1 - I was aware of vocabulary at a young age. My mother forced me to watch an off brand of Hooked on Phonics every weekend (maybe not every weekend, but it felt like it). Coming from a southern family means I encountered the southern drawl and subsequent slang on a regular basis. My mom didn't want that linguistic distinction for me. She was my first English teacher and still corrects me to this day.
2 - I've always enjoyed English classes and knowledge in general. I developed my academic skills because my interests are vast. For example, I can watch Sumo wrestling, Rugby, and an international independent movie all in one day! Because I haven't pigeoned holed myself into one "interest box," I have been able to accelerate my learning connections. My professional reading and writing skills developed with the EXTENSIVE amount of meetings/trainings teachers are required to attend.
3 - L2 students need to read more in the language that they want to learn or become more proficient in. L2 students should also challenge themselves to learn how to constantly manipulate their knowledge of the non-native language. As an L1 student, I'm doing this by attending graduate school. L2 students can do the same if they challenge themselves to become fully immersed in the language on a higher academic level (i.e., coming to America for college). Immersion into a language requires on to have some level of comfort in the culture of that language. For example, my brother-in-law lived in Costa Rica to expand his knowledge of Spanish. He's now fluent!
4 - I feel confident in providing linguistic knowledge of writing to my students. Although I've only taught for three years, I've had a number of experiences with students from all over the world. For example, I had a class of twelve where three of the students were first generation Pakistani-American. Three doesn't seem like a lot, but it's a fourth of my class! Altogether they had some level of understanding in Urdu (mother tongue), but none of them were fluent. This brings me to my biggest concern and a topic one of my Vietnamese students brought to my attention. What does a teacher do when the student is not fluent in their mother tongue (in her case Vietnamese) or the targeted new language (in her case English and Spanish)?
I have only had the experience of teaching NNES of Latin descent. So I only have that schemata to work from. I am looking forward to being able to broaden my language abilities by teaching a more diverse cultural student population. It seems very exciting yet a bit frustrating to have that type of teaching situation. I wish I had more experience to offer you. I too learned to become fluent by living within the culture of the target language (Spanish). Being totally immersed in the culture helped me become more proficient. christia lee
ReplyDeleteI love what you said about your mother because I'm the same way. My mother always made sure we all spoke well, and that we read. Two out of three of us girls are avid readers. My older sister reads if she has to, but does not enjoy it. When I got married my husband and I made sure out children were readers. Thirty minutes of reading every night before bed helped them become great readers with great vocabulary. My kids joke all the time that I am forever correcting them, but I'm pretty sure they aren't REALLY joking.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started teaching, I taught high school, both regular English and ESL. I was the only ESL teacher, so Ialways had a wide range of abilities, including those who literally spoke no English at all! So what do you do? Lots and lots of visuals. I always began by taking a tour of the school. I gave students a handout that related to the words and phrases. So for example, we would walk by the bathroom, I would teach the word bathroom, plus some useful expressions related to the bathroom. I always worked on building vocabulary first. In the classroom, I wrote down everything on the chalkboard. Yes, a chalkboard!!! Old school, or rather, I guess I am old. It is surprising how quickly students start to pick things up.
ReplyDeleteI had to smile when I read your comments about your mother correcting your English! My mother is from New Zealand where they speak British English. She corrected me all the time, especially since my American slang sounded so offensive to her. If she asked me something and I didn't hear her and responded, "What?", she hated it. She always said, "Don't say what! Say pardon!". LOL
Sarah - you bring an interesting point regarding the student who is not fluent in his or her mother tongue. I am wondering how it can be possible? I guess if a student arrives to the U.S. at a very early age (3-4) when their L1 skills are not completely developed but they are strong enough to affect their learning of L2? Or, if they arrive at a later age of 8-10 when their writing skills are not fully developed so they forget them but do not acquire sufficient L2 writing skills? This sounds like a real problem because they are not proficient in any language - it's like having no home or no roots... What was your experience with such students?
ReplyDeleteYou pose an interesting question: What does a teacher do when the student is not fluent in their mother tongue (in her case Vietnamese) or the targeted new language (in her case English and Spanish)?
ReplyDeleteIn my many years of teaching L2 students, I have never found a student to not be fluent in his or her mother tongue. All students speak their home language (unless they are toddlers and haven’t learned to speak yet). They may not be good at writing it, but they all speak it. Perhaps your student was thinking of little children. In that case, when little kids don’t have any spoken language, pictures can be used to get across simple ideas (like Diane said above). Luckily, little children think in concrete concepts, and that makes pictures a good substitute. I have never met a teenager or adult who doesn’t have one language they speak well.
Perhaps the issue is that some students have had little formal schooling, so they are not aware of their home language and may not have learnt any grammar or structure at school. Now, in the L2, they have to learn about grammar and structure, but they have no schemata. That does make learning a new language very difficult!