as a comfort zone for these kids.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
DeleteHi Kirstie,
DeleteI too, agree, with the great experiences she shares because of the various ages and atmosphere of her “class”. The best part of her interview, I believe, is how she explains that no matter what the students enjoy where they are because it’s simply fun to them and the creates a comfortable atmosphere. Gass and Selinker (2013) mention how “having experience in more than one culture provides an understanding to cultural differences among peoples” (p. 29) and I believe Sydney’s experience with various ages and students really does help with integration and teaching styles in her class.
Gass, S. M. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. London: Routledge.
Hi Rachel Estopare, it’s nice to meet you. You did a nice job with your interview. I understand your teacher’s difficulty with getting children to comprehend. I have trouble with ESL students understanding me as well. I find it interesting how playtime in P.E., everyone both monolingual and bilingual are able to work together with ease despite language barriers. However it has been proven that ESLs who interact with English-speaking peers in the playroom of their school gradually transform “from no English at all to being relatively functional in their daily dealings with English-speaking peers” (Ortega, pg. 114). Pairing monolingual and bilingual students can help bilingual students blossom from struggling to proficient English speaking students.
ReplyDeleteOretega, Lourdes. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge.
Hi Selena,
DeleteIt was previously mentioned how interesting physical education classes can be because how either monolingual or bilingual, students still come together and play. Ortega (2013) explains socialization best when he says, “second language socialization studies have further revealed that learning outcomes can be greatly improved when L2 learners are not construed as deļ¬nitional novices and instead their invisible expertise is made visible during socializing event” (pg. 238).
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.