Students With Linguistics And Cultural Differences

Chapter 14 Students with Linguistics and Cultural Differences

Presenters • Ercilia Delancer and Kayley de Lorm •

Students with Linguistics and Cultural Differences • • • • • •

Are those who: Speak standard English Speak non-standard English Are bilingual Speak no English at all

Newcomers to the U.S. include: • • • • • • • •

Asians Latinos/Hispanics Pacific Islanders Middle Easterners Africans East Indians Europeans

Where do most of them settle? • • • • • •

In major port cities in states such as: New York California Florida Texas

Are not all newcomers alike? • Newcomers are quite different in terms of social economic status as some come from professional backgrounds and have high earning potential while others come from impoverish backgrounds and live at or near the poverty line.

How many English Language Learners do we have in our classrooms? • There are about 5 million ELL students in the United States. • 42% of all classroom contain at least one ELL student. • The largest percentage of ELL is of Latino/Hispanic descent comprising about 70% of all ELLs .

All Latino/Hispanic Students are the Same • A common misconception among teachers is that all Latino/Hispanic students share the same Spanish language use, culture and social economic status. • Students from Mexico, Central and South America differ significantly in all of these aspects. •

Concerns about ELL • Insufficient time is devoted exclusively to expanding knowledge of English vocabulary and structure. • Ignorance about the student’s rich knowledge of their first language • Disregard for bilingualism as students struggle to retain their first language while acquiring English.

Approaches for Teaching ELL • Immersion – English only instruction • Sheltered approach – First language instruction at first while acquiring English. • Two-way bilingual – Instruction in both English and the first language for the entire classroom. • Bilingual – Instruction in both first language and English for ELLs only.

What Does Immersion Look Like / Sound to an ELL student?

La Caperucita Roja

• http://yo.mundivia.es/llera/cuentos/caper

Cultural Differences • Two aspects of cultural diversity that impact teachers and education are: • A) differences in concept development thus the need to be alert for ways to incorporate student’s experiences into learning activities and the lack of prior knowledge that might possibly exist.

Cultural Differences • B) differences in value systems • Middle class values are the norm in most schools in the United States: hard work, delayed gratification, goal oriented and individualism. Other cultures might value time off, present time orientation, group achievement.

Cultural Differences • Lack of knowledge about cultural differences and their impact on the ELL learning can lead to misunderstanding as they can be labeled as being lazy, disorganized, procrastinators, and lacking in initiative when they are only following the cultural dictates from their respective countries.

How to Bridge the Differences • Ask your ELLs students if the activity they are about to practice is something familiar to them. If not, take the time to explain it. • Stock your classroom with books that introduce the ELLs’ culture to the rest of the class. • Obtain a calendar with the world’s holidays and mention those that apply to ELLs.