EXPERIENCE WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Experience with English Language Learners



Experience with English Language Learners

Introduction

Efforts at improving fieldwork supervision during internship have largely focused on the role of English Language Learners supervisors and intern teachers. Thus students' perceptions of the instructional practices are not systematically collected, analyzed and discussed in such a way that insights from students' perceptions can inform fieldwork supervision. This experience therefore compares a supervisor's and Hispanic middle school English learners' interpretations of the teaching activities in two English learning classrooms in Los Angeles. Based on the 17 broad competence domains prescribed for intern teachers, I developed a 37-item Likert-type of 5-point rating instrument to collect data. I observed two teaching sessions and rated two intern teachers. Also, their students used a similar instrument to rate them. Using ANOVA, I compared the scores of the supervisor and the students. Data analysis indicated that the students and I differed on our interpretation of the classroom teaching and learning activities. Therefore, I recommend an approach that shifts focus away from the emphasis on teaching to learning. This approach calls for evaluative criteria that incorporate students' perspectives as part of the integrative measurement of the effectiveness of intern teachers' teaching practices. I also outlined some multi-faceted activities to help English Language Learners supervisors gain better insights to learners' feelings and thoughts about instructional activities in ESL classrooms during intern teacher fieldwork supervisions.

Discussion

ESL students may be very different from other learners in their background, skills, and past experiences. Some may come to the U.S. having attended school regularly, and they will bring with them literacy skills and content knowledge, although in another language. It is likely that these students will have an easier transition into an academic setting than students who may come from a war-torn country or from a natural disaster area where schooling was not always available or accessible. Many will belong to low-income families even though some of their parents may have been highly educated in their own country and may have once held professional positions. The resources and the needs individual students bring are therefore likely to be very different. It is imperative that we find out who our students are and where they come from before we can begin to appreciate the resources they bring and to understand their needs.

ESL students may be very different from other learners in their background, skills, and past experiences. Some may come to the U.S. having attended school regularly, and they will bring with them literacy skills and content knowledge, although in another language. It is likely that these students will have an easier transition into an academic setting than students who may come from a war-torn country or from a natural disaster area where schooling was not always available or accessible. Many will belong to low-income families even though some of their parents may have been highly educated in their own country and may have once held professional positions. The resources and the needs individual students bring are therefore ...