Hello Friends. My name is Fei (Lori) Zhao, and I am an EC-6 generalist at the University of Houston, Sugarland Campus. I believe that children are influenced by the world and develop their personalities at a young age. The reason I want to be an educator is that I love children, and I want to make a difference in their lives. I want to expand their knowledge about the world and influence them to become better individuals in the future. Blog 1 video: https://youtu.be/0JcRnTONZ_g
Hey, Fei! Wow. While watching your video, I found myself relating and emphasizing with you and your experience as an English language learner. As someone who was also was born in a foreign country and immigrated to the United States of America as a child, I found that my process of learning English was similar to yours. According to Wright (2010), "an English language learner (ELL), is a non-native speaker of English who is in the process of attaining proficiency in English" (p. 1). Similar to you, I was pulled out during class for ESL and worked on sight words, reading passages aloud, etc. However, I was ecstatic when you mentioned that you learned English informally through watching cartoons. So did I! I too think that my background as an ELL enables me to emphasize with students who are in the process of learning English.
ReplyDeleteHi Thao
DeleteThank you for comment my post. I'm glad that someone has the similar background to me, this makes me feel I’m not alone. I also watched your video too and your story is really interesting. You mentioned that you also watch the cartoon to learn English, I think this is a great way for the kids to learn English. Is really nice to knowing you, and I hope I can get to know you better in the future . :)
Fei, thank you for replying! I really wish that I could have had more peers in elementary school that had similar backgrounds to you and I. As a child, I felt a little like an outcast since I was an immigrant from an Asian country and no body else in my grade was. Being able to talk to you about our experiences as ELLs reminds me that children need others to empathize with them and reassure them that everything will be okay. I hope as a teacher I can do that.
DeleteHi, Fei. My name is Anna Snowden, I really enjoyed listening to your story. You have experienced an amazing journey and it is great that you want to help others that may have experienced things that you have been through. I believe, It is because of your experience and the support of your ESL teacher that will lead you to successfully help others. Wright states "The ways in which educators choose to view their ELL's affects the ways they organize teaching and learning in their classroom, and they strive to help students develop a high level of proficiency ('Wright pg. 2-3). From your explanation of how your teacher helped you to learn English I have a better idea of how to help students that may be learning English for the first time. As future educators we can see how critical it is to support or student's learning experience by providing rich resources and offering our support and encouragement. It is not about the quantity of work we give a student to learn a language but the quality of work we offer to get them to learn a new language. One last thing, I appreciated your illustration of Chinese language verses English language. I can know see why it can be difficult for students to understand. As in there are no plural or singular versions of nouns and verbs do not change. Less truly is more. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi Ann
DeleteThank you for listening to my story and support me. I also believe when Wright states "The ways in which educators choose to view their ELL's affects the ways they organize teaching and learning in their classroom, and they strive to help students develop a high level of proficiency ('Wright pg. 2-3). I felt as an educator without understanding each students’ need, is really hard to teach them. Will continue what I believe and do my best to each student.
Hello Fei,
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to meet someone like you that speaks Chinese, I like you know that learning a secondary language is very difficult, the pronunciation and spelling especially. Your story reminded me of acculturation, having to adapt to a new language and culture without sacrificing the native language and culture (Wright, 2015, p. 29). You had to adapt to the ways of the States and that is difficult, but I am happy that you keep working on learning the language better and hope that through modeling you are able to teach your future students understand better.
Hi Rubi
DeleteThank you for watching my video. I believe not only Chinese is hard to learn, other languages are also hard for the foreigners. As an educator, we should always give the same respect to different culture, and help our future student the best we can and be a good role model for them.
Yes I agree, learning any other language that is not our primary language is very difficult. As we keep on advancing on our career we must never forget where we came from and the struggles that we went through, so we can help those children that are going through the same struggles in our classrooms.
DeleteHello, Fei. It's nice to meet you. I admire the fact that you managed to learn a new language while adapting to your new life in the US. It can be difficult since Chinese and English language are very diverse. And it's not just those languages. Vietnamese, Japanese, Spanish, French, they are different from each other, and we have to understand those differences if we ever want to help out ELL students. You're right about students are unique in their own ways, and that's what makes them human beings. And according to Wright, (2010, pg. 25), teachers need to understand the roles of difference languages, and ignoring those issues can damage the student's ability to learn a new language and/or the learning system inside the school. But I'm sure with your experiences and understanding, you'll be able to help out the students who are struggling in similar situations as you did.
ReplyDeleteWright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.