Here is my e portfolio self assessment I competed.
Blog 5
For my 5th blog post I wanted to focus on the difficulties for people who do not speak English as their first language in Canada. Immigrants, as well as English-speakers who communicate with them, face difficulties due to a lack of English skills. It can cause uncomfortable family divisions as generations pursue a language that both young and old can understand. It sparks a market for bilingual teachers in schools, where tens of thousands of non-English-speaking students enrol each year, as well as a major multilingual reform of the English-speaking bureaucracy. Speaking English with difficulty can also build gaps between cultures, with many immigrants remaining among those who understand them and animosity in judgmental or impatient English-speakers. Speaking English with difficulty can also build barriers between cultures, with many immigrants remaining among those who understand them, as well as animosity among judgmental or impatient English-speakers. English is crucial to find and keep a job in an English speaking country or for a global country that uses English as its international language. Communicating effectively with English speaking people in social, educational, and work environments. As well as missing some of the greatest literature in the world written in English. Translations many times miss the mark. Some people have to watch translations of movies and tv shows. Dealing with translators if you travel in English speaking countries. In being able to have a job for the rest of your life living in Canada you have to be able to translate English because most likely you will be working with other coworkers or customers that need to be able to understand you on the job so that you are successful in your job. If you are an immigrant coming over and unable to speak English it will probably be hard to get a job and be successful. English is the main language here so it is crucial for people living in Canada to know the main language. Some more difficulties I have learned about would be problems crossing the border or ordering food, asking people for help at a store. Basic everyday needs would be a problem for people who do not speak English fluently. Those people would almost feel like they are against the whole world because nobody is really able to understand them or give them the help they need if they don’t speak English. As well as for children in school they will be unable to learn school work because they need to be taught english from scratch, they will be unable to recognize any of the work they are trying to do and will struggle. Also they will be unable to make friends, communicate with classmates, play with other kids which I also think is a key in order to be happy. Having friends and people close around you is what makes school enjoyable. People who have troubles speaking English will also have a hard time reading things, working with technology and the internet. Higher education such as universities use English as their language, so for people that would be very difficult to get into if you could not comprehend that language flawlessly. Kids would struggle mightily in school, getting low grades, lots more homework. When those things come into play a student will then feel more stressed out which then leads to anxiety and even depression for some people. Some kids feel like a failure when in reality there is nothing they can do about not knowing English as their language.
I feel it is kind of unfair to them, these kids are being put in almost impossible situations. Just not even for the kids but for the families, how are their families going to be able to survive and have a home when it’s hard for the parents to get jobs when they can not speak English. These families are being put in situations where it is impossible to thrive, they are basically isolated on their own because no matter how diverse a Canadian city is the public language is still English. The families will have a hard time meeting people, they will have a hard time living their everyday lives and the essentials. Such as food, shopping, technology. Even for medical care and hospitality if something ever happened to someone who could not speak English properly it is hard for doctors and the medical professionals to communicate what they need to do because they can’t understand. Same thing with medicine if someone needed to take a certain medicine or be prescribed medicine, how do they get across what they are needing to people who only speak English? It seems like a very hard lifestyle for these people who are being put in these different environments. I feel like there should be a way to make sure these people who immigrated over are able to succeed in Canada, whether that’s focusing on teaching English slowly, whether that’s making sure they will be able to succeed by having people who speak different languages in those essential roles or whatever the case needs to be. I believe everyone should be treated equally and looked at the same way, everyone should be able to have the chance to succeed in life because it’s hard to see anyone fail. These people who immigrate over should be welcomed and should be helped out by us fellow Canadians so that they are able to get jobs and succeed in their lives. From all the previous examples it is pretty clear there are lots of difficulties for those people in moving over to a new atmosphere so we need to make sure to help them out!
Language Profile assignment heres the link
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15BN_2JpHOGkWtEU79R40W22POsFGZTx6MsKOfmkpiXs/edit
Week 4 Language policy in education
Multilingualism has become more common in education in recent years for a variety of reasons. It is becoming more popular to find students whose native languages differ from the predominant language in their class. Because of population mobility, school classrooms are more linguistically diverse than in the past. The desire to learn English as a second language is part of the reason for the spread of the diversity in education. Language education policies are often designed to address emergent issues related to multilingualism, at other times they are developed to promote the learning of particular languages. Language education policies are generally closely linked to the measurement of language proficiency and academic content achievement. There have been major advances in the fields of language policy and language planning studies since the 1950s. It all started with a very technical approach to solving language planning problems by building language practices inside of the schools so that the kids could learn a different language. The medium of instruction is an important decision that affects all aspects of language education policy and preparation. These are the students who are being targeted. Teachers and their education, syllabuses and curriculum, strategies and materials, financial resources, and, last but not least, assessment and evaluation.
