Short Analysis Essay
Short Analysis Essay <--Link
Imagine being placed somewhere that
is totally out of your comfort zone or element and not be able to communicate
with the people around you. This is one of the greatest challenges that English
as a Second Language (ESL) students face every day. In some cases, these
students are unable to communicate with their teachers and peers. Not only do
ESL students have to learn the language, they also have to learn to adapt to
the new culture. ESL students are not the only ones who face challenges in the
classrooms, their teachers do as well. I interviewed a kindergarten ESL teacher
(C) in hopes to get a better understanding of the challenges faced by an ESL
teacher and ESL students a in the classroom. After conducting the interview I
realized that the these ESL students actually face the same issues as their
peers do.
SOCIAL
After carefully analyzing this
excerpt, the teacher expresses how are students interact enough to be able to
tattle on another student. This also goes to show that they must socialize
enough with all the other students to feel comfortable enough to tell the
teacher on them. However, we do see that these students are in kindergarten and
spend every day together, so they are bound to eventually get along and feel
comfortable with the English native speaking students.
M
Can you describe your students and how they interact with one
another and how they interact with non-ESL students.
C
A My students are of various different cultural
backgrounds. I have Haitian students, Chinese students, I have
Portuguese, Brazilian, Spanish students. But the students that I pull out are
students that are in two separate groups and they are from the same classes—two
classes combined. For both group of students that I have so they know
each other, they interact with each other. Some were in Pre-K class together
last year. They…… can you ask me the question again please. *** laughs****(in
this verse she tried her best to take control and dominate the question but
then she needed the question repeated and she was not ashamed to ask)
M
***laughs*** How do your students
interact with one another and how do they interact with non-ESL students—so do
they like stick together amongst themselves or do they talk to the non-ESL
students?
C
They talk to all the other
non-ESL students as well and they talk to each other when they are in class
together. They get along pretty well together, you know they are five
year-olds, they are kindergarten students so they tend to tattle and just have
regular things that other kindergarten students who are not ESL students do.
Even the ones who can’t speak English that well, they still manage a way to
tattle. (MELANIE laughs)Or to tell me that something is wrong. They can
figure it out. They can get their point across when they need to. (Here we
see the teacher gives her students enough space to allow them to be independent
and develop social skills on their won without her having to overlook their
every move)
LEARNING
One of the most frustrating
struggles an ESL student may face in the classroom is to follow instructions
that are given to them in a language they do not fully understand. When the
teacher gives them the assignment, the students must be able to read and
understand the English literature that is given to them. Unfortunately, this
may be difficult to do so if they do not fully understand the English language.
In this excerpt I analyze how the teacher helps her students overcome this
challenge.
M
How do your students overcome their struggles, do they ask
you for help, do they look at someone else’s paper, or do they sit there until
the teacher acknowledges them? So this can be in their regular classroom too.
C
Most of the students do copy and I let them, at the
beginning. I let them copy because they are doing something, they are
not just sitting there.. And when I know they can do the work as the
year progresses, I tell them “It’s time to stop copying, I know you
can do your own work and you need to focus on what you can do.” (She is
allowing them to take control of the situation but she is still there to
monitor how much control they are actually taking.)And yes, some of them
do—each student is different. Some of them ask for help, and some of them will
just sit there and cry. I have had both. So it depends on the child.
We see that the teacher gives her
students their independence again as she allows them to resolve their own
issues and once she feels that they are stable she ensures them that they are
capable of completing their own work.
HOME
ENVIROMENT
ESL
students do not have control of their recourses, and unfortunately they are not
incharge of their home situation. It can become very difficult if an ESL
student does not have anyone who speaks English in their home. This can be a
great challenge between the parent and the teacher. However, this teacher makes
great uses of her resources and actually tells parents to not speak English in
their home because that will actually effect their child's learning in a
negative way. The teacher creates a balance for the student where they learn
English only at school and do their school work in their native language. This
way students are able to differentiate the proper phonics of each language
without mixing them together. This will result in the student speaking poorly
in both languages.
M
If a student doesn't have anyone who speaks the
English language at home, does it make it more difficult for the student
to learn the new language?
C
It can. Especially if there isn't anyone who can help the parents
themselves. And help them translate and communicate with the school. We
have that as well. It’s difficult for them to communicate with the school and
teach them. But I always tell the parents to speak their
language with the children because it reinforces what they have learned and
they can understand their principals and the concepts better if they explain it
to them in the home language “OHH, that’s what the teacher meant” if
they’re talking about dinosaurs, whatever. The parents ”Oh, yes, I remember
learning about dinosaurs in my home language—this, this, that’s what the
teacher meant.” So it reinforces the concept. So I always tell
parents “please speak to your child in your home language and don’t try to
speak to them in English if you don’t speak it correctly.” Because that
reinforces poor skills. “So I take care of the English and you take
care of your language” that’s what I tell them. (She allows the parents to
take control of the situation at home, yet they must follow her advice)