Today, we are constructing another mini lesson; this time for an Asian student who has English as a second language (ESL).
In order to deal with diversity in our students, we need to understand the background of their native languages. We do this by reading research, by observing our students, and by simply asking them. The grammar of their native language might be completely different from the English grammar.
Task 1: Proofread the sample text below. It is an original text written by an SIU TESOL student in 2007. Then, take a piece of paper, and repair as many mistakes as you can find. Rewrite the sentences correctly, with regard to good grammar AND style.
The Beijing is a modern city and there are a lot of places to visit. First, there are many new building was build. One of the new buildings, it looks like a bird’s nest. Then, it have a big history. You can visit a lot of old buildings to know the history, just like “the summer Palace”. Finally, many people come from different country, there are kinds of restaurant. You can eat which you want to taste. Beijing is a nice place.
Task 2: In class, we will discuss a list of specific errors that occurred, and we will group these errors into categories. We'll fill in a category table on the board.
Here is an example for a category: modifiers
In Chinese, modifiers always precede the noun, whereas in English they can follow the noun, especially for attributive clauses. Therefore, Chinese students often have problems constructing an attributive clause. For example:
· Their owners may want to come to the store knows the pets better.
· These are all good strategies should be used.
· There are some people want to live in the countryside.
· The Plan provides lots of good statistic numbers which very helpful.
· My grandfather is the only person who influenced by his actions.
Another category: pronouns
One salient error is the leaving out of the relative pronouns, because they don’t exist in Chinese. For instance, the first sentence, if written in Chinese, would be like: “Their owners may want to come to knows the pets better the store.”
To find more categories, take a look at the homework reading which was due today: ERIC document (look only on pp. 47-62 for specific error types of Asian ESL students.)
Task 3: Pick one of your categories, or one category mentioned on pp. 47-62, and write a short passage how you as a teacher/tutor/editor would explain to the Asian writer above WHY this can’t be said in English. Use her sentences as samples, and give her some other examples, too. Please write with quotation marks (how you would actually say it to the student). Give plausible examples of right/wrong sentences, and explain to the ESL student how to use the grammatical form you picked correctly. (Don't just explain, "we do it this way in English.")
Email this assignment to me. If you can't finish in class, this will be homework for Wednesday, January 28th.
Here is an example of how a teacher explained article use to an ESL student:
In a case study, a Costa Rican boy used the “the” too often, for example, “the nature has a lot of secrets.” The teacher replies: “Let me ask you, if you are walking in the woods, where is nature?” – “It’s in the trees. It’s kind of … everywhere,” the student replies. “Right. It’s everywhere. So nature is a very general noun. We talk about nature but we are not talking about a specific place or specific trees…” (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman 1983, 9-10).
Task 4:
Post a short comment to this blog about your own experience with Asian students, if you are observing/student teaching and have made any experiences so far. You can also write about what you observed outside of class with regard to Asian ESL persons. Or, post your personal thoughts about teaching children of diverse cultures. What would you do to make it easier for them? Any accommodations? Or would you treat them like the rest of your students? If you had an Asian student in your class who wrote great essays but placed the articles wrongly each time, would you take points off or give her the good grade her content deserves? If you give her the good grade, would it be fair to your American students who get points off for mechanics??? Let your conscience speak.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
As an aspiring teacher, I believe that it is important to give each student the amount of support that they need. Without a doubt, I would take the extra time to help an ESL student master English to the best of his or her ability. I think that I might cut them a little bit of slack for making errors in their writing, as long as they were giving a genuine effort to learn. I would use these opportunities to evaluate how much support this student would need and do whatever I needed to help them learn.
I think that teaching diverse cultures is a definite challenge for teachers. This means that they have to be well versed in the cultures that they teach to be prepared for the problems that those students will encounter.
As a teacher, I think that I would spend extra one-on-one time with the ESL students going over their drafts. This time would help me to identify the issues they have with English grammar, and to expand on the ideas they do not understand. Also, I would have those students keep a journal where they can write about the ideas they have problems with.
As far as grading ESL student, I would place more emphasis on the content than the grammar. I would mark off for improper grammar but not as much as I would for an English speaking student. I believe this is fair because the English speaking students have been learning these rules all their lives. Whereas, to the ESL students these rules are new.
