After a long hiatus from this blog I came back re inspired after attending TESOL two weeks ago.
If you ever have the opportunity to attend this international meeting of the minds I highly recommend it. There is a wealth of knowledge and creativity in our field. Not only do PhD and researchers speak, but teachers like you do as well. It has been my experience that the teacher-led sessions are often the most passionate, valuable and well-attended ones at the conference.
If you have pursued a Masters of TESOL, or any other MA really, you probably wrote a thesis or participated in action research. My own thesis had a mouthful of a title 'How does a student's ability in L2 shape their social well-being in a school whose population shares a similar L1?'
I wanted to explore the how and why students self-grouped in relation to their first (LI) and second (L2) languages.
Here's some background:
I taught self-contained 8th grade ESL classes in New York City. My school was set in upper Manhattan, just south of the Bronx. 95% of the school population was from the Dominican Republic, the staff too. Spanish was the L1 for the majority of people within a 10-block radius of the school. My school operated a TBE, transitional bilingual education. Basically, the students received 60% of content in Spanish and 40% in English. The school grouped their ELs as classes by their proficiency levels. 8BL1, 8BL2 and 8BL3. General ed students and FLEPS (former ELs) were grouped in their own classes, 8A1-8A5. Kids mixed at Specials, lunchtime and in the hallways.
Do you see any potential issues here yet?
My 8BL2's and 3's were new to the country, students that traveled back and forth from the DR for extended periods of time and students who struggled or plateaued in their acquisition of English. Basically, these students were not near proficient in English. They knew it, 8BL1 knew it and the general ed knew it. They moved through the school in defensive packs, spoke mostly Spanish to their friends, had heavy accents and received most of their content in Spanish.
8BL1 on the other hand were nearing proficiency in English. These students were caught in a limbo world. They generally spoke English with their peers, used DR slang, struggled in Spanish-language classes (as they were not fully literate in Spanish) and generally rejected their 8BL2 and 3 peers. They in turn, were rejected by their general ed and FLEP peers.
Keep in mind, 95% of these students could speak and understand Spanish and a good majority vacationed in the DR during the summers. But they would not intentionally mix at school.
Interested? Intrigued? Yes! Start looking at your own teaching world like a researcher. What are some interesting trends that exist there?
I think our own EL teacher colleagues might benefit from hearing different scenarios like mine. There is so much more going on when students are learning English. The more we can understand how those outside levers affect student's language learning the better we can adapt our instruction.
Feel free to ask me to read the rest of my thesis if you're intrigued!
