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Theory of Language into Practice
Laura Robles
EDUC 409 due 11/2/05
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Two Classroom observations where made at 32nd Street Elementary School. I
observed Mrs. L’s second grade classroom in the morning during Language Arts time.
As a volunteer tutor at St. Vincent’s School, I have also been observing language learning
strategies in Mrs. W’s fifth grade classroom during reading and writing time in the
afternoon. Mrs. L’s class is composed of fourteen students which are diverse, not only by
ethnicity, but also learning levels. As a USC readers plus tutor, I also work with two of
Mrs. L’s students twice a week. These students are performing below grade level or are
having difficulty in class in reading and language comprehension. In Mrs. W’s
classroom at St. Vincent’s, I also provide extra help for students in the classroom. In
particular, I work with a certain student who is new to the country and is being exposed
to English for the first time. Mrs. W also has two other ESL students.
Mrs. L’s second grade classroom organization and lesson plans contain a
constructional/functional and behaviorist approach to learning. Behaviorist approaches
suggest students learn through conditioning and reinforcements (Ragusa, August 24,
2005). Mrs. L starts the morning with writing/art journals. Students are given a topic
such as “What I did for Halloween” and are asked to draw a picture of their Halloween
experience, for instance, the students draw themselves in their costume. The teacher says
drawing the picture first “is a way to brainstorm and begin to remember about your
night” this cognitive strategy helps students recall memory and contract ideas about what
to write in their journals. Mrs. L then moves on to practicing dictation. Students are
asked to take out their dictation work book. Mrs. L then holds up large cards with a
Letter and letter sounds. She then asks “what letter is this?” and the class responds “A.”
Students are familiar with the daily activity and know how to participate in the activity.
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Mrs. L then says “lets go through the spellings” students then spell out “a” “y” and then
follow with the sound the two letters make “ay.” This is a whole class activity in which
students respond and engage in and learn in a social setting. Mrs. L then elaborates on
the sound of words learned by applying them in sentences “what did you say your name
was?” students are given time to identify the key word and write it down on their work
sheet. Mrs. L asks “what’s the word” and students reply “say.” Mrs. L gives class praise
for getting it right and participating “good job lets keep going and see how many more
you can get.” Although this is a whole class activity where students are encouraged to
participate, the work they do in their work books is individual. During another decodable
word Mrs. L notices students talking and says “are we discussing this? You do your best
we are doing this to show what you know.” As a result, I notice less students
participating and so does Mrs. L “what’s the sentence? Not everyone said it out loud.”
After the decodable activity is over students are asked to circle the words they got wrong
and practice them. The decodable activity allows students to use some cognitive
strategies using repetition, echoing, and note taking.
The decodable activity seems to be an effective way of learning language.
Students understand the rules of the activity and as a result the activity is performed well
and there is student participation. Even though some students appear not to be
participating by saying the words out loud, they are still listening which allows them to
learn from their peers. Mrs. L also requires that students circle the words they got wrong
and practice them. Practicing is an effective cognitive strategy and Mrs. L adds
elaboration to the words. Elaboration adds meaning to the words and students can
connect that with prior knowledge which students not only memorize how to spell and
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say the word, but also, understand the context in which it can be used. This strategy
reflects a functional approach “what children learn about language is determined by what
they already know about the world” because though elaboration students make
connections and learn and expand their knowledge (Ragusa, August 24, 2005).
Mrs. L provides incentives and rewards for students, Mrs. L continues to
demonstrate contructivist/behavioristic approaches to learning, such as, Skinner’s theory
of verbal behavior “when consequences are rewarding, behavior is maintained…when
there is a total lack of reinforcement, the behavior is weakened” (Brown pg.23). She has
a point system on the board and a “bank”. The point system is used to give daily points
to tables that have done all their work. At the end of the week the table with the most
points gets to pick out of a bag of goodies. The person in the table that did all their
homework the best gets to pick out of the bag first. Another reward Mrs. L offers is
homework stars. For students who did all their homework for a whole month receive a
certificate called a homework star. This homework star is put in a “bank,” the certificates
are later picked and student receives a grade. Another form of reward I observed was
that Mrs. L called on the quietest table to be excused to recess first. Students are aware
of this strategy and are conditioned to behave.