While working towards a teaching degree I can tell already that diversity is very important in the classroom. Campus alone is very diverse and has many things and people we can learn things from on a daily basis. If I were a teacher of an ESL student I belive I would give them a little more slack. Learnig a new languge is very challenging. If I can see an honest effort there is no reason I student should not be praised. If I were to not cut them slack and grade them as I would someone who did speak English, they may loose motivation. One on one time would have to be manditory, just like anyone else who would need extra help. I think it is great that we have such a diverse nation and as teachers we are most exposed to it. Although it is a challenge, any student who is willing to learn, weither ESL or not, deserves the help, attention, and grades that will keep them motivated to more forward.
I think the ESL student would deserve to be graded more on content than on mechanics, but I would definitely work extra to help the student understand how to write in English. Actually, I would extend this to even native English speakers who may struggle in this area--English can be difficult for anyone to master. I think the most fair way to evaluate a student should be based on their individual performance, not compared to the performance of the rest of the class. So, if the ESL student shows an effort to learn, the evaluation should be based on his or her individual effort, and not how well the rest of the class performs.
As a teacher I know that I am going to encounter some difficult times in my career. There are going to be so many different cultures and beliefs in just one classroom. However it is something that I cannot wait to be apart of! The way I am going to deal with ESL students is give he or she more one on one help, grade there papers knowing that they are learning English as a second language. I will treat all of my students the same, and if there is a problem that keeps occuring I will give him or her special worksheets to work on. Hopefully this will take care of the problem.
Having no experience with any ESL students I hope to say that I would be understanding.As a teacher it is our job to help every student. I would not take off on papers for grammatical errors. I don't feel that this is being unfair to other students because they are at an advantage. I would also try to give the ESL student extra help by going over graded papers showing them the correct way.
As a teacher, it should be a career, but also a pleasure for me to help my students succeed. This means that I would be more than willing to help any culturally diverse students one-on-one outside of class. I would assist the student by giving him exercises and assessments to quiz himself at home. I would accommodate to his needs until I felt that he had grasped the concept to the point that he was on par to his peers. If in his essays his content was excellent but his grammar was poor, I would most likely allow him to fix the grammatical mistakes and then grade his rewrite. I do not feel that this is unfair to the American students because they grew up learning basic grammar skills, whereas the ESL student had not.
Personally I have no experience with ESL students. But without hesitation I would try to take the extra time to help an ESL student learn and comprehend English as best they can. Obviously I wouldn't grade ESL students the same way I would grade a student who has English as a primary. I would go for emphasis, and quality. This also depends on the teachers expectations. One on One time with ESL students would be very beneficial. Learning a new language is very challenging, especially if it happens to be English. I believe that I would do what ever I needed to do to help them, and make sure that they were learning.
I currently have had no experience teaching ESL students. On the other hand, if I were to consider my Mother a student, than I guess I have had some experience. My Mother was born and raised in Thailand and uses a lot of improper English. For years, I've helped my Mother by correcting her usage and showing her the meanings of different words. After several attempts of correction, she seems to always revert back to the way she was taught. When asking a question she tends to leave out the word "do". Generally she might say; "you read today" or "you clean room". Though frustrating at times, I can relate to this article. Teaching people of other origins is a difficult task and takes a lot of patience. All in all, after several years of living in the United States, she has showed improvement in her English skills.
Teaching a multicultural classroom with students that speak different languages seems like a tough task. For the sake of the majority of my class, I wouldn't be able to stop and explain every single error one student has made. If the issue is a real problem, I would have to take the student aside during some free time and discern where the problem is originating from. From there, it would be a simple matter to find a way to explain the English writing skills that are troubling this particular student.
Teaching different backgrounds in class is inevitable. I anticipate having some one on one time with those students that may be learning English as a second language. I would have no problem with helping them with whatever problem they may encounter. Also, I think that any person wanting to be a teacher, should feel the same way.
Having a little experience helping in an ESL I understand how hard it is to teach them. My former baseball coach was one of the ESL teachers in my school, and the kids in the class really enjoyed when i would come to just speak English too them, becuase they trusted that I was speaking the correct way, and hearing it from a peer seemed to make it easier for them to learn it. The students also enjoyed when I would sit down and have some one-on-one time where I would help them with their lesson. So if I was a teacher I would be easy on them depending on how well they already knew the language. If it was the girl we talked about in class I would have given her an A, because that is done fairly well for as long as she has been writing English.
As a student who has lived over seas and had to learn a completely different language herself, I would attempt to learn some phrases or techniques that an ESL student uses in his or her own language. Seeing how exactly they structure sentences in their language, I believe it would better equip myself when trying to understand where they are coming from and what they are thinking when they make mistakes.
Post a Comment