ESL classroom modification Essay Example for Free

ESL classroom modification Essay English as a second language students need modification and accommodation in the mainstream in order to be successful, because they pose problems to the teacher as most of them are not up to the academic level of other students. Research has shown that many teachers have not had training on how to successfully teach these students in the classroom. This article synthesizes what we as educators believe are the most important principles that teachers should support English as second language student to perform better in their academic field Modifications are individualized strategies posed on student for their success. They are appropriate when a student have learning difficulties in classroom. Implementing modifications that are parts of the student’s education plan are required by law. Modifications are necessary to any student that is not being successful with the regular method of instruction. They are important since not all students learn alike this help students be successful in their academic field. Research shows that social language is developed by students known as Basic inter personal communication skills (BICS) through informal and formal interaction with peers. The skills acquired are distinctive since they are not used in academic field. Academic language termed as Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) can take up to five to eight year to master (Cummins, 1984), Cummins notes in his classic work that (BICS) is typically acquired over a period of one to two years. Student who are yet to develop (CALP) in English, teachers need to be careful in choosing task that provide relevant information of cognitive complexity and contextual support. For student to complete activities that are cognitively complex they need to posses CALP to complete them. English language learners may lack the language skills to comprehend explanations of complex concepts and to express their thoughts yet they may have cognitive capacity to grasp material in such situation teachers may make comprehension of instruction through the use of contextual support such as gestures, hands-on learning, visuals, and other non-verbal accompaniment of instruction. The more instruction is contextualized, the better chance the English language learner has to develop understanding of complex concepts and the language used to explain them (Cummins, 1984). How can a teacher ensure that ESL students experience the same level of comprehension as the native English speaking students? The answer involves most of the teachers time but result are well worth it. Since the first aspect of language is aural or listening, read aloud session held after school could help for the beginning ESL students. The teacher can employ more students involvement and leadership by supervising a reading group in which the more advanced ESL student read to the beginning student. This method helps the beginner to feel more comfortable with the text as well as encourage advanced students to work on oral communication skills. However, one does not want to segregate students; the teacher should therefore stress the basic the basic learning strategies of making prediction, taking notes, inferring word meaning, and asking questions as they read. The simple strategies provide focus for reading and engage the learner in active reading (spangenberg-Urbschat 95). Fair assessment is one of the biggest questions concerning incorporation of ESL students in to regular English class. Should ESL student be held to the same grading standard as the native English speakers? Solution is yes, but methods of assessment should be different. With modification ESL students should demonstrate understanding of text, grammar skills and vocabulary. Standardized tastes do not show how well ESL students have comprehended the information and also overwhelm them. Assessment of all choice of student should be portfolio assessment as it tracks students improvement through sample quizzes, projects, reading log and journals. Providing equal education for the ESL student did not always mean those students were getting fair education. The courts found that Chine students involved in the suit were being excluded from educational opportunities since even though they were provided with the same instructional and materials as the native English student, they could not take the advantages since they lack adequate English language skills. Since ESL learners cannot take equal advantage of those opportunities, it is therefore not fair nor equal to them to use the same instructional strategies as the native English student. A model portfolio that has implications features for the ESL classroom can be used as a systematic tool in instructional planning and student evaluation. The potential for determining the depth and breadth of a students capabilities can be seen through analysis and comprehensive data collection. A comprehensive, focuses on both the processes and products of learning; uses both formal and informal assessment; seeks to understand student language development in the affective domains, cognitive, metacognitive, and linguistic; stress both formal and academic language development. Contains teacher, student, and objective input. The teacher should take some strategies on how to handle newcomers and emergent student. For the newcomers create climate of acceptance, use manipulative visuals, realia, props and games, use cooperative learning group, display print to support oral language , the teacher should also set model activities for the students to boost their understanding. Use of bilingual students as peer helpers is necessary he/she should adjust his rate of speech to enhance comprehension. In addition, he should ask yes/no questions to test if they can recall what they have been taught, ask them to draw/show/point various parts that have been taught during the lesson. He should test the new comers more on area dealing with vocabulary and terminologies. The teacher should simplify the language and not the content, moreover, the teacher should design the lesson in such a way as to motivate student to talk. As the teacher watch student improve, he should start asking them questions that require one or two words response for example who? What? When? Which one? How many. His lessons should expand on the vocabulary. Sensitizing mainstream students to the newcomer challenges is one of the suggestion for supporting ESL newcomers. The teacher should prepare native English students for the arrival of the newcomers. The teacher should brainstorm them on how they would feel if their parent took them to another country to study. student may demonstrate physical ailment or display a wide variety of unusual behavior such as aggression, depression, tantrums, tendency to withdraw, crying and sleeplessness. The teacher should therefore be aware of the culture shock