The goals of a language education programmer are to create multilingualism and are a critical factor in its student’s growth, and the policy’s results can be measured in terms of the students learning different languages. Unless they are part of a foreign language course or teacher training, language targets are rarely directly aimed for the end of university. So that when one wants to become a teacher or find the career of their needs they are able to help people by using the correct language. They will be advanced and have different resources of languages that they will be able to communicate to customers or fellow customers with. Learning different languages is a huge step for one to take and for one to maintain for the rest of their life that’s why learning language in education is key. Language competence is not a fixed and permanent entity until students graduate from high school because language learning is a lifelong process for all. The language policy in education, which governs the language used in providing information at various levels, is at the heart of the educational system.
Immersion programs in French established in Canada and are well-known around the world. During any portion of elementary and/or secondary school, at least 50% of academic instruction is given in French or other non-native languages of the participating students for the majority language. In Yorkton, there is a French immersion school called St Michaels where 50% of the time they learn French. I think this is crucial in a kid’s success as learning French could be a great life skill to have and that is why I wanted to go to that school. I think language is key to education because it helps determine a kid’s future and will be used in the everyday process of learning different languages. It’s a great lifelong skill to have.
Response #3
New Experience
Wow, this week in English 200 was a new experience for me. When I heard we had a different culture of students coming into our class I never ever imagined that many. When all the kids came in to say hello, good morning made me feel very happy and joyful. That was a great way to start the morning off. The experience with these kids was definitely a new one and something I have never experienced.
Throughout the zoom meeting with the kids I had managed to go through several different emotions. First happiness, having that many kids wanting to learn and all looking smiley and happy just made me very happy. I was grateful that I was able to help all these new students, even though it wasn’t the easiest challenge it was definitely one I have never been put through. I have coached hockey and worked with many kids in a boys and girls club. I have had many experiences but with kids who were just learning English and who had a completely different culture the experience was so special to me. I also felt the emotion of confusion and struggles, sometimes when we would ask the kids numerous questions they wouldn’t answer or you wouldn’t be able to hear them so it was definitely a challenge. It made us have to be way more specific with our questions and make sure we were being very clear with our talking so that the kids could understand us and give us an answer. It was great having one of their teachers in one of my breakout rooms because when we were puzzled with questions she helped us by giving us questions we could ask considering what their students had learned in class.
In my next breakout room we had like 4 teachers and 2 students so we had lots of time to talk with the students and we even used pictures in order to help the students understand better. The pictures were very helpful for them being able to answer questions, they were able to point out their answers and what they liked. This definitely was the most challenging and new experience I have ever been put in. As a teacher you have to think on the spot we had to think of questions and communicate with the students right on the spot. For me this definitely was a special experience. I will never forget it, I can’t wait for next time, I will always cherish the opportunity in order to be a better teacher and I will always be grateful for those who put in the hard work to make this happen. I definitely learned so much from this experience.
Some lessons I learned from this experience for my future teaching endeavours would be to try and include everyone, even if people aren’t speaking still try and encourage them to speak by using different methods. For us we had a couple of kids who were more shy and who didn’t like to talk and you could see that, so again we used some different strategies like pictures, saying their name and asking them specific questions. I think it is very crucial to make sure that everyone has a say and that everyone is involved in what you are doing so that all the students feel comfortable. Everyone is different and has different strengths and for the students who are more shy I think it is still very important to hear their voices cause everyone’s opinion and voice matters. As well as you want to get to every kid individually making sure they are getting the proper education to succeed in life. My goal as a future teacher is to make sure to try my best to make sure all of my future students are successful. I know some students will need more encouragement than others but I am willing to put in that work so they get the help they need. I also learned how to work with future teachers in taking turns coming up with ideas for questions because once again everyone’s opinion is crucial so it was great being able to work with my peers.
I can’t wait for this experience again. It taught me so much about English and about becoming a future teacher. It taught me many lessons in how to work with students and how to adapt to new environments and situations with my peers around me. Thank you for the amazing opportunity!!
Response #2
5) How can the language awareness you developed today about language families and writing systems help you as a future teacher? Provide some concrete examples.
