Week 10

In this week's reading (Kumar chap. 7 & 8, Brown chap. 22), I learned about language awareness and heuristics. Chapter 22 of Brown discusses the three parts of language: grammar, semantics, and pragmatics. Though language has been divided into three distinct groups, each of these three group cannot be sufficient alone. For example, we cannot teach our students semantics without having taught them pragmatics and grammar. I don't think it's necessarily difficult to teach these different aspects of language, but I think the hard part actually becomes figuring out how much to teach one area. How do I determine what I need to spend more time on? Is even possible to determine what we think is more important to teach students? I've had teachers who focused solely on grammar without any mention of pragmatics or semantics. I learned to "plug" in parts of a sentence based on the worksheets that my teacher gave me, but I never learned to use the grammar rules effectively because I did not learn to apply it within semantics or pragmatics. I wonder how much more effective it would have been for the teacher to incorporate semantics and pragmatics into her grammar lesson. Would I have had a better grasp on grammar? I'm not sure, because I did not have that experience, but I'm guessing that the answers would be yes. It's important to teach grammar, but isn't it just as important to teach students how language actually works? Do we choose to acknowledge only standard English as the only acceptable English? Or do we let "other Englishes" have space in our classrooms? I think idealistically, I would like to introduce all these different dialects of English, but I wonder how practical this goal would be. Despite all the best intentions I may have, I don't really know how or what I will teach.

Not only is learning grammar, pragmatics, and semantics an important part of language learning, but understanding how the language is formed and its history is just as important. When I took class that focused on the history and growth of English, I had so many lightbulb moments. Everything that I learned in high school would have made more sense. Not only is this language awareness important for ELLs, but it's also just as important to native language speakers.

Brown Chapter 20 & 21

Chapters 20 and 21 in Brown talked about the teaching of reading and writing. The chapters discuss the importance of teaching reading and writing in addition to speaking. Brown talks about ways in which we can improve the way we teach each of these areas. There are many bottom-up and top-down strategies that are mentioned throughout the chapters. Brown gives great strategies for teachers to encourage reading comprehension and the principles for teaching reading skills. It's important for students to be able to choose a text that will help students achieve strategic reading skills. Choosing text that is readable and authentic (in target language). Choosing reading that is interesting and relatable to students is necessary because students will be more motivated to read something that they have some interest in. Not only should students have an interest, but the reading material should be appropriate to the level and difficulty of the learner. A common theme that has been occurring within our class has been about meaningful and authentic learning. In the context of reading, using a text that is meaningful and authentic is more beneficial to an ELL's learning than a text that is not.
I found chapter 20 and 21 to go hand in hand, and were very appropriate to read together. While reading is important, I don't think you can have reading without writing. To be successful at reading, there must be writing involved. However, it is interesting because each student's culture has a different way of writing. For example, American writing tends to be more direct and to the point about the argument, whereas another culture may sort of "beat around the bush" before actually getting to the point. When our students write in a style that we do not recognize, it is important for us to remember that it doesn't necessarily mean that our students are inadequate in writing. I think that one of the important points that I can take away from the readings is that using meaningful and authentic materials is extremely important to effective learning, as well as having the understanding that our students come from different places where our style of writing may be something completely foreign to them.

Week 8

The article, "How Do I Support A Student's First Language When I Don't Speak the Language?", discusses the issues that arise when language teachers are not able to speak the language of their ELL students. How do we teach these students when we are unable to communicate through their native language? The activities and strategies that Dolores used in her classroom were great examples of how to still involve all students even if the teacher and other students do not speak the same language. When Nyuget was the student language teacher, the teacher, Nyuget, and her peers were mutually involved in the lesson. In this situation, "Nyuget saw her home language sanctioned and thus honored" (138). Dolores created an activity that made her students feel like their language still matters in the classroom. Their native language isn't being banned from the classroom, but its use is encouraged. This activity empowers our students and gives them the motivation to succeed in learning the target language. Rather than prohibiting the students' native languages, promoting and encouraging native language use may give students more motivation to master the target language.
Chapter 5 in Kumar discusses three interactional activities: interpersonal, textual, and ideational. Students' involvement and success in the classroom may also be dependent on the amount of meaningful interaction and the opportunities that they are given to succeed in the classroom. Meaningful interaction in the class  is crucial for motivating students to learn. As seen in Dolores' classroom with Nyuget teaching her peers Vietnamese, Nyuget is engaging in an activity that she sees is valuable. She comes to school early to be prepared and she is excited to use her native language in school. She has more motivation and interest in learning by having an interaction with her peers and teacher that is more meaningful to her.
Not only does there need to be a meaningful interaction among students and teachers, teachers should also make the attempt to learn the language that their students speak. It may not be practical or even possible to learn every language, but I think making the effort and having a personal connection to students will help students to better learn the target language through using their native language.