I interviewed three of the NAC (New Arrival Center) teachers within the school that I student teach at. Something that is different for NAC teachers than for ESL teachers is that all of their students are at the beginning level of English learning. Some struggle even to know the alphabet. These students are usually only in the country for a short time when they are enrolled. The students are fully submerged in these classrooms for all of their studies besides math, which is taken by an ESL teacher within a regular classroom with the support from the NAC teachers.
One of the questions that I asked was in regard to the struggles that the students might have when it comes to the different types of tenses. Students that are acquiring a second language can be seen negotiating the form of their sentences when it comes to the different tenses (Ortega, 2013, p. 69). This was something one of the NAC teachers mentioned. She stated that many of the students have issues understanding the different tenses therefore they make sure to differentiate clearly when talking about the past, present, and future. The teachers explained that one of the biggest challenges they have in the classroom is getting the students to try because the students are worried about failing. Gass and Selinker (2008) explains that students learning from error acknowledgement might struggle (p. 347), therefore we see that it is important for these teachers to guide the students when they do fail. This way the students receive corrective meaning which betters their understanding in comparison to only receiving acknowledgement of the error. If this is being done correctly students will not fear as much when it comes to failing. It is important that students do not produce an avoidance mindset of failing, this way they are able to grow through the mistakes that might happen during their learning process (Ortega, 2013, p. 40).
Through this interview I noticed that all of the linguistics are truly connected. The reasoning for these teachers to focus on listening and speaking makes perfect sense. These two areas are extremely important in syntax and semantic development (Gass, & Selinker 2008, p. 11-12). If the students can understand by hearing and are able to speak full sentences, they should have an easier time with the writing and reading portion of learning a new language.
Hey, Emily! First off, amazing job developing your questions! You did such a good job pulling relevant questions form our chapters. Being assigned to the same middle school as you, I enjoyed your video very much getting to learn about our NAC teachers. I went a different route and interviewed a Spanish teacher there. What stood out to me most from your video was hearing about the students' motivation coming primarily from home. Simply the opportunity in itself is motivation for the ELL students. We know from reading our book that not all students have motivation to learn, and the amount of enjoyment they get from learning the language plays a big role (Ortega, 2013, p. 170). It was interesting hearing about the students having come from countries like Jordan, and never even gone to a school before. There opportunity and the encouragement from parents helped motivate these students. It was interesting to hear that the biggest struggle the students are facing was speaking. Many of the students hear very little to no English outside of the classroom, so I imagine that makes it difficult. I know form observing at this same school that we have a lot of Spanish speaking students. For several of the ELL's I have in my classes, they have difficulty with speaking as well. Once they understand the assignment, they excel like everyone else. However, if called upon to speak then I see several of them have some difficulty.
ReplyDeleteRemy,
DeleteI have to agree with you. The school we are at is filled with English language learners. I was inspired by the motivation these students have as well. It is apparent from what these teachers mentioned that the students are very self-motivated. Ortega (2013) talks about the integrative motivation which is the highest motivation in language learning (p. 171). To attain this strength of motivation one must have a high genuine desire to learn the L2, the learner must have an equal amount of investment, enjoyment and effort in the L2, and lastly have a positive attitude towards how they are being taught the second language (Ortega, 2013, p. 171). These are all aspects of what these NAC students show with their self-motivation as well as keeping each other accountable in speaking English instead of their L1 during their learning process.
Hey, Emily! Yes, I completely agree. The desire to learn and the enjoyment are something I've mentioned as well. Something else Ortega discusses in the same chapter is the impact of social support. I personally I feel that the students receiving support at home have a higher success rate. This support comes from parents and peers, and "since believing that they want one to learn the language creates rewards and reinforcements that may be important in boosting motivation" (Ortega, 2013, p.172). I think this social support is a main factor in what makes the L2 acquisition enjoyable, which we've both mentioned is a major contribution.
DeleteHi Emily, what an awesome opportunity to have interviewed three teachers who work with ELL students! It was interesting to learn that your school offers a program by the name of NAC New Arrival Center. This is not an acronym I had encountered before in the school I am currently student teaching in, so it was great to hear about the program and what their aim is. I can tell that these wonderful ladies are extremely dedicated to genuinely helping students whom have a language barrier. Ortega states that "learners obtain comprehensible input mostly through listening to oral messages” (2013, page 59). That evidence is portrayed through your interview because one of the teachers spoke about how she had to verbally read prompts to a student in order for them to understand.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
DeleteThe prompting was something I found interesting during my interview also. As you can see from the pictures I took of the classroom, almost every single item is labelled in some way. They have word for word instructions for the day’s agenda and the processes they will be completing. Although almost everything is written, it is still required for the teachers to give the students verbal prompts while pointing to these written instructions or sentence stems. It is crucial for the students to first understand the meaning of the words before they are able to produce their syntactic comprehension (Gass, 2008, p. 375). This is why the teachers make a point to give meaning to their words before worrying about the rules, especially since these students are in the beginning stages of learning English.
Hey, Jennifer! I student teach at the same school as Emily and I was so intrigued to hear about the NAC program as well. It was also my first time I hear of that type of program. I agree so much with a lot of what you've mentioned. I interviewed a Spanish teacher, Mrs. Garcia, and she talked about children learning Spanish having difficulty with first language interference. It is interesting to hear you mention the same type of difficulty for children learning to speak English. Not knowing the meaning of words brings about much difficulty. Gass and Selinker go on to discuss whether or not there is a particular order of acquisition, and say that one may have trouble relating one part to another (Gass and Selinker, 2008, p. 376). I think this ties to what we are saying in that students benefit from first knowing the meaning of something before learning to speak about it in a new language.
DeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI’m glad that these students have such a strong support group when learning English. As you stated, it is important for students to not feel as if their mistakes are failures. They should see mistakes as an opportunity to grow. This is particularly important in regards to their motivation to continue learning English. One of the main antecedents in learning English is ‘Self-Confidence when using the language,’ which includes “communicative anxiety and self-perception of communicative competence” (Ortega, 2013, p. 172). Ortega explains of communicative anxiety and self-perceived competence, while stable, are shaped by past experiences through contacts with L2 speakers, and both contribute to the degree of L2 communicative confidence” (Ortega, 2013, p. 203). This shows that if a student has poor experiences, especially when feeding constructive feedback, it could deter them from wanting to learn English anymore. However, I think these teachers are doing an excellent job in making sure this doesn’t happen.