Vblog Entry 2
For my first interview, I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my team members, Rida Qureshi. She had a lot to say about her experience learning in after only knowing her native language Urdu. Wright (2015) stated in our reading that as humans, we tend to take advantage of our ability to speak languages and communicate proficiently, unlike other species. One thing that I discovered from my interview with Rida, is that English language learners do not take this ability for granted. Especially in situations like the one Rida was in, where she had to learn to communicate when there were no similarities between her native language and English. This was very challenging for her in many ways. One thing she said that stuck out to me was that in Urdu they say things backwards from the way that we say it. They also have a large number of words that do not translate at all to English. Another thing she mentioned to me after the interview was that their alphabet does not contain a “v” in it, so she had to learn a whole new letter. There were many differences between the two languages that made it very difficult for her in public school where she started in kindergarten.
Because of all these differences, as well as not being able to speak the language that everyone around her was using, it made it very difficult to communicate anything she needed. Wright (2015) says that teachers must know enough about the language and its structure of the language of their students, either speak or write, to be able to communicate with the student, as well as be able to understand what the student may need to say to them. This was not the case for Rida, as her native language is not very common here, there was not a teacher on her campus to help communicate what she needed. She said this caused her to feel alone, and would often get lost during instructional time due to the lack of understand and communication barriers.
As educators, I believe it is our job to ensure the success of our students, and if we cannot adequately teach a student because of a language barrier, then we need to place them with a teacher that does not have that barrier. I know this is not always the case, and that it way it is essential that every teacher is also trained in having ELL students in a classroom, and should be certified to do so.
References:
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Haylee! It is very unfortunate that your team member Rida Qureshi felt as if she was alone since she did not have a teacher who spoke the same language as her. For a child who is an ELL it can be scary to not have a teacher who speaks the same language as you as well as not having someone who you can communicate with in school to help with guidance and translations. When you asked if there were similarities between Urdu and English it was interesting to find out that she found more similarities between Spanish. A similarity being that the words are flipped when translated to English. Syntax is one of the major challenges that ELL’s are faced with since it varies across languages (Wright, 2015, pg. 33). Forming grammatically correct phrases and sentences can be difficult especially when English is being taught to someone whose native language has little to no similarities with English. The fact that your team member attempted to better her knowledge of correct English phrases by simply listening to others rather than following grammar rules is something that I think most ELL’s can relate to considering that socializing with peers can aid in an English language learner's proficiency.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015, Print. Second Edition
Melissa, thank you for your interest in my interview. It was very sad for me as well to hear Rida say that she felt alone at school, and that she was unable to even communicate with her teacher. As an educator, I always try to make it a priority that my students feel heard, including my ELL or ESL students. Wright (2015) states that as a teacher, whether you are an ESL, specialist, or classroom teacher, it is still your responsibility to help your ELLs develop their proficiency in English for ensure their academic success. This is something that I personally strive to do every day, and reflect on every night. To know that students still deal with teachers like the ones Rida had is very sad to hear, because you know that they are not receiving the support they need to succeed.
DeleteHi Melissa. I also believe that it is quite unfortunate that Rida did not have the support she needed as an ELL student. Not having adequate support makes learning English even harder for a student. I also agree that syntax tends to be the hardest skill for ELL's to grasp. Wright talks about how ELL's with different language backgrounds struggle with syntax, since their native language is very different (2015, pg.33). With all of the information from the textbook, I believe there are many different techniques that Rida’s teacher could have used to help her.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015, Print. Second Edition
Hello Haylee, I enjoyed watching your interview and reading your blog post. It sounds to me like Rida struggled with syntax due to the fact that Urdu has a different grammar system than the English system. This is common when learning a new language. According to Wright producing grammatically correct phrases and sentences can be a major challenge because the rules for syntax vary across languages (Wright, 2017, pg.33). The fact that leaning a new language with different syntax can be so difficult is why I agree with you that all teachers need to have ELL training.
ReplyDeleteWright mentions that knowledge of language is relevant to the many roles teachers play as communicators, educators, evaluators, educated human beings and agents of socialization (Wright, 2017, pg.45). To me this means that teachers need to be aware of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics to be able to effectively teach ELL students.
Source:
WRIGHT, W. E. (2017). FOUNDATIONS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: Research, theory, policy, and practice. S.l.: MULTILINGUAL MATTERS.
