Second Language Methodology

For this interview, I interviewed Erika Serrano who is a 4th grade teacher in the Galena Park ISD school district. Erika mentioned her experiences with two different bilingual models that she has experienced. She mentioned transitional program which Wright discussed as Transitional Bilingual Education Programs (TBE) (Wright, 2015). Wright mentioned how TBE is “the most common bilingual program in the U.S,” as it transitions ELLs into “English-medium” classroom as soon as possible (Wright, 2015). Students are gradually transitioned into English classroom, which means that students aren’t just thrown into the English language completely. Erika enjoyed working with ELLs through this program because she can support the student’s home language while still helping develop their English language. One of the ways Erika mentioned she helped her ELLs was by working in small groups and acting out certain academic content. One of the videos we watched in this course was The Chat Show, which wa...

For this interview I interviewed Joe Hernandez who grew up speaking Spanish and attended HISD public school. In the interview Joe discussed the impact Television and English speaking shows had on his journey to acquire English as a language. Wright includes Krashen’s input (comprehension) hypothesis which identifies acquiring a language when one is able to understand what we hear or read (Wright, 2015). This connected to Joe’s experiences as he heard and read character interactions on the TV, because the more he listened and watched the more he understood. Wright adds to Krashen’s hypothesis by including Swain’s comprehensible output hypothesis, that focuses on the person’s response and their ability to get there message across (Wright, 2015). Although Joe was able to understand English, he mentioned how he struggled speaking English because the sounds of letters in Spanish and English are so different. Swain concluded that Comprehension input was not enough to acquire a language ...

        One of the theories that correlate with my own ideas includes the involvement of student’s culture and background in the classroom.. Wright talks about the how influential it is to acknowledge and understand an English Language Learners environment and their culture (Wright, 2015). Teachers can then use this information when creating activities and lesson plans. Selecting images and videos in lesson can incorporate the students’s culture which they can connect with and encourage their learning. For English Language Learners it is hard to be around a completely new language and culture in the classroom. Having something in the classroom that is incorporated based on the student’s culture and home environment gives ELLs something they are familiar with and can encourage them to be engaged.   Engagement is a big topic that is discussed in any education course. Teachers have to know students and incorporate their own interest into the lesso...