“administrators in schools should be competent to provide
leadership in addressing issues of underachievement in culturally and
linguistically diverse contexts. In particular, they should know enough about
the reading process to guide teachers towards coherent and effective ways of
teaching reading to ELL students (N.I. 85).
For me, English Language Learners aren't the students who I face on a daily bases, rather Spanish Language Learners. I personally do not have sufficient
experience in teaching to understand everything that is required to help students become successful in a second language and unfortunately, neither does
my administration--my administration doesn't have a background in Spanish. The foreign language department is on its own as it is an
elective class. Nonetheless, it is important for administrators in schools to
be knowledgeable to an extent where they can provide educators with the
material necessary to help students become successful, and in my school, I
believe administration understands the difficulty and importance of acquiring a
second language, and how difficult it can be to teach students whose primary
language is not the same as the subject the educator is knowledgeable in.
“An implication is that teachers should encourage students to
continue to develop their knowledge of the world and curriculum content in
their L1 while they are acquiring English since this knowledge increases their
cognitive power to comprehend and acquire English” (N.I 90).
Although Spanish is a different
language from English, I find that it is important for educators who teach
Spanish to consider the methods in which ELL students are taught while they
teach Spanish Language Learners. Students learning a second language always
have to be given tools in order to be successful in the language they are
learning. I tell my students to learn the language by watching movies in
Spanish first rather than in English and afterwards, watch the movie again in
English to see if they were able to grasp any of the concepts. This is a way to
challenge themselves and if they are challenging themselves, they are becoming
independent learners in a second language.
In the classroom the teacher is to explain the objective of the
day’s lesson to the students, give directions on how to proceed, and teach
students. The students are guided for the most part, and for a great portion of
the class, their job is to listen. When students are given the opportunity to
speak, it’s all in small increments of time—that is, speaking opportunities are
only given to students when called upon by the teacher to share his/her answers
with the class or when the student is engaged in think-pair-share activities
that require him/her to listen to the responses of his/her partner, and later
repeat those responses. These speaking exercises are accompanied by SDAIE
strategies that include graphic organizers, seemingly an organizational tool
used to facilitate the comprehension of all students. These tools are not only
for English language learners, although many were developed for that reason,
but a Spanish teacher can also utilize them. At the end of the day, these exercises
are brief—students only spend 60 minutes a day being exposed to the second
language he/she is attempting to become fluent in. I find it difficult to acquire
a second language if you don’t make it part of your daily life, and that’s why I
tell students to watch movies in Spanish so that they continue to be exposed to
the language. Even though they are not practicing how to speak the language,
they are being exposed to it.
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