and know how to handle such situations. The teacher should create frequent opportunities for their success in the classroom, give a lot of encouragement and praise on what the student can do and be careful not to call on them to perform what is above their level of competence. In this way the teacher create a nurturing environment for the student the teacher should establish a regular routine for the newcomers by giving them help in organizing space, time and material. he can achieve this by giving the a copy of daily schedule have them keep it at the front of their ESL notebook or tape it to their desk. From the beginning engage newcomers in language learning. the teacher can achieve this for example rote learning whereby students learn sight words, chants, poems, songs, list and spelling words through rote learning. Include them in class authority so that they can also see they are important members in the group, areas of expertise include math, computers, origami or art work. At first, student may not talk at all therefore the teacher needs to recruit volunteers to work with newcomers. It is critical to provide student with aural input in plenty in order to familiarize themselves with the English language. Students using headphones should be isolated from the rest of the class; this is a word of caution about the use of tapes and tape recorders. Appropriate reading materials for the ESL learners should at least include the following; story plots that are action based little text on each page, text that contains repetitive and predictable phrases, high-frequency vocabulary and useful words, text that employ simple sentenced structure, and numerous illustration that help clarify the text. when the teacher is reading to the ESL beginners he should make sure language is comprehensible therefore he should use reading strategies to increase students’ comprehension for example using expressive tone, reading sentence at a slow-to-normal pace. Literate and preliterate newcomers who speak a language that does not use Roman alphabet need direct instruction in letter recognition and formation as well as the phonetic beginners. The teacher teach phonetics in context the teacher can introduce and reinforce letter recognition beginning and ending sounds, rhyming words, blending silent words, homonyms etc through the use of authentic literature . since phonetic worksheets present new vocabulary out of context, they are generally useful to the newcomers. There are ten things the mainstream teacher can do to improve instruction for the ESL students. To begin with, the teacher should add gestures, point directly to objects, or draw pictures when appropriate, enunciate clearly, but do not raise his voice. Secondly, write legibly, clear, and in print . thirdly, he should try to avoid slang words and idioms; in addition, he should present new information in the context of known information and present information in a variety of ways. He should announce the lesson’s activities and objective, and list instructions step-by-step. Moreover, he should always emphasize key vocabulary words and provide frequent summations of the salient points of a lesson. The teacher should also recognize student success frequently and overtly, individual praises in some cultures are considered inappropriate and therefore embarrassing or confusing to the student. The teacher should use clear and consistent signals for classroom e should therefore develop and maintain routine. Finally If a student does not understand information you are delivering to them, try rephrasing or paraphrasing in shorter sentences and simpler syntax have students demonstrate their learning in order to show comprehension instead of asking them Do you understand? in this manner the teacher will check their understanding through repeating information and reviewing it frequently. The teachers need to know various teaching strategies when dealing with ESL student. Cooperative is one of the strategies. Robert E. Slavin (1995) has shown cooperative learning can be effective for students at all academic levels and learning styles. This method give all student frequent opportunities to speak this boost spirit of cooperation and friendship amongst students, student benefit from observing learning strategies used by their peers through shared learning activities. Language experience approach also known as Dictated stories is another strategy. Student’s words are used to create a text that will be used as a material for reading lesson. In this method students learn how their language is encoded as they watch it written down. It help student bring their personal experience in to classroom most important to culturally diverse student. Total physical response (TPR) is another strategy it. in reading comprehension the teacher should reduce the quantity of student reading at a time to be able to attend to individual level he should also modify materials to student’s decoding level, in addition, he should have students paraphrase verbally what has been read in the lesson . He should also eliminate visual distraction on page this is to enhance concentration span of students use of personal experience is important since it enhance understanding for example the teacher can encourage student to give their own experience after giving the his own to give them clue on what is meant in the lesson Conclusion Teachers are now responsible for education of student that they were not originally trained on the old adage of ‘good teaching will work for everyone is too simplistic to address the very real challenges that these teachers face. Teachers should take heart and work fully on their profession. Remember that when we are deliberate and informed about the learning that is taking place teaching becomes most powerful. This is usually true when we are teaching a student a completely different language their growth t are validated in the effort they put forth in your class and in life. ESL student can bring a wealth of information resources and culture with them yet they need our help in order to contribute to our classroom and society. By understanding some of the basic concepts that English as a second language specialists have known for years, content area teachers can tap into the resources that LEP students bring with them, making the transition to the mainstream classroom not only easier for the ESL student but also the content area teacher as well. Reference 1. Cummins, J. (1984).Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. San Diego, CA: College-Hill. 2. Classroom modification http://www. spavinawok. net/CLASSROOM%20MODIFICATIONS. pdf. 3. Krashen, S. Terrell, T. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 4. Short, D. J. (1993). Assessing integrated language and content instruction. TESOL Quarterly, 27, (4), 627-656. 5. Teacher Discussion Forums: forums. eslcafe. com/teacher/viewtopic. php? t=448 44k Cached Similar pages