Teaching Reflection #2

In watching the two videos in class last Thursday, it really had me thinking about how well students learn material when they are learning it in a foreign language, one that is not their first language.

The first video we watched was about high school students who had immigrated to the US and were now learning subjects in English, but at a much slower pace and separated from the English speaking students.  While watching this video I was very torn between whether or not I would like that kind of schooling if I was an immigration student in a school where my first language was not spoken.  There was one particular student in the video that stated that she felt left out from the other American students, because they did not talk to her because they don't have class together and therefore do not socialize with one another.  I wonder how she would feel if she was not placed in a specific learning environment who do not speak English as their first language.  I believe that although her social life would benefit, as she would be able to interact with the American students, I believe that her grades would suffer because her classes would be at an accelerated rate in which would most likely be hard for her to keep up with.  If I was a principal at a school who had to decide if they wanted to use this type of program for immigration students or not I would have a hard time deciding which would be best for the students.  One option I may present is having the immigration students be integrated in the regular classrooms in which they would then attend after school help on areas they are struggling with.  I think it really depends on the student and the learning is really on a case to case basis.

The second video we watched was about students attending a school that was based on immersion learning in which the students were learning school material in Chinese.  I had mixed feelings on this as well.  The video mainly focussed on younger elementary students learning in this way, and I believe that is the best time for individuals to learn language, for I have heard that is the easiest time for them to learn a language based on their brain development.  I think this is a very beneficial way of learning for learners that may be moving to an area in which they speak a different language then their first language.  For example, I believe it would be beneficial to learn this way if an American student was moving to China, otherwise I do not see it to be necessary to learn every subject in this language.  If I were to have children now and had to make this decision, I would choose against this and instead I would have them involved in after school school second language program with the immersion method of teaching.  I do not disagree with the immersion teaching method, for I believe it is very effective, but I do not find it beneficial for students to learn math in Chinese, for example, because they may have a hard time understanding math in real world situations in English.

These were both very informational videos that were very interesting to see different teaching approaches, ones in which I had not necessarily thought of before.