MRS.+CHOI'S+RESEARCH+BLOG

=__**Bilingual Learners Case Study Blog**__=


 * ON A SIDE NOTE: I would love to tutor during my spare time and I would love to tutor students from Korea, Japan, China, and other nationalities. I would make sure to schedule a time so that when we meet, it is in the best interest for the students I tutor. **
 * For example if I had a student from Japan in my classroom: **
 * My student is from Japan and she is in 7th Grade and she is a bilingual learner. She is proficient in Japanese at 1 to 2 years beyond her grade level. I received a not from her parents and the school that she has failed in all her subjects. **
 * First, I believe it is important to know where their strengths and weaknesses are. I would assess or use the information the previous teacher and the previous school has given me. I would also want to be contacted or informed of what they were learning and to support my student the best way I can. **
 * The strategies that I can implement to help her achieve successfully in second-language acquisition are ****, **** by having her classmates who are also from Japan become her buddy and friend. As an Educator, I believe students need a good friend who they can learn from and build not only survival skills but also content skills. She will need friends to imitate and she would need positive reinforcements from her teacher, tutor, and friends. I believe by interacting with her teachers, her tutor and her friends she will learn the rules of the language from her environment and construct the phonology, semantics, and syntax of the languages. **
 * The best way to support my bilingual learner is by being patient, be understanding, learn her culture, learn the differences between our phonemic alphabet and their phonemic alphabets and to support her the best way that I can. I know that since she is in 7th Grade, she will want to share her struggles and will want to communicate with me. **
 * What ways can I help my fellow teaches in similar situations can be difficult because not all situations will be alike. But I can do the best that I can to be supportive and listen and share my experiences. We can discuss what I have done and what worked and what didn't work. We can share other options we can use and reflect on the results. We can research together or team teach. We can even ask our bilingual students who have been in similar situations to share with the new bilingual students. I know that hearing from students who have been in similar situations can make a difference. **
 * What type of instructional process would I use to support my bilingual learner while she is learning English is by using lots of connections, hands on learning, chanting, singing, body movements, visuals and pictures, making index cards in Japanese and in English. I believe as an Educator it is important for NEP, LEP, and Monitored Students to be in cooperative learning groups so they work as a team to learn from each other and help each other. I believe students learn from each other in a Student-Centered Learning environment more than a Teacher-Centered Learning environment. I believe a Teacher-Centered Learning Environment should be brief and it is where we are teaching and giving examples (Guided-Practice). I believe in the buddy system and they are accountable for each other. I also believe in positive reinforcements when students do awesome things...things beyond their expectations or they do wonderful things without being asked too. I want my students to learn and grow and be challenged. **
 * How do students acquire a second language and what process will she go through is different and it depends on the students and their personalities. I've noticed when students are fluent and can read and write in their first language, they are quicker. They are not ashamed to speak in their first language. The teacher or tutor will need a translator but I believe students can communicate and be talkative or they will be silent. They will go through a process of just observing and learning the basic skills of survival words using one or two word like bathroom, water, hungry, food, mom, dad, brother, sister, dog, cat, etc. Then the students will go through a phase of just communicating and being social with their friends, so they are using a complete sentence like hello, how are you, what are you doing, let's go play, etc. Afterwards they are more comfortable and will speak in a more meaningful and use complex words in their sentences, I've noticed students wanting to learn more and they want to be challenged. Students do not like to be in the Frustration Stage and either they will let you know or give up or let their parents know that it is too hard. **
 * Since I do not speak Japanese and I have few other students in my classroom who are bilingual and they all speak various languages the best solution is to practice for a Heterogeneous Classroom setting. The two instructional approaches that I could use to teach a second language to my bilingual learner is having languages being taught through a meaningful content and use themes or units. As an instructor, I will make sure to integrate reading, writing, math, and technology throughout each themes and units that I create. I will keep in mind to apply or use higher order thinking skills so they students can learn and grow and be challenged. I will also have ****cooperative learning groups as my setting so the students can interact with their peers. Also, I will use a variety of ways so the students can share by using visuals, and expressions, hands on learning, body movements, and making sure they connect with each other through school but also outside of school. **


 * REFERENCES **
 * Combs, Mary Carol, Garcia, Eugene E, McCarty, Teresa, Ovando, Carlos J. 2012. Bilingual and ESL Classrooms, Teaching in Multicultural Contexts Fifth Edition. McGraw-Hill Company **


 * Rowe, Bruce M. 2012. A Concise Introduction to Linguistics, 3e. Pearson Education, Inc. **