Blog 2: Interview with Iman
Video Link: https://youtu.be/zjooC7e-qQY
In Blog 2 I interviewed a family friend, Iman Abbas. From interviewing Iman I was able to learn about her experience learning English as a second language after moving to Texas. She had such a positive experience learning English because she had a wonderful teacher Mrs. Garcia who motivated and encouraged her to learn a new language through positive reinforcement and daily interactions with her teacher and classmates. Through those daily interactions Iman practiced the vocabulary and grammar she learned in the class through real world conversations that were meaningful. Krashen's input (comprehension) theory declares that a student will not acquire a language until they understand and obtain comprehensible input from what they hear and read (Wright, Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing, p. 24 )
In addition, Mrs. Garcia incorporated her student's culture in the classroom by having them talk and write about their lives, families, and about their culture so they would feel more welcomed and confortable because she cared about her student's success. Learning about your student's native language can allow a teacher to understand the differences and similarities between the native language and English and aid the teacher in creating more practical ESL lessons (Wright, Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing, p. 51)
I love that her teacher not only used praise to motivate Iman to keep striving to practice her English in the classroom, but she allowed her students to correct themselves when they made mistakes, which I believe will further motivate them and make them feel more responsible for their own learning process. Krashen's monitoring theory states that during self correction a student has a little teacher inside their head reminding them of the rules of that language (Wright, Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, policy, and practice, p. 51)
Hello Nadia!
ReplyDeleteThat was such an informative interview that you did with your friend Iman. I really enjoyed learning from her about what she has gone through as an English Language Learner. I too loved the fact that Iman was able to have such a supportive teacher that helped her succeed in her ESL class. And also how you noted the fact that her teacher allows her students to learn from their mistakes, is a great way to foster a growth mindset. It is good to know that her learning experience was a positive one, because I too am an English Language Learner and I was also fortunate enough to have had encouraging teachers. With that we know the importance of having a great ESL teacher, helps ELLs succeed in school. As Wright (2015) stated, "When teachers know their ELL's language, literacy, content, and culture strengths and needs, they can compare them to students' language, literacy, content, and cultural instructional goals. Teachers can then determine what is likely to be challenging about a particular activity, lesson, or unit for those ELLs and select appropriate instructional strategies" (p. 64).
I agree that Iman's teacher allowed her students to cultivate a growth mindset. She really helped her student’s feel like they had the potential to grow as English Language learners and not feel like their struggles in certain aspects of the language hindered their learning. I love learning about her positive experience. I hope to be like as positive and welcoming to my future ESL Students. I hope to incorporate what she did her own classroom and use my own experiences throughout the years to help my students be successful. According to Wright (2015), teachers should try out different methods drawing on their own beliefs, values, principles, and experiences to adapt to the classroom setting (p. 64).
DeleteHello Nadia! Thank you for the lovely interview and post. How wonderful for Iman to have such a caring and informed teacher! It is great that Mrs. Garcia took the time to get to know the students individually and celebrated the differences and cultures. That sounds like an inviting classroom where the children are encouraged to focus on learning and work together as a team. I am sure that having an open dialogue with her teacher and daily group work was beneficial to Iman learning the English language and owes its roots to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Wright (2015) states, “knowledge is constructed through interaction and collaboration with others…or more skillful peers” (p. 57). This sociocultural perspective approach allows students to not only learn from the teacher, who is skilled in language, but it also allows the ELL student to practice what they have learned in “real world” situations.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Jauclene! It did sound like such an inviting classroom, and I too agree that it was really nice for Mrs. Garcia to be open to different culture, foster mutual respect, and see the value of teamwork in her classroom. Also, I like how you noted ZPD being the root of the success of Iman's ESL experience. This is true, because ZPD and scaffolding helps students move forward in learning. It continually creates building blocks of learning for ELLs and helps them retain what they need to know. If teachers continue to know where their students are at and consistently access their prior knowledge and connect them with new concepts, the success of their students will come easily.
DeleteHi Jauclene! I agree that Mrs. Garcia created a inviting classroom with open communication and a strong classroom community! Both aspects are essential to a student's success because it allows the students to active learn how to use their second language in a realistic setting. I love how Mrs. Garcia used Zone of Proximal development to help her students a higher level of knowledge and performance through the support of her expertise and experience as teacher and learner herself ( Wright 2015, p. 57).
DeleteKohleen,
DeleteI strongly believe that collaboration and team work among classmates and teacher and students are key factors that drive ESL student's success in learning English as a second language. As a teacher it is our job to use scaffolding whenever we can to build on student's schemas and expertise and strengthen it through our own experiences and schemas. Sharing ideas and learning from each other are essential to our roles as teachers and students. Unlike Krashen's theory ZPD requires teachers to purposefully teach a specific concept or idea through specific instruction ( Wright, 2015, p. 57). I think that it is important we as teachers we make sure to expose our students to the targeted concept/idea over and over again and in multiple settings. The more they are exposed to that concept the better understanding they will have of it.