Week 6- Bilingualism vs. ESL

This week’s article is entitled “Embracing Bilingualism in the Classroom: What Role Will You Play?” written by Daniella Suarez. The author gives a vivid description of her own experience as a child receiving English as a second language. During which she was fluent in both English and in Spanish and was doing well academically. However, due to the lack of knowledge educators and our educational system have today, Daniella felt as though she was treated unfairly. She then goes on to describe the history of bilingualism as well as the process of learning the English language in today’s school systems. Daniella clearly expresses her concern for our educational system to clearly identify the difference between student’s who are in need of ESOL services from those who would benefit from a Bilingual educational experience. Shifting to promote thought in those who are educators in terms of the roles they play in demonstrating acceptance of their bilingual students. Highlighting various areas in which to ensure bilingual students are treated fairly, the author reminds educators to maintain their knowledge of the law and school policies as well as to create a culture of acceptance within our classrooms.
This article was quite interesting to read. The author does a fantastic job of depicting her personal educational experience as a bilingual student. Expressing her concern for students who while they speak another language are also able to speak in English as well. While some schools feel that ESL instruction is necessary for these students to be given, this may not be the case. Students who have grown to speak both languages would benefit from an educational experience in which the use of both languages continues to be fostered. As the author expresses, many educators hinder their student’s academic and language growth when they prohibit the student’s use of the non-English language. While this article does not promote English as a second language programs in terms of teaching bilingual students, I feel that it is a topic that is necessary to be aware of. As we teach English language learners, it is vital that we are able to identify bilingual speakers within our classrooms in order to promote their language growth in a way that is appropriate for them.

References
Suárez, D. (2017, July 12). Embracing Bilingualism in the Classroom: What Role Will You Play? Retrieved July 13, 2017, from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2017/07/12/ embracing-bilingualism-in-the-classroom-what-role.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 3- Istation

Due to changing the key terms in my Google Alerts, this week I did not receive a sufficient amount of articles related to the use of technology within the ESL classroom or with English language learners. The one article that did receive an alert on related to our course is entitled, "Istation Named SIIA Education Technology CODiE Award Finalist" found on EconoTimes.com (2017). This article discusses a program named Istation which promotes students reading, math, and Spanish skills within PreK-12th grades. The program has been recognized for its effectiveness by receiving the award in "Best ESL, ELL or World Language Acquisition Solution Category" (EconoTimes, 2017). Geared toward teaching and assessing Spanish speaking students, this program was developed upon state standards. Thus ensuring students are being equipped to meet the grade requirements despite their language barriers. Data collected from student assessments indicates students reading ability increased o
Read more

Week 8-Tech Essentials in the ESL Classroom

ELL Specialist: These are “My Tech Essentials” written by Toshiko Maurizio is one my favorite articles of all those I have received though my Google alerts. I love how relevant this article is to our course on Computer Assisted Language Learning. Throughout the article the author describes the an ESL program specialists go to devices when implementing technology in the classroom setting. The ESL specialist serves as an "administrator of multilingual programs" in Beaverton, OR in which "5,000 English language learners  (ELLs) speaking more than 95 different languages" are enrolled (Maurizio, 2017). Having such a large amount of students throughout the district who are learning English as a second language, this administrator encourages his teachers to implement technology as a way to enhance ELL students overall learning. The ESL specialist states, "as a Future Ready district, we use technology to engage students in every lesson, while providing resources to bri
Read more

Week 2-Blended Learning in the Classroom?

This week, I received a variety of articles on technology in the classroom. However, none specific to the ESL classroom or to English language learners in general. Due to the wide array of topics of the articles I received from my google alerts, I decided to choose the one article which peaked my interest. The article entitled St. Mary's to Implement 'Blended Learning' written by Raymond Daye explained how a private school will be implementing technology in order to differentiate instruction of their students within the classroom environment. In doing so, they believe that their students will have a greater learning experience as they have the opportunity to learn at their own pace, while still having the support of their teachers in their classroom. As students are provided with either iPads or Chromebook, they will engage in learning as they use a tool named ready. iReady provides instruction to the students in both reading and math concepts. The students are also
Read more