Chapter 1 Blog: Who are English Learners and their Teachers

I enjoyed reading this chapter and learning more about who the English learners are. English learners, as described in the text, means" those who are learning English as non native speakers." I have 3 sister in laws in my family who come from other countries (Japan and Cambodia) who are English language learners as adults. They have all, over time, successfully gained a verbal proficiency in English. I wonder if they might fit into the category of "Generation 1.5 Students"- describes as those who are caught between generations, having acquired some proficiency in two or more languages but not truly native speakers of English. These students are the one who speak alright in English but never attain the fluency of a native speaker, and may have difficulty gaining academic competence in English.

One thing I appreciated in this first chapter is that we may not carry the title of "Bilingual teacher" or "ESL teacher", but, many of us, in our classrooms are instructing children who are English Learners. This is especially true in California. The text stated that in 1998, California led the nation with 1.4 million English learners in need of ESL services at the K-12 level. I teach SDC preschool at a school with a very high percentage of English language learners, and I have several in my class whose home language is Spanish. Many of my students start school at age 3 having very little exposure to English. Sometimes, preschool is their first experience with the English language. I see my job as building a basic foundation of vocabulary, communication, and social skills, all parts of English Language Development, on which other teachers in the future will build.

I also appreciated learning what all the acronymns stand for. I have heard them around school, but did not know what they stood for. Recently, there was a deadline at our school for the CELDT test. Though, not in the text, I believe that it means "California English Language Development Test." After testing, I know that several from our school moved up on their levels of English Language development.

I especially appreciated the section entitled, "Challenges for Teachers of English Learners." The first challenge is to motivate English learners to achieve the highest possible level of proficiency and to gain an understanding of the target culture. In my SDC preschool class, it is all about language with all the students, but especially those English language learners. I use a variety of strategies such as scripted language, modeling, visual prompting, sign language, etc...to help my students achieve the highest level of proficiency possible in English. The second challenge is to respect the native language and the rights of its speaker. I agree with www.robinjcarver.wordpress.com that the best advice from chapter 1 is "to teach English effectively and to gain an understanding of the target culture." In the book One Child, Two Languages, on p. 172, it states that "Cultural factors play an important role in determining how and what children learn. They interface with age/stage potential, personal characteristics, and experience- giving them directions and substance. Cultural differences can lead teachers to misunderstand children, to misassess their developmental competence, and to plan incorrectly for their educational achievement." I believe that this is easier to do when the child's native language/culture is a familiar to the area, such as Spanish. It takes more energy and efforts to become familiar with a not so common language and culture. But, of course, it is worth the extra effort. Lastly, teachers who make a sincere attempt to learn the language of their students and build English on student's prior language expertise definitely have the advantage in teaching English as a second language. I speak Spanish fluently and feel that I do have some advantage as I teach young children English. I can use their native tongue as a foundation on which to build the English Language.