Chinese And English Language Learners

English language learners (ELL) are one of the fastest growing classifications of students attending schools in the United States today. They represent a diverse group of students typically coming from homes or backgrounds where English is not the primary language spoken. Additionally, ELL students experience difficulties communicating or learning academic instruction in English.

Within the past ten years, the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) has doubled. An increase of more than 2 million ELL students in the U.S schools, left professionals within the field of education with no choice but to face the challenge of understanding cultural differences. In addition to this, educators must understand how these differences affect students’ language development, learning style, academic achievement and most importantly, his or her performance on standardized tests. These differences must be understood, valued and respected by all service providers, especially those who are involved in the decision making process concerning the placement of students in special educational programs. (Roseberry-McKibbin, 2014).

There was a time she didn’t know how to describe a “white board marker” in Chinese, so she asked her class how to say it. “One girl, who went by the name of Tracy, eagerly told [Stephanie the word], and had a huge smile on her face” (Lam). Even though the language barrier was difficult, she and her students overcame it together with pointing and various other universal gestures and facial expressions. This way, the students were encouraged to understand English better to communicate with their teacher, and my cousin refined her own oral Chinese skills. The students “were kind and willing to help despite [her] poor Chinese, and didn’t judge [her] either” (Lam). The students were happy enough that she came all the way to Taiwan to teach them English. They respected this, and were eager to help her discover a new culture and improve on her Chinese abilities. The barrier was still tough for Stephanie, but thanks to the kindness of her students, it was much easier to bear through and succeed. It was a new and unknown world for my cousin, but she still made the most of her experience and discovered so much more about East Asian culture.

It is essential to understand English language learners’ needs because ELL students face the combined challenge of learning all the academic content as other students, while also learning the language of instruction. With the rapid growth in the size of the ELL student population in the U.S., teachers who are effective recognizes ELL students unique academic needs, unique background experience, culture, language, personality, interests and attitudes toward learning for the purpose to adjust, or differentiate, their instruction to meet students’ needs.

The class is a mainstreamed first grade co-teach class of 34 students and two teachers. There are 16 females and 18 males that included 12 active English Language Learners (ELLs) (5 females, 7 males) and five Level 5 (proficient) students. The 12 ELL students represent five languages—Spanish (7), Chinese (1), Chin Burmese (1), and Arabic (2), Brazilian Portuguese (1). Eight of the twelve students tested at Level 1 on the WIDA language proficiency scale.

At ECEC, I use bilingual teaching methods to guide Chinese students in their language development. Three months later, the children who were exposed to this method became more comfortable in class. They began to establish a relationship with their peers and achieved significant improvement in their literacy development. My experience with ESL students not only limits to children, but also in varied age groups. In my earlier studies at Saddleback College, I was a peer mentor in the office for international students. I shared my academic and life experiences in the United States with my mentees, and helped them to achieve their academic goals. Before I transferred to UC Irvine, I went back to China and had the opportunity to volunteer at the Education Bureau of Zhengzhou, where I helped a team from the government to write in English on the topic of volunteering and social work. Working with the education policy makers in China, I realized the power and influence of a policy maker, and I learned how to come up with a proposal based on inductive research. I believe such work experiences I had with immigrants’ children and policy makers are useful for my future study on literacy of immigrants’

With the immigration population increase comes a language barrier increase. Therefore, English as a Second Language (ESL) tools in the classroom is essential. ESL was established in the 1970s when children of many mother tongues, crowded classrooms due to the immigration increase (Tomkins, G., 1981, p.

Through the article “Fostering Cross Cultural Competence in Pre-service Teachers Through Multicultural Education Experiences”, author Dr. Jared Keengwe discusses the growing conflict of diversity in American classrooms. Dr. Keengwe argues that 21st century educators are not properly prepared to teach, or communicate effectively with students of diverse backgrounds. In many examples provided throughout the article, Dr. Keengwe presents the negative attributes associated with such educators who lack experience in multicultural educational environments. With immigration into the United States increasing each year, the number of culturally diverse students entering the classroom appears to be overwhelming current educators. According to the author, these facts are linked to the failure of teacher educational programs. Dr. Keengwe believes there is a pressing need for teacher educators to increase hands on multicultural courses that incorporate cultural competence, in order for pre-service teachers to succeed in the classroom.