Although students in the class might not necessarily do a their work just to receive
a prize, Mrs. L does acknowledge good work by using a student’s work as an example or
gives praise “that’s good” “I like that” and “Keep on going you got the hang of it and it
looks great.” Mrs. L walks around her classroom providing extra help to students as they
do their work individually. The praise or helpful scaffolding students receive as she
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walks around motivates students to keep on working and serves as reinforcement for a
good behavior.
Other lessons I observed in Mrs. L’s classroom also included individual and
whole class activities. Students read a story together as a class and then answered review
questions individually. I would recommend that Mrs. L encourage group work and
cooperate learning, “working with one or more peers to obtain feedback, pool
information, or model a language activity” (Brown, 2000, pg. 126) not all students
comprehend what is being read and some students just stop paying attention. As a result
they have difficulty answering questions on their own. Maybe using socio-affective
strategies by reading the story and then answering the questions in groups would allow
students to contribute and share information. This would reduce the amount of time
students waste just being stuck on a questions and waiting for the teacher. Reading the
story in smaller groups of two would increase student engagement. I remember
observing Mrs. L class before I picked up one of her students for tutoring that she did in
fact pair up her students on the rug and they were taking turns reading. The particular
student which I worked with was particularly engaged and pointing at certain things at
the story. Students appear to be learning together and from each other.
I would also recommend that the competition level for points and prize rewards
be reduced. Students are not necessarily doing their work because they are not good
students but in fact because they need more help. Only giving prizes and rewards to
students who always do their work doesn’t seem fair to the kids who are trying and are
not being helped. I recommend Mrs. L put together a form of portfolio to compare
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improvement on similar tasks or assessments. This would not just reward students who
don’t have problems but also students who show signs of improvement.
During my sessions with one of Mrs. L’s students, I use a cognitive approach.
I
use cognitive strategies, such as, elaboration, echoing, imagery, and repetition. My
lessons include having student D read a story to me. As he reads I help him with words
he is having difficulty saying. After the story I ask D to identify the mistakes he made
and we write them down on flashcards. We then discuss the meaning of the word and I
also have D memorize how to spell it. I use letters he uses to spell out the word I give
him. I also use the word in a different sentence or ask D to use the word in a sentence.
In our following session I use the flashcards that were made for review. I then
have D read the same story. I can see improvement because he gets though the story well.
When D gets one of the keywords right I give him praise. I also use positive
reinforcement by praising good participation and learning to pronounce a word correctly.
The theory my approach resembles is Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory, “learning
takes place in the human, through a meaningful process of relating new events or items to
already existing cognitive concepts” (Brown pg.83). Although D does remember and
show demonstrates new information when I review the flashcards with him sometimes he
does not. This is due because of how effective my strategies were in helping D. Ausubel
theory is “best understood by contrasting rote learning and meaningful learning” (Brown
pg.83) when D does not remember a word and its meaning or even how to spell or say it
, it shows me that in our previous session D did not learn the information effectively. D
was able to memorize how to say a word because we had been saying it and repeating it
over and over resulting in rote memorization. Rote memorization is not an effective way
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of learning it is only short term. As a result, D is not able to show improvement because
he only memorized and did not learn or “reference [information] to cognitive hierarchical
organization” (Brown pg.83).
At St. Vincent’s School in Mrs. W’s class I work one-on-one with student E for
an hour a week. Although I am supposed to helping the whole class, Mrs. W does not
know Spanish and has me help E because he has only been in the country for about three
months and is learning English for the first time. Before I began helping E, Mrs. W
shared with me that E does not participate or engage in class. He does his own thing and
he does not communicate with her. She does not know how much he knows for that fact
and when she tells him to do something he doesn’t do it and just sits there.
