Reading and language have always been a fascination….as a youngster I would wake up at 4 in the morning and read from a collection of books, 10 volumes from a collection called "Through Golden Windows", that my uncle had given to me for my 8th birthday. I actually kept a flashlight by my bedside! The rich, figurative language and vivid stories, both fiction and non-fiction were inspirational. I suppose that is why I first became a high school English teacher. It was my hope to instill a love of words and stories in each of my students. Teaching English Language Learners was a second teaching career for me. I made this choice upon my return to teaching after having raised my family. In the late 1980s, I became aware of the growing need for teachers to work with ELLs. This was an ideal opportunity for me to explore language acquisition and to share my passion for reading with a new population. This choice has been most rewarding, since English Language Learners tend to be ideal learners, they are most eager to absorb their new language and have so much to share about their own cultures. I have probably learned more from them, in many ways!
In my experience, two equally important factors influence a student's progress. First is intrinsic motivation - typically, my students have been extremely eager to communicate in English and to be successful in all academic areas. Second is the external or home support - the home environment is crucial to a student's success in language acquisition and academics. A supportive environment, does not require parents/guardians to be very knowledgeable about English, but does mean that the family provides time, space, and interest/encouragement regarding the student's study habits.
However, academically, I believe that strong vocabulary recognition is crucial...without knowing what words mean, reading comprehension is hampered. Often students can decode a word, but without meaning/relevance, that word along with comprehension is lost. That is the reason why my first goa
l for students is to help them build that vocabulary, by working with picture cards or interactive online vocabulary games that have strong visuals. Lots of TPR (total physical response) is essential in helping students understand vocabulary - especially that which relates to less concrete nouns or adjectives and especially for verbs. This is where my Theater Arts background is beneficial...acting out both by me and by my students (Reader's Theater type activities) is most effective in helping students take ownership of new vocabulary.
ELLs build on cognitive connections that they already have. Often this makes study of content area vocabulary easier for older children, since they can draw from what they have previously learned and readily connect terms from their native language to the new English vocabulary they are acquiring. Having that strong cognitive base from their native language is an asset for many of my students.
Thinkfinity has been a great reserve for me, not only for the valuable resources (templates, activities and lessons…), but also for the collegial relationships that I have gained. Tammy and I are co-owners of the Reaching English Language Learners group, which now boasts 75 members. Discussions have helped members share ideas for building vocabulary, grammar mix-ups, and content area best practices. In addition, I am a member of Reading & Language Arts, New Jersey Thinkfinity and alumni of Thinkfinity Community Advisory Board. Participation in these groups helps to keep me up to date with happenings in my content areas.
Thinkfinity is one source that has proven to be essential to my instructional practices. Since ELLs rely so heavily on the visual, I rely on partner sites to provide stimulating interactive activities, clips, and pictures to help my students understand content area vocabulary and concepts. Recently, my fourth graders have been studying body systems in their science classes. They especially enjoyed All Sustems Go!, through partner site - Science Netlinks. Another of my favorites includes partner site ReadWriteThink’s Eye on Idioms and Comic Creator, as well as all their templates for story maps, and persuasive writing. My students can easily follow these sites and instructions for writing and creating. One other favorite includes WONDEROPOLIS. Any topic imaginable is available with lessons, key vocabulary, extended activities and most importantly a video clip demonstrating a content area topic. Second-grade ELLs, who were learning about animal behavior and hibernation, enjoyed wonder #410. The video clip served as a lead for the topic of hibernation, which is a difficult word/concept for those young students.
In general, technology is a valuable resource, offering tutorials, sound prompts, images, interactive engagement and monitoring of student progress. This allows small groups of students the opportunity to work independently, while I give personal instruction to other students. Some programs, such as Lexia, (phonics/decoding program) offers monitoring of student progress and home access. Other programs allow students to highlight new words and hear them with correct pronunciation. Online picture dictionaries are very helpful in that area. We can also translate passages or words to help clarify meaning – either from student’s native language to English or English to native language. This facilitates my communication with parents/guardians. Quite honestly, when I started teaching ELLs, none of this was available; it was my artwork, their artwork or premade often-outdated picture cards. We have certainly come a long way!
There has already been a major curricular change in teaching English Language Learners. Previously, social language and common home vocabulary were the focus of instruction. Now Core Curriculum Standards mandate instruction in the major content areas of Science, Social Studies and Mathematics, as well as Social and Academic vocabulary. The challenges of being an ESL teacher have increased. Recently, I mentored a student teacher; she was so surprised by the amount of content area instruction that was included in our lessons. Misconceptions are that we only teach about food, body parts and clothing!
As to the future, in our shrinking global society, I envision the role of the ESL/Bilingual Teacher as one of ‘ambassador’. Standards for 21st Century skills stress cultural awareness and online collaboration. Teachers of ELLs can help students make or keep worldwide connections to their native countries. For example, while students in China are learning about hibernation and animal habitats, my Chinese students can parallel that study by sharing the differences between the animals in each country. Skype will allow for discussions and online translations will facilitate communication. As these connections become more abundant, we will raise levels of cultural understanding and peace between nations, making our role of “ambassador” one that rivals dignitaries! This is one reason why teaching and education (in many world countries) are revered!
Marie Snow M.A. Ed
ESL
District of River Vale NJ
