October 12. Reading with English Language Learners by Dr. Barbara Hruska
The most important thing I picked up today from Dr. Hruska is that there is a major difference between English Language Learners (ELL) who are already literate in another language and those who are not. As a literate English language learner, one has a wealth of background knowledge in reading and writing that is of great assistance when approaching English for the first time. Those who are both learning English for the first time and trying to become literate for the first time are faced with a double challenge.
It was quite informative to take a personal look at this by testing out our own ability to decipher codes and meanings from reading other languages that we were not necessarily familiar. I had the most difficulty with Arabic and was quite perturbed at the thought of learning three different ways of writing the same letter depending on where it was in the sentence! It was helpful to have reinforced again the importance of assisting our learners with books that have a strong print to picture relationship and that are culturally relevant to the reader.
Context! Context! Context! This is very important for making positive strides by first grabbing the attention of our student and using that, their background and experience to make reading the fun and joyful activity that it is and not the chore that it can become.
I'm reminded of my time teaching English in Bosnia and how our host Larisa alerted us to how our vocabulary was chock full of idioms. It seems like we couldn't go five minutes without making our point without using an idiom. I think that studing and learning idioms give one an important and unique entrance into being able to use a language for naturally. Idioms encapsulate not just plain words but values and attitudes of the cultures that they come from. They are fascinating and I would have liked to spend more time on how best to go about teaching idioms which will invariably pop up in our conversation if not in the text itself.
I am happy that we had this orientation period as I feel that I have a good and solid supportive group of people with whom I can trade ideas and converse. I can't wait to get to school!
The most important thing I picked up today from Dr. Hruska is that there is a major difference between English Language Learners (ELL) who are already literate in another language and those who are not. As a literate English language learner, one has a wealth of background knowledge in reading and writing that is of great assistance when approaching English for the first time. Those who are both learning English for the first time and trying to become literate for the first time are faced with a double challenge.
It was quite informative to take a personal look at this by testing out our own ability to decipher codes and meanings from reading other languages that we were not necessarily familiar. I had the most difficulty with Arabic and was quite perturbed at the thought of learning three different ways of writing the same letter depending on where it was in the sentence! It was helpful to have reinforced again the importance of assisting our learners with books that have a strong print to picture relationship and that are culturally relevant to the reader.
Context! Context! Context! This is very important for making positive strides by first grabbing the attention of our student and using that, their background and experience to make reading the fun and joyful activity that it is and not the chore that it can become.
I'm reminded of my time teaching English in Bosnia and how our host Larisa alerted us to how our vocabulary was chock full of idioms. It seems like we couldn't go five minutes without making our point without using an idiom. I think that studing and learning idioms give one an important and unique entrance into being able to use a language for naturally. Idioms encapsulate not just plain words but values and attitudes of the cultures that they come from. They are fascinating and I would have liked to spend more time on how best to go about teaching idioms which will invariably pop up in our conversation if not in the text itself.
I am happy that we had this orientation period as I feel that I have a good and solid supportive group of people with whom I can trade ideas and converse. I can't wait to get to school!
posted by Miss J at 11:10 AM
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