To connect with each other, teachers and students use spoken and written language to present assignments, participate in learning processes, present academic content, analyse learning, show knowledge and skills, and construct life in the classroom. The language awareness I’ve learned will also help me be a better teacher because it gives the opportunity for young children’s classrooms to learn alphabetic symbols, grapho-phonemic relationships, basic vocabulary of vision, and strategies for understanding; and read stories for young children as well. Young children will also have opportunities to learn how to express themselves in written language, including opportunities for letters, phrases, sentences, and text structures to be created, and opportunities for learning how to write a written storey. It will not only make a student feel comfortable and allow the student to grow as a child but it will also be crucial to the teacher. It will be crucial to the teacher because it will give me insight into the importance of language in teaching and suggest that teaching language knowledge should hold a prominent role in our society. Everyone should feel welcome in the classroom, it shouldn’t matter if you have a different race or different culture. As a teacher I think it is crucial for my students to learn about the history of their culture and the language awareness of the culture. I think it is important for my students to show their culture and be who they are no matter if they aren’t the same so I think having multiculturalism established in a classroom will help me as a teacher. There are different courses I could take in applied linguistics to learn more in order to be the best teacher possible as language awareness is an integral part of teacher-training programmes worldwide. Teaching and learning in an additional language facilitates intercultural understanding, enhances the cognitive capacity of students and prepares them for life outside school. As well as it will help me as a teacher grow as a person by making me more comfortable with my students, by giving me confidence that my students will be successful and welcome when they grow up. I believe that if a teacher and student are able to learn and develop knowledge for more than one language it will make you more suited for different circumstances that may take place in the future where you will need to deal with another language. It will also give me as a teacher more variety and mental control as I will be able to work better with not only one group of people but will be able to feel comfortable working with all the multilingualism in my classroom. The ability to use more than one language means we can communicate with people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. As well as having strong language awareness encourages different ways of thinking as a teacher it increases the amount of activities we are able to bring into the classroom. It increases the amount of diversity that is brought into a classroom. This might be beneficial for me as well as if I am being put in a new school that speaks a different language, I might have to travel as a teacher and be put in different situations or classrooms so being prepared for those situations by having strong language awareness is key. I think overall it will make my job a lot easier if I have strong language awareness as it will make my students succeed and me succeed as a teacher and I believe it will make everyone in the classroom feel welcomed like a big family. That is why I believe that the knowledge of language awareness and writing systems will benefit me as a teacher.
Lingustic Landscape Assignment
Here is the link to my assignment.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12rMJJalgBo36Q533ytgVfI01zU1qF96k1Nvz2mTaEyc/edit
Jan 24 Post
Response Number 1
When first registering for this class I was very excited to get right into class. I was super excited because I knew that this would be a class where I would develop my language awareness. I have learned about multilingualism from my parents before so I had a brief knowledge on what I was getting myself into which was also why I was super excited. I know how you can continue to learn more and more about the different types of multiculturalism in the world. I know that there are different ways in which multilingualism exists. One form focuses on how languages, such as playing a particular role, function in society. Some nations have more than one official language, while in social settings, other languages are used. Another type is individual multilingualism, or the capacity of a person to communicate in various languages in different environments. Many people value learning about different languages, I was fortunate enough to partake in a Cree class last semester which I absolutely loved. I found it was awesome to learn about the history of the language of a different culture as well as learn words in a different language. I grew up in the small community of Preeceville, everyone who lived there basically spoke English. I was learning French in elementary school until I was in grade 2 where I moved to Yorkton Sk. I found the same trend living in Yorkton. We had great amounts of multiculturalism in our community but for the most part everyone had mostly translated to the English language. I found it very disappointing how we had different cultures in our classrooms but we never learned about their languages. I’m only fluent in English but the Ukrainain language has been in my family for a very long time, my grandma and grandpa used to speak in Ukranian to each other and I would always wonder what the heck they were saying but I always found it so cool to learn another language.
In this class I am very excited to learn about how to incorporate multilingualism into my classroom. I feel like it is crucial to make sure everyone feels welcome in the classroom as well as to incorporate different cultures into learning so that everyone is able to learn about the different cultures and languages in the world. Personally I was to significantly increase my language awareness. I know this is a process and growing your language awareness happens in a variety of ways. I know it’s not easy to just pick up a language or a culture but I would be interested in some tasks that can help me expand and realize more about different languages. I would also enjoy learning about the history of people and their experiences and thoughts about language. How those people in older generations picked up on multilingualism and how they learned different languages. I realize we have a diverse class which is great for me, I will get to learn more about different people’s pasts and how their lifestyles are unique and language is special to them just like how ours is special to me. It’s unique that each person will have different stories to share throughout the semester. I feel like it would be lots of fun to learn and hear conversations in different languages knowing what they are saying. I am excited to grow as a person and to make many new friends as we all continue our journey in chasing our dreams to be teachers!
For our upcoming assignments, the Linguistic Landscape assignment I am very excited to try and find ways to express the different multilingualism in my community. I have thought about ways to express my different diversities in my community as there is not much. In Yorkton if you are to go to Superstore or Walmart you would see only the types of food that people from our culture eats. As the other cultures have to adapt to those different environments, foods and atmospheres. In our community there are a couple of Chinese restaurants but there is not much to represent other cultures. I have decided to go look at all the stores in my city and see how little stores and restaurants other cultures have here. Overall I am very excited to be in this class as I think it will be a great experience for me, I think my motivation to learn more about multilingualism will push me to create some of my best work this semester. As well as connect with many fellow classmates and learn from them, I am determined to push my knowledge to the next level in this class. From reading the course syllabus a lot of the articles and stories that we have already looked at I have found very interesting as well as the readings to be done for the future I am very excited to accomplish.