Reflection 4 - If Only She Knew

If only Miss Sullivan Knew that Meaningful Content and Cultural Background are Important.

I believe that none of us know all the theories about second language acquisition. However, I think that everybody is able to learn something new in order to improve his or her own way of teaching.


During my Student - Teaching in "X&Y School", I have had the opportunity to see a very good teacher performing an excellent job with the kids from different parts of the world. Since Miss Sullivan is a Bilingual Specialist, I am clearly aware of her knowledge. That is why I agree with all the things that she does. However, from my personal point of view, I think that she is missing a very important piece of information that is relevant during the second language acquisition process. This point is "The background of the learners".


Who our students are it is the most important thing when we are Teaching. What I mean is that the main point where we have to pay attention to. Learners not only learn the language but also about the language; this concept we have to keep in mind if we want our students to learn the target language that we are teaching.


I think that in this case, Miss Sullivan does not apply a meaningful content for the students. She adapted the curriculum for "English Language Development". However, she does not make it more interesting for the students, and also she does not consider their nationalities as she should.


As I mentioned before, the students come from different parts of the world. That is why I believed that their own cultures must be the most critical point during the classroom. However, I think that she is trying to get them immerse in the North American Culture no matter what.


I think that she must include the students culture more during her lessons, because that will make the content more meaningful and the student are going to be more interested in. "Full development of the primary language facilitates the acquisition of English; recognition of the first language and culture, even in foreign language setting, builds self-esteem." (Freeman & Freeman, ESL/EFL Teaching, Principles for success, 1998. Introduction). According the quotation, I can say that being aware of who our students are creates a more comfortable environment to teach a new language.


I would recommend her to visit this web page; here she can find resources to work with students with different cultures.

http://www.cal.org/resources/archive/rgos/content.html