During my lessons with E my teaching strategy reflect the concurrent translation
model “speaking in the first language and then delivering the same message in the second
language” (Ragusa, September 28, 2005). I help E develop English by using strategies
which include translating “using the first language as a base for understanding and/or
producing the second language” (Brown pg.125), I teach speak predominately with E in
L1, I elaborate English things in Spanish so that the prior knowledge E has can be
expanded. Another strategy I use is resourcing “using target language reference
materials” to link information. Other strategies include visuals, such as, flashcards to
practice spelling and pronunciation. While using flashcards I assist E by saying it and he
echoes it or imitates it.
Surprisingly E reads well in English, however, he does not understand the
content. After we read a story in English, I go over it in Spanish and I have him try to
explain what it is going on in the story. We then go on to identify the English words he
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pronounced right but didn’t know what it meant, such as, the name Beth. I told him Beth
is someone’s name. Because the subjects name is not a familiar name in Spanish E does
not recognize it as someone’s name and it confuses the meaning of what he reads. I
suggest to E that he also look at the pictures in the story to try and see what is going on.
In order for E to participate and get along better in his learning environment I
advise him to ask the other students for help, especially the boy next to him because he
also knows Spanish. I tell him not to be afraid to speak English with peers and it is also
good to keep watching cartoons in English. The more exposure the better I tell him. I
also give praise to E because he is really well behaved and listens and pay close attention
to what I say. I make sure he and Mrs. W knows it.
I feel that I am doing a good job with E because I only know so much. Mrs. W
notices his attitude changes positively after he meets with me and he has been more
engaged in class. My recommendation for Mrs. W is to encourage risk taking with E.
Both Mrs. W and I agree that E needs to practice his English by speaking it and using it.
Socioaffective strategies Mrs. W can use is to sit E next to kids he can ask questions to
such as other bilinguals. E is quiet in class and does not demonstrate what he knows; this
shows a high affective filter. Mrs. W needs to help E build confidence; she can do this by
assigning E books which are familiar to both cultures, such as, “the three little pigs” or
“little red riding hood.” If Mrs. B because more culturally aware of differences and
similarities in cultures she can use it in her lessons.
Mrs. W must have a constructivist approach when teaching E. Mrs. W feels E
doesn’t know anything she expressed that “he seems so behind I just don’t know what to
do. If you have any suggestion please go right a head.” In fact E is more advance in math
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than the rest of the class in math and reads very well, he just needs to comprehend what
he is reading. To do this he needs extra help and attention. Comprehension of new
information will come by continuing to elaborate and taking more time to explain to him.
Mrs. W shares with me her frustration because she cannot speak Spanish.
Mrs. W should use Rogers Humanistic Psychology approach in order to improve
E’s self-concept and allow him to feel comfortable to speak more English. This theory
would “establish interpersonal relationships with learners” (Brown pg.90). I asked E why
he doesn’t let his teacher know what is going on and he said he is intimidated and scared
that he is going to get in trouble for not knowing how to do something. He does notice
the teacher’s frustrated expressions.
In this particular case E does not need to be conditioned or given reinforcement. E
needs to feel comfortable in his learning environment. He needs to relate to someone
especially feel comfortable with his teacher. Mrs. W said that when Erick gets back to
class from my tutoring he is much happier. And I provide her with a lot of feed back,
which she can’t get from Erick. I suppose he opens up to me because I am bilingual,
younger, and non-threatening (not an adult figure) and I especially show concern for his
learning. I work with him individually for a longer period than the teacher does and I get
to know his personality and observe his learning style, especially his strengths and
weaknesses.
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Works Cited
Brown, H. Douglas. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. 4th ed. White Plains:
Longman, 2000.
Ragusa, Gisele, Ph.D. “Introduction to First and Second Language Acquisition: A
Theoretical Overview” PowerPoint August 24, 2005
Ragusa, Gisele, Ph.D. “Bilingual Education: Models and Practice”
PowerPoint September 28, 2005
Richard-Amato, Patricia A, and Marguerite Ann Snow, ed. The Multicultural Classroom:
Readings for Content Area Teachers. Reading: Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, Inc., 1992