I totally agree with you, Lynda, that having some understanding of a
student's native language helps us to teach them more effectively.  I also
speak Spanish. My work with adults from different language backgrounds has
shown me how much my knowledge of the Spanish language and culture has been
beneficial in conveying English language concepts to my Spanish speaking
students.  However, it has been much more difficult to convey those same
concepts to students whose language is totally unknown to me.

I have also been called upon to teach English to elementary children during
the summer prior to their first exposure to school in the USA.  Again, my
knowledge of Spanish has been extremely helpful in communicating concepts to
those who spoke Spanish.

I think it would be great to have a source to go to where we could at least
learn about the basic sentence structure of different languages.  It might
help us explain some concepts better.

Teresa Durkin
Adult Education Coordinator
Special Programs Coordinator
Lake County ESD
tdurkin at lakeesd.k12.or.us

On 11/28/08, LYNDA OSBORNE <lyndaosborne at att.net> wrote:


>  Greetings, everyone.

>

> Quick query. I'm an elementary school teacher and have wondered, "Are ESL

> teachers required to learn the linguistic frameworks of their students'

> primary languages?"  My current school does not have an ESL program, but I

> did work at a school several years ago that had one. I had about 33%

> Mexican-American Spanish-speaking students and found that their learning and

> use of English improved during my time with them. This may be because

> I speak Spanish and know the basics of the language's

> grammatical/conversational structure. I feel this knowledge helped me to

> better support English learning and conceptual understandings with these

> students. I know that there are some ESL courses that prepare teachers in

> this field over a 6-week summer course, which I'm not certain would be quite

> enough time to expose teachers to a variety of linguistic constucts

> [languages] if they didn't already have such knowledge.

>

> My success with those students may also be attributed to their level of

> comfort with me knowing that I respected them [and their language enough to

> learn and practice, etc.]. Since language is so intricately tied to the

> thinking process, a teacher's ability to "understand where a student is

> coming from" in terms of how they think and speak [and culture] can serve to

> motivate student learning and help the teacher to access gaps, needs,

> strengths, etc. I suppose that my final question rounds out to be, "What is

> the general focus for ESL training and do you think that ESL teachers are

> prepared adequately in these training programs?

>

> Thanks for your input!

>

> Lynda Lee

>

> *Lynda Lee Osborne*

> *Teacher of the Year 2008-9 *

> *FLL Robotics Coach*

> *Global Economics Project Coordinator*

> *A. Philip Randolph Elementary *

> *Fulton County Schools*

> *lyndaosborne at att.net* <lyndaosborne at att.net>

>

>

>

>  ------------------------------

> *From:* "Liden, Astrid" <Astrid.Liden at state.mn.us>

> *To:* englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 25, 2008 12:17:02 PM

> *Subject:* [EnglishLanguage 3158] ESL Learners with Low Levels of Literacy

>

>  *Special Topic:* *Research and Best Practice Concerning the Instruction

> of ESL Learners with Low Levels of Literacy*

>

> We are pleased to announce that the 25th anniversary volume of the

> MinneWITESOL Journal is now available online at

> www.minnewitesoljournal.org. The first section of this volume includes

> articles that concentrate on our special topic: research and best practice

> concerning the instruction of ESL learners with low levels of literacy.

> Articles include an overview of research-based methods for teaching ESL

> students with low levels of literacy, a report on a year-long research study

> on teaching learning strategies to students with low levels of literacy, and

> several reviews of materials for low-literacy students.

>

> Astrid Liden

> ABE Professional Development Coordinator

> Minnesota Department of Education

> Adult Basic Education (ABE)

> 1500 Highway 36 West

> Roseville, MN 55113-4266

> Phone: 651-582-8424

> Fax: 651-634-5154

> Email: astrid.liden at state.mn.us

>

>

>

> ----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

> Adult English Language Learners mailing list

> EnglishLanguage at nifl.gov

> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage

> Email delivered to tdurkin at lakeesd.k12.or.us

>




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