Plan For 6th Grade ESL Latino Students in Los Angels Coursework

Introduction

As the world develops into a global village there has been an increasing demand for one language that is understandable by all. English, obviously, for many reasons, has been selected for this purpose. Throughout the years English language has developed to be the world’s most sought after language. Many non English speaking countries have rushed to include it as part of their school curriculum to “enhance their competitiveness in conducting global business.” (Mc Arthur, 1992)

This has resulted in wide ranging search for the best ways to change their people’s view on the language and encourage them to use it as a medium of communication. The purpose of this assignment was to offer practical experience of the theories and methodologies of English language teaching and learning. The speakers of other languages have found it necessary to learn English as a second language in order to keep up with the global momentum.

As a result it has been found necessary to teach English as a second Language in many ESL schools across the globe. In Los Angels, there are many ESL Latino students who speak 99% Spanish. This paper seeks to analyze the effectiveness of a biliteracy a developed teaching plan for6th grade ESL Latino students in Los Angels. This is inline with the ongoing effort to develop biliteracy in societies that use other languages besides English.

The Unit Plan

The unit plan was specifically developed for 6^th grade Latino ESL students taking lessons in Science and specifically Biology. The purpose of the teaching plan is enable proper dissemination of scientific information to the 6th grade ESL learners and provides them with the skill to communicate the information with acceptable English language standards. The targeted population mainly consists of Latinos who mainly use Spanish for their day to day communication; however the plan can be used for other ESL students.

“The unit plan is based on the recent advocacy for biliteracy development occasioned by the rapid technological advancement which demands for a sophisticated workforce.” (Brown, 2001) This is in effort to counter the difficulties occasioned by intercultural differences which leads to the use of a different language for teaching and for normal communication. The basic unit Plan rubric for teaching the English language was considered in preparation of this unit plan.

The teaching plan entails the use of different “teaching aids such as;” Blackboard and chalk, scanning questions, checking questions, writing papers, Reading Passage and different specimens for a biological class. (Howatt, 2004) The plan is provides an interactive forum where the students and the teacher interact freely and thereby creating a conducive learning environment. The plan uses the many available ways to enable students to understand a concept and be able to explain it in English.

The students are taught on a certain concept whereby; the teacher introduces and explains the concept in clear terms, allows the students to ask questions, gives the students a small quiz to test their understanding, goes through the answers with the students or asks the students to discuss among themselves in English, finally asks some of the students to present their findings to the class for peer feedback. Alternatively, the teacher can give a passage or specimens to the students.

The students should then read the passage and answer questions by checking for answers or scanning for ideas from the passage. For the specimens, the teacher should first teach about them and proceed to ask the students to give some general information about them. In the case of biology the teacher can ask the students to carryout a classification of the specimens or describe their life cycle or any other fitting test.

Types of assessments to evaluate biliteracy development of English learners

The assessments to be used for evaluation of biliteracy development of English learners should be able to test several core areas which include: effective interrelation of the different languages, for instance Spanish and English. The points of “interaction of the different languages and principles that guide cross linguistic transfer should be emphasized” and effectively evaluated by the developed methods. (Mc Arthur, 1992)The ability to “communicate effectively in English through speaking and writing” should be the benchmark for any testing method for biliteracy development. (Brown, 2001) The intercultural influence on the attitudes towards the English language should be effectively assessed and strategies developed to enhance the learning outcomes.

In considerations of the above points, the following four types of evaluations can be used to evaluate biliteracy development of English learners.

Skimming test questions

“The skimming questions are used to evaluate the students’ thorough understanding of a concept that has been taught.” (Howatt, 2004) The students are provided with a passage to read and understand after which they are given reading comprehension questions to answer on their own. After the exercise the teacher checks for the answers and corrects the students. This method develops skimming skills and enables the students to remember what they have been taught.

Scanning test questions

The scanning tests are intended to develop the students’ skill to retrieve the required information from a text body easily and within a short duration. The questions asked should be on the things the students need to learn most or have difficulties in grasping. If the scanning tests are offered over and over again, then the students will have an easy time remembering the concepts taught.

Essay Tests

In this method, the students are taught on a certain topic, and then at the end of the lesson the teacher asks them to write an essay on the specific topic taught. The essay should be timed and the word limit given. The teacher can provide some language input and move around to assist the students. This assessment should test the collective progress of the class in using the “English language and should be accompanied with peer feedback.” (Mc Arthur, 1992) The weak students should be assessed further to determine the source of their weaknesses and appropriate assistance given. Emphasis should be placed on this type of evaluation as it tests wide ranging abilities of the students including; grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and general knowledge of the area of study.

Practical Tests

“The practical tests evaluate the ability of the students to apply the theoretical concepts learned into a practical context.” (Brown, 2001) For instance in a biology class, the students can learn about the different plant species that exist. Then in a practical they can be asked to match the plant specimens against their names and descriptions.

Implementation of the unit plan

Description of class: Majority of the students are unwilling to use English in class.

Objective

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. Scan and skim for information from a reading passage about the various biological processes.
2. Give at least 8 taxonomic names for different species in Class insect.
3. Write a 150-word essay to describe the general life cycle of insects.

