English learners (ELs) need additional instruction and practice to develop oral fluency in addition to explicit reading instruction in the five core reading components. It is important for teachers to carefully assess EL's literacy and language development and proficiency, ideally in both the L1 and English. Conversational English is acquired prior to academic English. Reading specialists and coaches need to help classroom teachers identify and explicitly teach academic language. Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model was designed to develop English proficiency, academic language, and content knowledge simultaneously. To enhance their teaching of all students, teachers must be sensitive and aware of their own and their students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Vogt & Shearer, 2011).
My experiences with working with English learners is very limited. In addition, I have not taken any ESOL workshops or classes. While all these ideas make perfect sense to me, providing the modifications seems overwhelming at the moment. I would imagine many classroom teachers feel the same way, and that leads itself towards the importance of the reading coaches role in helping assist teachers to implement these modifications for ELs.
I took five years of French in middle school, high school, and college. Having fluent (or at least semi fluent) conversations was always a struggle for me and others in my class. I could not imagine the struggle to try to learn academic language in a school setting in which only French was spoken.
I have had several friends over the years who are from very different cultural and linguistic backgrounds compared to myself (typical white, European American, English speaking). One was from Peru; another from Germany; another from Russia; another from Ghana, and yet another from Ecuador. Through our friendships, I can testify to the increased acceptance and appreciation I have gained by becoming good friends with them. Simple conversations and comments they have made has lead me to believe that they realize I appreciate and honor their differences. As people, we have more similarities than differences. The differences can sometimes be what makes us feel distant from others around us. A feeling of acceptance and knowing ones culture is honored goes a long way of breaking down any walls and barriers, both in the classroom and out.
References
Vogt, M. & Shearer, B. (2011). Reading Specialists and Reading Coaches in the Real World. Boston, MA: Pearson.
No comments:
Post a Comment