February 5, 2013

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE OF TEACHING AND LEARNING. What a fabulous way to end our Linguistics Class 2013!

Below is a class collectiion of AMAZING, THOUGHTFUL, REFLECTIVE, AND TRULY INSPIRING RESPONSES.

We must understand that the changes necessary in classroom practices are most difficult as it relates to helping students become proficient readers and writers. Teachers have to become innovators instead of regulators when it depends upon effective written and second language acquisition.  I will try to use pictures, gestures, tone of voice and hands-on activities to help in making second language acquisition more comprehensible. I understand that affective factors such as nervousness, boredom, and anxiety influence language by serving as filters that block out incoming messages and prevent second language acquisition, therefore I will try to keep these factors to a minimum in the classroom.  Perkins

      I will use the knowledge that I learned to help my students acquire language skills by emerging them in vocabulary: synonyms and antonyms.  I will have classroom discussions that relate their experiences to the real world by using newspapers, magazine articles and social media.  I would like my students to be able to write and speak so that they may express themselves.  I will model and demonstrate language by having pictures in the classroom that are in two different languages.  I would teach in both languages.  I would say it in English then in their language.  I will have many drills that allow them to learn language.  They will have assignments that are written in both languages. I will show educational films in both languages.  I will play the radio in both languages. These would all be drills that they must repeat after they hear it.  People learn by doing.  I will have writing drills (dictations), where the students will have to write what they hear.  They must be able to read it back.  This will help them to read and write in the new language.    I would make learning a new language fun and interesting .  Biundo 

At this point, students who do not speak any English are going to be in our classrooms, and we must adapt to this.  It is important that students not only be able to regurgitate information, but they understand concepts and ideas.  I want students to be able to express ideas, but I also want them to use correct academic language.  It seems to be a never ending battle, and no person or institution has all the answers.  Teachers must accept all students with an open mind and work with all students to learn and acquire a new language at the same time.  Buckelew

 The stage for learning in my class would present variables play a key role in the success of the lesson. I will make sure I speak clearly, to avoid unclear terminology and vague terms. I will accept student ideas and maintain a high overall energy level. I believe that my enthusiasm will reflect my student’s enthusiasm. I will require and allow my students to actively participate to display their understanding. Carpenter

To develop the students’ academic language, I will use the extensive-reading strategy in my classroom. I will encourage my students to read and discuss the content texts with small groups, where the students will share their understanding of the words with other students . I will also use graphic organizers to represent key ideas of the academic English words. I will encourage them to read more articles on particular content, where the students will get a complete understanding of the academic English language. Duggirala

Since beginning my teaching career three years ago, I have embraced the belief that ALL students can learn; it’s just as matter of WHAT we do to help them learn. If I had viewed each student’s unique differences as barriers to their learning and my teaching, none of my students would have seen success. I had embraced the difference orientation from the beginning, and I have seen the great success students can achieve as a result of using diversity to ENHANCE instruction. Furtney

Too often, in an attempt to cover as much content as possible, we forget to give our students the opportunity to play with words.  We forget that while they play with words, students create meaning.  To help students build meaning, I would continue using the Frontloading method, which builds concepts and vocabulary.  This background building activity teaches students important vocabulary words without focusing solely on the structural analysis of the word.  It is also a way to assess, motivate, set purposes, prepare, protect, and support students.  Hamlet

The implication for the teacher is to differentiate the writing assignments and teaching philosophy to the students based on their needs.  The English learner will need to have their ideas cultivated and developed first, and then the rules of writing can be applied after the message is refined.  The English first speaker that understand the prompts better and has some idea on how to respond (many prompts aren’t culturally sensitive, but that’s another subject altogether) can be taught the conventions of writing in order to create a writing sample that passes a standardized grading process.  Regardless of how the student learns, the teachers must first recognize the strengths and weaknesses in their student’s writing and work with the student and find out which method of teaching writing is more effective in showing improvement.  Lacy

I was inspired to help students develop their language skills not only in  English, but in their home language as well.  This encouragement can take many forms.  I provide non-English language books for students to read and encourage students to use their home languages in creative writing assignments or in class journals.  I have also advocated for a Spanish language class at Lilburn, since so many of our students’ home language is Spanish, and because I am certified to teach Spanish.  After reading the evidence presented by Freeman and Freeman, I am further encouraged to continue in my pursuit to fight for student’s bilingual education. Lunceford

I have to investigate if my student know the basic rules of language in their own language.  This will help my students to learn the rules in English (Same basic rules). Another strategy I can use is to find words that sounds similar in both language or are written in the same way to help them in the acquisition of new vocabulary. A good example of this strategy is the word area, this word is written, pronounces and it meaning is the same in Spanish than in English. Martinez

Positively, I will implement Internet , showing images depicting a relationship between the footage and vocabulary, and I will add academic content vocabulary as part of the word wall, so they can view and know how to spell them. Furthermore, I plan to set aside 15 minutes every day, going over the pronunciation of 400 basic sight words which some of my students have difficulties in recognizing and pronouncing them.   Nguyen

It is interesting to learn that ones’ view about use of language actually affects the individual’s teaching goals and strategy of teaching a concept  When teaching new concept I will help my students to identify the power words and understand their meaning, pronunciation and usage.   Some typical examples are these words; weathering and erosion.  Teaching the term weathering, I will split the word into weather-ing and relate it to weather and help my students to understand the word as how weather conditions wear away or break rocks.  For erosion I will break this as “ero-sion” and help students to come up with the word erode as the verb form of the word erosion.  By teaching these words I have accomplished two goals.  The first is that students will understand what the terms mean and secondly internalize this strategy and use it to understand other related text.  Onike

I feel that language, both written and spoken, is critical to the human experience.  Archaeology tells us what happened in history, but studying linguistics and the written records people leave behind tells us why things happen, and maybe more importantly, what people were thinking. It’s an amazing thing to think that the human brain is hardwired to learn language. I imagine that as humans continue to evolve that this innate ability will only get better and better.  Freeman explained that, “language is what makes us distinctly human” (x), and I agree that our ways of communicating and interacting with each other is what truly sets us apart from other creatures on Earth.  Sas

The one thing that I would say that has some implications for the classroom is the fact that we, as teachers—especially ESOL teachers—need to be reminded often of the complexity of language and how it relates to the children we teach.  Smith

In my classroom I plan to incorporate the Current Acquistion View into my Science Lessons.  The goal is to help students use language for different purposes.  I will use different methods of language input like you tube clips, children’s books,  and literacy articles .  The students can use the information to summarize the topics that are being taught. Tate