• Teaching Aids: Blackboard and chalk, scanning questions, checking questions, writing papers, and a physiology grade 6 Reading Passage
• Prior knowledge: Ss have already taught some Basic English to enable them communicate effectively in the language.
• Anticipated problems: Ss tend to use Spanish for discussion in group work.

Ss may feel reluctant to speak English in front of the whole class.

• T- Teacher
• C- Class
• Ss- Students

Evaluation of the unit Plan implementation Exercise

The lesson was a double and was taught on April 15^th between 10:05 and 11:25 am in Room 5.the objective of the lesson was to enable the Students to Scan and skim for information from a reading passage about the various biological processes, Give at least 8 taxonomic names for different species in Class insect, Write a 150-word essay to describe the general life cycle of insects.

The reading and direct approaches were employed where by the students were taught verbally and provided with reading materials. The teaching aids used for this lesson were: Blackboard and chalk, scanning questions, checking questions, writing papers, and a physiology grade 6 Reading Passage. The blackboard and chalk were used for illustration, especially in areas that the students had understanding difficulties. The lesson began with a brief introduction on the insects and this was followed by the teacher giving a full description of the general life cycle of insects and giving Taxonomic names for eight common insects.

The teacher then distributed insect specimens and descriptions and asked the students to match the description against the respective specimen. This was a matching activity to establish the students’ knowledge about insect classification. In the matching tests, the students did fairly well with most of them scoring above average. Only 7 out of 25 students had weak performance in this exercise. In the second task, a reading passage on different insect physiological processes was given.

The students were then tasked to scan for answers from the passage. The scanning exercise was relatively easy for the students, most of the students performed well, only two students out of the 25 registered poor performance in the scanning exercise. After completing the task, the students were provided with the checking questions which required them to have a thorough understanding of the passage. They were to skim through the passage for answers. The task proved challenging, thus they were allowed assist each other incase of any difficulties. More than half the class scored above average but this was after being allowed to assist each other.

The students had a difficult time trying to skim for answers from the passage. A problem observed was that the students discussed the questions in Spanish and were reluctant to speak to each other in English. In the last exercise, writing papers were distributed to each student, and then they were asked to write an essay of 150 words that describes the general life cycle of insects. The students were able to do the exercise within the allocated time.

To enhance their understanding through peer feedback, the students were asked to exchange their works and compare. At the end of the lesson the best students were asked to present their essay description of the general to the whole class. The essay exercise revealed several major weaknesses in the students’ ability to use the English language. Grammar and Punctuation mistakes were common and some had difficulties using adjectives and connectors. However, most of them were able to bring out the description of the life cycle well.

Table 1: Student performance.

On average most students performed well and therefore the lesson plan was successful. However, some small difficulties were observed and changes are recommended below.

Recommendations &Modifications of the unit plan

For effective teaching and learning of English as a second language, all efforts should be geared towards overcoming the cultural constraints which are usually the major obstacles. From the above analysis, it is inferred that challenges encountered during the implementation of the unit plan were mostly due to social factors. The students have an attitude towards English language; they often feel it is too difficult. To overcome this challenge the students need to be motivated by keeping them informed of what benefits they stand to gain by knowing good English. The students were shy to speak to each other in English; this implies that they lack confidence in themselves.

This can be resolved by encouraging the students to speak English more often to build up their confidence. Strict guidelines have seemed to work elsewhere, whereby for a certain period during the school students are not allowed to communicate in any other language.

Some form of punishment is usually given to those found breaking the rule. A general recommendation is that, a double lesson should have a break of 5-10 minutes to enable the students to refresh and reflect on what they have been taught. The lesson should be started on a lighter note to “create a safe atmosphere and encourage” maximum student participation. (Brown, 2001) A friendly class room environment will boost teacher-student interaction and this will be beneficial, especially for the shy students.

The lesson plan should allocate time for introduction of each method of learning. For Example, the skimming task looked like a new concept to the students they did not know how to skim for information from the passage. The issue of pronunciation was very serious, most of the students knew the words but “had difficulties in pronouncing them,” the lesson should allocate sometime for pronunciation practice. (Howatt, 2004) Pronunciation problems can be resolved by giving the students a list of words that are difficult to pronounce and asking them to read the words out to themselves while at home. The time provided for the scanning questions was a lot, the students completed the task fast. In the modified lesson plan this task will be allocated lesser time.

Conclusion

English language is the most “effective language for global communication.” (Brown, 2001) However, there is still much to be done to ensure that the language is understandable by all. Efforts put in place to counter this challenge have resulted in widespread teaching of English language as a second language. This has not been easy due to the deep influence of the people’s first languages and perceptions towards English language.

This study was designed to offer a practical experience in teaching English as a second language to students, then identify the challenges associated with task and give appropriate recommendations. The study was well conducted; the findings indicated that there is still much to be done in order to effectively teach English as a second language. Appropriate recommendations have been put forward to facilitate the attainment of this objective. However, much needs to be done for effective biliteracy development.

Reference list

Brown, H. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive Approah to langauge pedagogy. London: Longman.

Howatt, A. (2004). A history of English Langage Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mc Arthur, T. (1992). The oxford companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.