Reflection Paper Bilingualism
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Rutgers University *
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200
Subject
Linguistics
Date
Jan 9, 2024
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3
Uploaded by ProfessorClover19092
Latawiec 1
Natalia Latawiec
Professor Virgone
Intro to Education
December 7, 2022
Bilingualism Reflection
Being able to teach to students requires teachers to cater to all types of learners, no matter
how challenging it may be. This is especially true for students who are learning English as a
second language. Being able to create lesson plans that communicate with students who are
proficient and not proficient in English is essential to strengthening every student’s ability to
learn.
In the article
Educating English Language Learners: A Review of the Latest Research
, by
Diane August, she explains, in depth, different techniques in hopes that teachers might
implement these strategies into their own classrooms. Each of these strategies contain research to
back up whether it is effective or not. A common theme that August mentions is having peers
engage with one another. It would be beneficial to both, the student who is English proficient and
the student who is learning English, to pair up with one another to complete different activities
set by the teacher. The student who is more proficient would typically take up the role of a
“coach” or “leader”, despite the two students learning the same content. The more proficient
student would help guide the student learning English in terms of how they should be discussing
the topic and the type of vocabulary to use. Doing so would not only help these students
understand English in a regular conversational way, but also would help them and their use of
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academic language. Another common theme that August mentions is providing support to
students trying to learn English to help them master skills and understand content. This would be
providing reinforcement of previous lessons, allowing them to use resources like glossaries, and
creating activities that would benefit every student. A different theme would be to monitor these
students and their progress. Monitoring their progress would help teachers adjust their lessons to
help these students improve in and out of the classroom.
I would incorporate this information into my own teaching by being able to make lessons
creative and interactive. Doing so would permit students to converse with one another, allowing
students to learn from each other, including those trying to learn English. I would also be much
more weary of how I present the information to the class as a whole. After a lesson, if a student
still continues to struggle, I would offer my help after class to try to explain to them one-on-one.
Being able to work with these students who might be struggling would give me a better
opportunity to monitor their overall progress, not only within the class, but also with their
English.
In Ofelia Garcia’s
Critical Multilingual Language Awareness and Teacher Education
, she
explains that her main goal is to show, “how teachers can be educated to gain CMLA [Critical
Multilingual Awareness], important for all teacher education programs.” (Garcia 2). She goes
into detail about language awareness, which is the “explicit knowledge about language, and
conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use.”
(2). She focuses on the three understandings of language awareness: knowledge of language
(proficiency), knowledge about language (subject-matter knowledge), and pedagogical practice.
Garcia also takes important note of the Multilingual Awareness projects, whose objective was to
raise awareness among teachers about language diversity and provide them with the ability and
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desire to exploit linguistic diversity. These projects showed why it is essential to expose students
and teachers of the different languages and cultures that are within their own communities. This
kind of representation makes people more aware of who they are surrounded by and what is
appropriate language usage. It also shows an importance of confronting histories of oppression
and social inequalities that would have resulted in minority groups of people.
I would incorporate this information into my own teaching by trying to create open
conversations with my students about difficult topics. Since I plan on going into secondary
education, I feel that it is essential for students within their age range to be more aware of social
inequalities and historical oppression, especially if it is relevant within modern society’s social
issues. These students’ education should be expanded outside of their textbooks and should also
focus on how previous world problems could affect them today, especially in terms of different
cultures. It is essential that students are aware of this, especially because New Jersey is such a
diverse state that has many first generation Americans, immigrant children, ethnic minorities,
etc.
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