The English Curriculum

Having the insight as a former student and a present educator, Linda Christensen wrote about her views on the way English is taught to students in her essay“Teaching Standard English: Whose Standard?” Christensen

In a perfect world, teachers would be able to talk and teach in every language and know the different dialects and correct grammar structures. This would help student’s value their cultural language and not feel excluded because they are ‘wrong’ by not using the ‘correct’ grammar or sentence structure. Sadly this is not realistic. Teachers have to teach what they know but they also have to keep in mind the different cultures in their classroom and outside of it. To help English Language learners learn in the classroom, teachers need to teach students about the strategy called codeswitching, teachers have to make sure their classroom environment is supportive, and lastly teachers have to teach students Standard English to for their future successes

Times are changing. Literacy is not only a problem that the English teacher has to deal with. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write (Oxford Dictionaries). However, you have to use different skills to read a novel than you do with reading a science question. So it only makes that literacy should be taught in different ways for each different subject. It does a student no good to be able to physically read a science question but have no idea what it’s asking for. The last five years have seen unprecedented attention given to the literacy achievement of adolescents in secondary schools in the United States. Spurred by the release of flat or declining reading scores on national tests. (Donahue, Daane & Grigg, 2003). This could be easily linked to a lack of literacy techniques being taught in schools.

English Language Learners (hereafter referred to as ELLs) currently comprise 10% of the total school population in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). It is a population that is going to continue to increase in American public education and their specific needs for learning literacy are of great importance to teachers. Since schools and teachers are increasingly judged based upon the academic achievement of students, then the success of the growing population of ELLs is going to be increasingly important. In the present paper the role of the teacher and specific research-based literacy strategies for ELLs is investigated.

EDEE  400  –  Assignment  1   Literacy  in  schools  today  not  only  involves  teaching  students  to  read  and  write,   but  is  also  heavily  focused  on  giving  students  the  necessary  vocabulary  and  skills   to  understand  different  text  types  according  to  the  key  learning  areas  (KLAs)   they  are  undertaking.  While  traditional  ideas  of  literacy  often  ignored  the  diverse   needs  of  students,  contemporary  notions  of  literacy  are  constantly  evolving  in   response  to  changes  in  situational

She maintains this will allow them to generate cognitive and linguistic progress that nurtures their transition to English (Stover, 2015). Therefore, according to Dr. Vonderlack-Navarro, the “English only” approach can be detrimental to learning English (Stover, 2015). Vonderlack-Navarro contends school board members need to endorse specific strategies and support multilingual classrooms in response to the question, “How does the school board make these literacy gains in a classroom with English language learners who speak different languages?” (Stover, 2015).

2. What are the problem of implementation English subject in 2013 revised curriculum in the 7th grade of SMPN 35 Semarang?

While I’m in class, I will make sure that I listen to what my instructors are saying and how they say to do something. It is also very important to take notes on what is being taught in the class, and whatever your teacher may right on the broad. In order to receive a passing grade and really pass the class I will have to complete all of my homework.

There can be several different reasons why an English Language Learner can have troubles comprehending the English language. Poverty can play a huge role when in explaining why many English language learners have the troubles in mastering the English language. The State testing has varied throughout the years, along with the degrees of assessments and progress. Teachers also need constructive feedback to properly assess their own progress. The increase prescription of ADHD medication can also be a factor. Programs like SLADI in effect that pulls ELL’s from mainstream classrooms to focus on advanced grammatical structures of the English language; all in which, have been unsuccessful in aiding the student to acquire mastery within the English language domains of reading and writing. Comparing a personal experience I had dealt with wasted school year time, regarding an ELL student, involves a teacher being out of touch with her student and giving inappropriate leveled work. All of these issues work hand in hand. The ultimate goal is to teach literacy and to reach proficiency within the English language.

What is the language that most kids are taking throughout their elementary, middle, and high school years? Some would guess French and German, but most would guess Spanish. In today’s world more people than ever speak a romantic language. Some would argue that by learning the basics of Spanish, that allows you to be able to travel and communicate with anyone who is able to speak a romantic language. Others may argue that choosing a specific language that a child desires to learn is more valuable. Spanish should be the only language taught in schools due to the repetitiveness that is instilled within the children, and the commonness of the language itself.

Being as equally as important as math, English was also the primary focus of Common Core, particularly the English Language Development curriculum. A new program was made that affected English language learners significantly. Those new to our country and do not speak English need to learn English in order to pass school, however learning a new language is not easy and cannot be rushed. A standard language course in high school takes four years in order to hopefully become fluent, however after one year, English language learners are expected to take their first English standardized test. Over a two-week period, they are given a series of standardized tests for reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In addition, teaching conversational English

Since we are teaching children the standard form of English, it is necessary that all primary teaching is in that form, however, society needs to understand that every child comes from a different background; a child may have grown up using a different form of English or even an entirely different language. Coming from an individual that grew up speaking a different language at home, it is difficult for students like us to make certain connections that children who grew up speaking the standard can make easily. We have a tougher time with seemingly simple concepts because our dialects/languages do not adhere to the same rules that the standard does. Although we have one unifying goal of educating the young in Standard English, all teaching should be based on the child’s background and try to use that to help them learn better and faster. As Pullum described, there is a lot of misconception involving using AAE to implement student’s learning. The point is not to make dialects like AAE a language course in schools or have classes be taught in those dialects, but rather to be used in conjunction with the Standard to efficiently ease children into the desired outcome. Judge Joiner offered a solution to the problem by requiring teachers to dedicate a certain amount of hours to understanding these children’s point of views. Verdelle, on the other hand, seems

With that being said, EDU 350 offers countless materials to encourage teacher candidates to develop an interdisciplinary mindset, focused specifically around teaching the English Language Arts. Teacher candidates’ content knowledge is developed through the reading of two textbooks, Making Sense of Phonics by Beck and Language Arts: Patterns of Practice by Thompkins. The information collected from these resources are applied to both the development and execution of lesson plans, specifically the final Interdisciplinary Standards Based Unit. The SBU is the way that teacher candidates display their understanding of the content knowledge taught within the class. The SBU must incorporate an ELA strategy in every lesson, different reading comprehension strategies, technology, global perspectives, multiple content areas, and the integration of four expository and four narrative texts. Each of these components were discussed at length every week, so that the teacher education students would be comfortable implementing them into their final thematic unit

These students may find it very difficult to participate in English tasks and will quickly tire when constantly having to converse in English.

Before an EMI period in the 1980s, Content-based Instruction (CBI) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) were the well-known approaches to teach subject contents through a second or foreign language (L2) in western countries. CBI is an approach to L2 teaching that focuses on the target language and content (Brinton, Snow, & Wesche, 1989; Crandall & Tucker, 1990). Swain and Johnson (1997) pointed out that CBI is most often associated with the genesis of language immersion education in North America in 1965. They