Bilingual Teacher Preparation from an ELL’s Perspective
Claudia Gonzalez
University of Texas at El Paso
Abstract This paper explores bilingual teacher preparation; one of the most important and principal lack of bilingual education. Teachers play an important role in children’s education and it is very important to give to bilingual students adequate preparation according to their academic level so they have the same opportunities as other students to be successful in the world. Often times, however, bilingual teachers are hired by an administrator with an inadequate picture of their preparation and experiences as bilingual educators and citizens. Teachers are role models for students and they model what they observe from
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Bilingual Instruction is implemented in United States schools to afford students the opportunity to acquire the English slowly. Various programs are employed such as: dual language, immersion programs, and Fifty (McKeon, 1987). These programs have been implemented in some districts and schools in the United States allowing bilingual students the opportunity to learn a second language commensurate with their abilities. Some of these programs are successful; others fail due to the deficiencies in bilingual teacher preparation. One reason for inadequate bilingual teacher preparation is the fact that some teachers use the transmission as part of their teaching-learning process instead of applying correctly the bilingual program that the school has. The transmission model of teaching has been used in traditional schooling it aims to view students as empty vessels that the teacher must “fill” with knowledge. This teaching style defines knowledge as “a collection of facts, concepts, principles, and theories that were discovered by experts in the different academic disciplines and packaged into the formal curriculum” (Villegas & Lucas, p. …show more content…
What they do not know is the work that this bilingual student had to accomplish in order to become knowledgeable in the English language. Bilingual teacher preparation comes to be judged because bilingual students are not reaching the academic progress hoped. According to Walqui & Van Lier (2010), there is no perfect person neither in English or Spanish who could be perfect in both languages. This idea refers to the ability to think, read, write, and speak without issue in both languages. An individual always requires the use of their first language to make a connection and then to process the second language. There are many schools that pretend to have perfect bilingual kids, but they have to pay attention to the bilingual teacher preparation. Schools must use caution when selecting personel. They must ensure the preparation of their bilingual educators will adequately prepare teachers to meet the needs of their students in an effort to help them to
The structure of bilingual education programs differs depending on the school, but generally, they are either transitional or maintenance. Maintenance programs provide instruction in both languages to preserve a heritage language by giving proficiency in both languages to the students. Transitional programs eventually transition from both languages to English-only instruction. If one were to enter an English+Spanish program, one would have classes in both English and Spanish, with roughly equal distribution of both. If it were a transition program, the proportion of English would increase until it was English only.
By including a personal example of a bilingual student in the South, Carsen proves that his research is credible as the title of the article is “Bilingual education in the South.” In addition to his interview with a student, Carsen also interviews an English as a Second Language (ESL) specialist and a worker of the state education department to gather different viewpoints on the matter. Incorporating interviews with specialists in foreign language and education adds to Carsen’s credibility because his argument revolves around these two elements. Carsen also includes his
As a teacher, I am committed to give each of my students the right to receive help. Just because a student is having trouble pronouncing the English language I know that I shouldn’t talk down on them or ignore them because they are not grasping the language better than others. I am entitled to equally teach my students and find ways to help them better their learning. As a bilingual teacher, I will find programs or other activities that I know can help them, so that they can be successful.
In the essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” (1981), Richard Rodriguez, an experienced writer, expressed that “…it is not possible to for a child – any child – ever to use his family’s language in school” and began expressing his past experiences with bilingualism (510). Rodriguez recollects his feelings toward the accents he has listened to throughout his childhood, his “disabling confusion” from gaining fluency in English and Spanish, and the intimacy passing between sounds and words (519). By implementing his personal experiences, he entices his reader into reading actively in order to express how confusing, yet beneficial bilingualism can be. Rodriguez’s audience is focused to those who can relate when using more than one language
When I was younger I was enrolled into Bilingual classes since preschool which cost me dearly. While taking these classes I had trouble learning English and Spanish words at the same time. I struggled through elementary school because I was not used to focusing primarily on English which affected my grades. While it is true that colleges look for students who know more than one language, the problem with that requirement is that students who focus on two languages at once are more likely to fail their classes because they do not have their full attention directed towards the English language and they don’t pay attention to that factor. Colleges do not see the risk of being a bilingual student.
Knowing many parents and children have limited English proficiency, they still do not have bilingual counselors and school staff to help families learn and utilize school resources. Students are not
The parent’s perspective towards bilingual education was like the student’s opinions because both individuals felt immersion classrooms benefit the students and the parents. The father of Jason was proud his son was the first in his family to read, write, and speak in English. Jason’s father knew his son would have many career opportunities by learning English at school. Learning the English academic language was not the only proud language Jason’s father encouraged for Jason to learn but also the Spanish language as well. Jason’s father only speaks Spanish so if his son was to lose his home language, a language barrier would form between father and son.
New Learning Methods for Bilingual Students In the article "Using Manga to Build Bridges for Bilingual Students," Karina Quilantan-Garzc, a bilingual teacher in a Texas school district where many of her students speak Spanish as their first language, explores the use of manga as a tool for bridging the language and cultural gap between bilingual students in a classroom setting. The use of manga in language instruction is not a new concept. In fact, it has been used in Japan for decades as a tool for teaching English to Japanese students. However, its use in bilingual education in the United States is relatively new.
His narrative shows this support and how having instruction in Spanish and English allows him to have higher academics. In less than ten years, one third of students attending public schools will not know English when starting Kindergarten. Are schools and teachers ready for this and will push for bilingual instruction? Is America ready for this? As for now, there is mixed perspectives.
“No Comprendo” (“I Don’t Understand”) is a newspaper article by Barbara Mujica, a professor of Spanish at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In this article, which was published in the New York Times, Mujica argues against bilingual education (teaching students in their native language as well as in English). No Comprendo Last spring, my niece phoned me in tears. She was graduating from high school and had to make a decision.
With nations becoming increasingly connected through mediums like the internet, the world has changed substantially within the last decade. It’s a time where Spanish songs such as Luis Fonsi’s Despacito can top the American music charts, where traveling to the other side of the world takes a few hours instead of weeks, and more importantly, where states like California and Utah are continuing to promote and provide for a growing demand for bilingual education through dual-immersion programs. Although the states have great strides in the right direction, bilingual education should not be encouraged but rather be required for K-12 students. Because bilingual education integrates languages into the student’s lifestyle through instruction, it enriches the lives of children, the adults they will become, and the community to which they will contribute to.
The outcomes of the research will be intended to increase understanding about bilingualism and used as an aid to parents to choose suitable school for the children and to students to decide which university to go to study. The research includes several different methods. This enable the data and information accumulated by one technique to be checked and affirmed by an alternate.
The basic division of bilingualism into compound, coordinate, balanced and dominant, has been already mentioned however there are some other criteria defining the division of bilingualism. Baker (2001) introduced several types of bilingual education programmes that are spread worldwide. Nowadays a lot of schools follow the curriculum based on the bilingual programmes invented by Baker. These programmes include the ways of learning foreign languages, the programmes reinforcing the target language or the programmes retaining the mother tongue at the first place and developing the target
The ability to develop foreign language become reduces. Besides the age factor Experience and school environment as well as the teaching. They play an important role in the development of language skills. So the bilingual is necessary: using
As far as we know, no previous research has explored pre-service infant and primary education teachers’ beliefs about multilingual education. It seems relevant to see whether their beliefs are in line with existing literature or they are totally misinformed. Additionally, our study tries not only to explore prospective teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism and multilingual pedagogy but also to ascertain the impact of instruction on issues such as the linguistic and cognitive benefits of multilingualism and the earlier the better