Taking Spanish class throughout high school and college, I felt that I have learned a lot of material and could decently speak in Spanish during that time period. Now that I haven't taken Spanish for over a year, I'm not sure I would be able to communicate as well. For me, I have to be actively engaged in a language to understand it and use it more. During high school when I had Spanish class everyday, our teacher only allowed us to speak Spanish while in her classroom. If she caught you using English to say something, points were deducted off your grade. I thought that speaking Spanish all the time would be easy, but it proved to be extremely difficult to communicate my thoughts sometimes. I found out that I didn't know the translation for some basic, everyday words that I used in English and had to describe that word in Spanish in order to explain it. I imagine this is how English Language Learners (ELL) feel on a daily basis.
Even though I can somewhat relate to how the ELL students must feel, my situation is completely different since every student in my Spanish class was in the same situation. No student was any better in Spanish than the other students. ELL students are in a classroom where students have English as their native language, so everyone is not on the same level. I imagine this must be very difficult for the ELL students and their teachers. If I run into this situation in the future, I will look into the ideas in this section that were beneficial for helping these students.
I liked the idea of using examples of things from the ELL student's culture. When a student can relate to something, they feel more comfortable and are more willing to participate. Creating a sense of family in the classroom goes along with this idea. When a student feels welcomed and cared for in a classroom, they automatically feel more comfortable in their surroundings. Since this environment is already intimidating and scary for ELL students, a welcoming environment is very important to their learning. The last point I truly liked was empowering the students. Giving them the idea that they can work through this challenge and you are enthusiastic to help them do it is powerful. Sometimes students just need the support from their teacher to know that they can succeed.
I like how you compared ELL students in the every day classroom to you during your spanish classes. I think its interesting and encouraging that your teacher wanted you to constantly speak spanish, maybe points didn't need to be deducted only because I know it was difficult for me even after 3 years of it! Even after half a school year not taking Spanish it was extremely difficult for me to recall even simple words, I can't imagine children not being English speakers trying to learn and comprehend in everyday classrooms. It's very difficult to even imagine trying to live in a world or get a good grade when you understand little to no words. As a future teacher I hope to strongly help ELL students and take time to give them the attention they may need.
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