I have the pleasure of being in a Kindergarten classroom with sixteen amazing children this semester. Three of these children are English Language Learners (ELL). The one I have chosen to focus on for the purpose of the next several assignments is a little boy from China who I will refer to as ML. ML is polite, quiet and a focused child in the classroom. Though we are only a little over a month into the school year, ML seems to be thriving in his class. His culture may play a role in his current success because “a good education has always been highly valued in China, as the people believe that education ensures not only the future and development of the individual but also the family and the country as a whole” (Education

China and the United States are considered large countries in terms of their size and population; they both have the most two of the world largest education system. The United States has large tendency to be more like the western epistemological tradition (2008, Zhao, Y., Zhang, G., Yang, W., Kirkland, D., Han, X., & Zhang, J). While the Chinese are more likely to be rooted in the different perspective of the Confucian tradition. The education practices in U.S American and Chinese are different according to the intercultural communication book, “most teachers in U.S. schools, it is everyday occurrence to have students who come from cultural backgrounds other than their own.” (Lustig, M., & Koester, J., 2013) Chinese teachers have different experiences than U.S. American teachers because, in China, teachers experience the same cultural beliefs except for two different Chinese cultural experiences such as Western cultural practices and Chinese cultural practices. Both apply to teachers and students who interact with same

Education is one of the most important factors in every person’s life regardless of where they’re from, their race, or their culture. Becoming educated not only makes life easier for us but also can help people become more successful in all things. However with so many people of various races, ethnicities and backgrounds in the United States it is difficult to create an education system that attends to each student’s individual culture. Ones own culture influences their actions and lifestyle, therefore this can create conflict if it is different from their schools cultural teaching style. Multicultural and multilingual classrooms have become the norm in many educational and professional settings throughout the U.S. because of changing immigration patterns caused by globalization (Institute for Educational Leadership, p. 2). For teachers today, it is essential to understand the role of culture and have the ability to interact interculturally in the classroom to create an effective learning environment. Analyzing cultural issues or differences can help teachers to understand some of the unconscious processes that shape individuals’ actions and interactions, as well as their language use and communication. “Teachers who understand cultural diversity…are more likely to be successful in their multicultural classrooms” (Samovar, Pg.2).

As a state school situated in a low SES area, Loganlea SHS’s vocational education outperforms its academic education. Its disadvantaged geographic location make it very hard for the school to promote literacy and numeracy development among the majority of vocational students who are with low level of general skills and academic aspirations and lack of motivations. It is likely that subjects with cognitive engagement would not attract students by nature.

Cantonese is the mother tongue of the majority of Hong Kong secondary students. It is generally believed that student feel more confident when they are asked to speak in a language used in their daily life. In contrast, using Putonghua to teach Chinese may cause learning obstacles. Students need to learn a new set of pronunciation and usage of words. Both speaking and listening have to be managed in a language that they are not as familiar as Cantonese. This probably discourage student from class discussion. Cantonese does not contain these barriers. Therefore student is likely to focus on deeper levels of language features and improve the teaching effectiveness. According to the study done by The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (“SCOLAR”), there is no clear evidence or statistic can prove that using Putonghua as the medium of instruction can enhance teaching efficiency (Chan, 2015) . Besides, the adoption of using Putonghua to teach Chinese language certainly do not match the current exanimating syllabus. The oral and listening exams are carried out in Cantonese in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (DSE). Even if the schools use Putonghua as the main medium of instruction in common lessons, they have to switch back to Cantonese when students practicing past papers. This is apparently inefficient to provide education for one single

As Holiday (2005) argues that English is international and the local context is the norm, Chinese cultural and education system influences both English Teaching and learning to a great extent.

Initially, I was enrolled in a Chinese kindergarten and I was exposed to Mandarin. Then, I transferred to a public school that utilized the Malay language in its curriculum. Unfortunately, my ability to practice Mandarin became very limited and as a result, my interest in Mandarin began to wane. However, having acquired the basics in Mandarin and upon constant motivation from my family, I continued to pursue the Mandarin language. In fact, I met up with a teacher who was well-versed in that language and asked her if she could impart her knowledge to me. Seeing my keen motivation, the teacher actually opened up an optional afternoon class solely for the purpose of learning Mandarin. The comprehensive lesson provided by the teacher also included the cultural practices, festivals and the gorgeous artworks associated with the Chinese people. In the class, the teacher also provided the students with cultural materials that are used during festivals celebration in Chinese culture such as such the “TangLong” to give us the ‘feel’ of the festivals. My parents were supportive in allowing me to attend the classes every day in order to improve my ability in the language and able to discover my culture in-depth as well. Over time, I came to appreciate my effort in conserving both sides of my family heritage without forsaking one for the other. I am proud to be both Malay and Chinese, as they