Teaching Multilingual Children By: Virginia Collier
Collier argues that there is a right and a wrong way to go about teaching multilingual students. Throughout the article she states seven points that I believe are very important for teachers to use and be aware of when teaching these students. The points are...
1. Be aware that children use first language acquisition strategies for learning or acquiring a second language.
2. Do not hink of yourself as a remedial teacher expected to correct so called "deficiencies" of your students
3. Don't teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language.
4. Teach the standard for or english and students home language together with an appreciation dialect differences to create an environment of language recognition in the classroom.
5. Do not forbid students from code switching in the classroom. Understand the function that code switching serves.
6. Describe the literacy development curriculum that is specifically designed for English language learners.
7. Provide a balance and integrated approach to the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
I believe having the knowledge of these seven points would really help teachers out who are in the position of having to teach these students. Teachers in these circumstances can't simply say ok were going to be speaking English only today. That is not fair to the students because English is their second language and can't be expected to be fluent in it and not have to go back to their original language at some point. In Collier's third point she says that a language should never be eliminated form the classroom. So trying to take away the language would be the wrong way of going about teaching a second language.
Collier says that teachers need to value the students home language and their dialects. A teacher should never tell the student that they are doing or saying something wrong because of their unique dialect. Also if a student is having trouble understanding something in the second language the teacher can't get upset if the student refers back to his or her original language to try to better understand what the teacher is trying to teach. Collier calls this code switching which is in her fifth point. Then what I think is her best point is number seven when she says always refer back to the four language skills.
I thought that this was a very interesting article because I am in a ESL classroom for my VIPS tutoring. Many of the students that i am working with barley speak English at all so i went online and tried to find some ways so i can get through to the students better. Then i cam upon this website, and i used some of the things that it said to help have the students understand better.
i agree. i believe that those seven point are great for teachers who are trying to teach multilingual students. if the nuns in aria had used these points i believe that it would have prevented the family from losing it's closeness the way they did.
ReplyDeletei agree with the statements Courtney made, Collier gives ways to get around breaking up families. she also gives advice that in the long run will help people like you, non bilingual teachers/tutors helping in ESL classrooms
ReplyDeleteI did my post on this article too and also did the argument. Collier has some really great points, especially those 7 things that you put into your article to help teachers teach multilingual students. I really liked Collier's article.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that those seven points were very helpful and def. something to keep in mind for the future as a potential educator. It does make me a bit timid and i feel like I need to learn spanish in order to be a productive educator to any student that is bilingual in spanish/english. I do also put into consideration Richard Rodriguez's article when he speaks about that fact that yes he lost some closeness with his family but it allowed him to find an individual identity in society. He basically says that loosing that closeness was not that bad and is just like an other ordinary American family. His family was initially so close because those were the only people they could communicate with but once they learned the language of the society the entire family was able to branch out and become more confident individuals. This is just like my family, we all love each other but we do not need to just have each other to talk to every night, we encourage our individuality and don't need a language barrier to create the bond we have.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the 7 points will be helpful in the classroom as a teacher and even in our service learning. I also agree with Courtney when she said if the nuns in Aria had used the points, Richard's family wouldn't have lost that closeness that they once had.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with having to know these 7 points as a teacher. They should always be in the back of our minds, because we live in an place where different languages are all around us! Its not fair to those children trying to learn english and having to go home and ONLY speak their native language. I can't even imagine living in a different country trying to figure out what the people around me were saying - that must be so hard.
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