Raneem: Fragile English As A Second Language

As our nation shifts towards a more culturally diverse population both educators and families have to find a common ground to ensure that English Language Learners are academically successful. All stakeholders must carefully consider the social cultural impact on an ELL education. The process of raising bilingual learners take more than a language a school and a language learned at home. The transition must have a purpose and a goal.

There are nearly 7000 languages spoken in the world. Among them is the English language. Richard Lederer, a retired high school teacher chose this language to be the subject of his essay “English is a Crazy Language.” In the essay, Lederer describes English with respects to who uses it, when it is used and how it is used. They justify his claim that English is the most widely spoken language in the world.

Impact of Current Political climate on English Language Learners Students and funding in the public school.

As I look back on my English 101 experience, I have come to the conclusion that I have learned many new things that have improved my abilities as a writer. I have learned some new techniques that have improved my ways of approaching an essay. I learned all about the rhetorical appeals and how to apply them in my writing and how to look for them in a essay written by a author. I have also learned how to argue both sides of a argument, and how to look for reliable sources and to properly quote and site the author of the essay. I feel as if I have become a better writer and my improved writing skills are shown within each essay.

Growth, I believe, is inevitable when one is compelled to learn and apply that knowledge which has been presented to them. This semester has proved to be a time of development, change, and substantial growth. During my time in English 101 I have had the chance to really explore new genres of writing such as memoirs, rhetorical analyses, and persuasive essays. In this class I have been able to build upon old writing skills and cultivate new ones; and I have also come to recognize what I like and dislike writing about through the completion of the assignments we were charged with. Through this semester in English 101 I feel as though I have had the opportunity to enhance my ability to apply the rules of rhetoric to my work, convey my thoughts and ideas with greater clarity, and recognize the places where I can improve my work through the revising process.

The all too familiar situation of English language learners (ELLs) struggling in a classroom that is not meeting their needs is the theme of this short film. ELL’s present unique challenges for teachers given how the California educational system calls for only one year of English language development (EDL). After this time, English language development goals rest on the shoulders of the general education teacher with the additional requirement of infusing SADIE strategies into their daily lessons.

I noticed each time that I observed Addie she wanted to do art first, you can tell it is her favorite. She always took her time during these art projects and was very enthusiastic when creating them. Another personality trait I noticed was that she is not a follower but a leader. She always did what she wanted to do and never changed stations when her friends did. Addie was so happy with her painting, filling up the entire canvas that she said to the teacher “we are almost done come see.” Addie spent the most time at the art station and held the longest attention span out of the three children I observed. She never moved back and forth between different activities during short periods of time. I did notice Addie wanted the attention from the

I used to consider writing as tumble words from your mind, write, read it through, fix minor mistakes, and done. However, you rarely get successful. The truth is many students, including myself, struggle with starting to write a word, or getting stuck in the middle without knowing the main point of the writing. After completing English 101, I can explain the writing process, evaluate the strengths of my essay, and identify my weaknesses.

The mere reference to the label given to students acquiring the English language potentially sparks debate amongst educators, policy makers and researchers. The federal government refers to these students as Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. This identification references the deficiencies the student may have rather than to identify the diversity and gifts that the student may possess. Such labels set premature limitations of the student and predisposes the student to limited rigor in instruction. Educators and researchers reference the same subgroup of students as ELLs, establishing the understanding that with sufficient support, increased rigor and cultural understanding, students will succeed.

I have witnessed a child in my preschool class who has almost all the characteristics of Hyperactivity. The child fidgets when seated, she is sitting and starts moving her hands back and forth, moving her waist from side to side. The teacher would tell her to relax and she would stop but 2 minutes later she would begin again. Also, during group time everyone is seated in a circle, the teacher is talking and she would move from one spot to another and all the teachers have to tell her several times to stay in one spot on the circle. The little girl has a hard time completing a task as well, we would ask her to do something simple and she cannot stay seated for a long period of time. For example, all the children are sitting making a picture of their family and Anaya just makes herself and we tell her “make your mom and dad” and she said “ok” and she makes 2 circles and said “I am done”. We ask her “what about the arms” (at this point she is squirming on the chair) and she said “they have arms”.

The things learned during the class, English 203, has not only helped the ability to write better, but also the ability to expand the research on each paper I have written. From the very beginning of this semester, I was taught to write an abstract, which I have never done before, but the basis of an abstract is to look at the big picture and take all the important points of a paper. Also, the papers that was written throughout the semester was not all based around one topic. The topics varied from sciences to engineering feats, while also coming up with our own business proposal where we learned how to format and make it a clean presentation of the idea, and finally we had to research Spartacus, and how it relates to history whether it is historically accurate or not. Taking English 203 has furthered my ability to write papers learning different techniques and ideas making myself a better writer.

Vocabulary plays a significant role in English as second language learning process. For the majority of English as Second Language(ESL) learners, the ultimate goal of learning the language is to understand (read and listen) and communicate (write and speak) with little difficulty and the lack of sufficient vocabulary may be the constraint of such goal (Folse, 2004). As the bedrock of English and as well as language, vocabulary also facilitates the development of other language skills: lexical richness leads to the progress in the use of language, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing skills (Nation, 1994). Reversely, The improvement in such skills may enhance learners vocabulary size as the exposure to more learning materials improves the capacity to acquire new vocabulary. (The importance of learning vocabulary/ why vocabulary?)

ESL students are students that speak English as a second language. Presently, there is many different system to characterize this type of students (qtd in Shi, Steen 63). For example, they can be seen as “English Language Learners (ELL), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), English Language Development (ELD), English Language Service (ELS), and

For me, learning a language is a complicated process. It is different from learning other subjects. It involves a lot of practices and follow up. When I talk about my personal experience, I would say that I have a rich experience in learning English as a second language. English was taught to me for ten years starting from grade seven till graduation from university. After graduation, I felt that I should improve my language skills. Therefore, I did a lot of efforts personally to increase my fluency. Until now I still learn the language. Indeed, learning a language takes a lifetime.

My seminar provided an overview of chapter 4- explaining second language learning. During my introduction, key points from each of the 5 perspectives were discussed. The cognitive perspective was given priority as it contained many subcategories within itself. This section also allowed my group mates to connect theory and practice of second language learning. My group mates were able to connect to the noticing hypothesis, processability theory and the three principles of practice through their own personal experiences while learning a second language. The first discussion question asked my group members to evaluate their own understanding of how language learning occurs and compare it with the perspectives we covered. The second discussion question provided them a chance to assess each perspective and think of one weakness and one strength for each. Overall if I were to re-do my seminar, I would like to provide more attention to the other perspectives. I would add more discussion questions in order to stimulate more in-depth discussions. Similarly, adding supplemental information from an outside source to further discussion and connect the theories to pedagogy. Additionally, I would create an activity that focused more on teaching of a second language and how these theories have influenced the current practices used.