Samantha, thank you for your interest in my video. This struggle with syntax is something I am seeing in a lot of our peers interviews as well. Wright (2015) stated that knowing the syntactic rules of English is necessary for understanding the meaning of the language. If you do not know these rule, even if you can read what was written, you are just saying the reciting. There is no comprehension of what you are say. This is something that Rida mentioned to me. She was able to say the words, but had no understanding of what the words she was saying meant.
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ReplyDeleteHi Haylee! I really enjoyed your interview with Rida. It makes me so sad that she felt alone since there was no one that spoke her language on her campus. I think if there was someone that she could relate to it could have helped her more. Krashen explains that “the affective filter controls how much comprehensible input gets through the learner.” Not feeling like part of the group would give her unnecessary anxiety and self-esteem issues (Wright, pg. 52, 2015). It is great to see that despite these challenges, she now helps students in the classroom. I can also relate with her struggle with comprehension when reading and not being able to make sense of my readings the first time around.
ReplyDeleteMayra, thank you for your interest in my interview. I agree with your view point on the "Affective Filter" hypothesis, and how it applies to Rida. Wright (2015) defines affective filter as something that controls how much comprehensible input gets through to the learner. As you stated he also comments on how not feeling like you are a part of the group (class) affects this input. I do believe that if Rida had someone she could talk to or relate to, she would have felt like she was a part of the class, and picked up on the comprehension of that language quicker.
DeleteHey Haylee, it is very interesting to see Rida succeed in learning English despite being in a submersion classroom. These classrooms are where “students are left to sink or swim” (Wright, 2010, p. 104) without adequate ESL supports and instruction. It was fortunate that she was able to begin her English language acquisition at a younger age to naturally develop English. Though she could have used better support like she mentions not being able to have peers to ask questions for clarity. She could have definitely benefited from a grammar-translation method of instruction to support the grammatical differences between Urdu and English had there been those ESL resources.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Calson, 2010. Print. Second Edition.
Franklin, thank you for your interest in my interview, and your input on Rida's experience. I also believe that Rida would have benefited from having a peer to talk to to help guide her, and make her feel less alone. Wright (2015) stated that learners need opportunities to interact with other speakers and reach mutual comprehension. I think that if Rida were to have had someone who spoke her language in school, then she could have be able to ask that person questions and reached comprehension of the language sooner.
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ReplyDeleteHi Haylee, first I just want to say I love your video. Second thank you so much for the opportunity to hear her story. It absolutely breaks my heart that she felt that she was alone and didn't have a friend to help her. I couldn't even imagine not being able to ask anyone for help. Because we do that all the time like in class or anywhere. We always ask each other what did I miss, what does she mean, can you explain that better? Hearing her story makes me want to go run and learn every language any students of mine is speaking. As Wright says “teachers must know enough about language and its structures of language of their students either speak or write to be able to communicate with the students as well as understand what the student may need to say to them” (Wright,2015). I really wish Rida would have received that. She even said now that she's very worried about her comprehension and that would worry anyone. I couldn't imagine what she's going through with the struggle of learning.
ReplyDeleteKate-lynn, thank you for your interest in my video, and your response to her story. I too feel as though it is extremely important for the teacher to be able to communicate with their students, even just a little bit, or get them connected with someone that can communicate with them. Wright (2015) stated that learners need to opportunity to interact with other speakers to ensure comprehension. As you said, we tend to take for granted how lucky we are that we have to ability to turn to the person next to us and ask for help if we don't understand something. I think if Rida had access to someone that she could turn to and ask for clarification from, them she would have been more successful in school.
DeleteHello Haylee!
ReplyDeleteI Enjoyed watching your interview with Rida. What I found interesting was how different her learning of the English language was from mine. Since she didn't start learning English until she was five and was more proficient in Urdu, she said that she had trouble understanding syntax of the English language do you to the difference in the way or do is spoken where words in the languages are flipped making them grammatically incorrect in the rules of the other language. She also claimed that because she did not know how to communicate as well in English she was often shy and stayed away from making friends even though she felt left out.
According to Wright, producing grammatically correct phrases and sentences can be a major challenge because of the rules for syntax vary across languages. (Wright, 2015)
She also does that as an ESL teacher she understands ELL students better because she grew up facing many similar struggles in learning in comprehending the English language.
After listening to Rida talk about how her inability to communicate well in the English language hindered her desire to be social, it made me realize that an ELL student may be shy or quiet for the same reason that she was. Maybe the student would be more social and willing to answer in class If they were surrounded by those who spoke their native language.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015, Print. Second Edition