My journal by QiYi

qiyi6287 — 2025-02-10 01:52:34 UTC

This article states that we should respect students' cultural backgrounds, and students with multiple languages should not be regarded as deficits. On the contrary, we should encourage students to learn English and continue to develop their home language. Lexia English can help emergent bilinguals learn English and continue to develop their native language. The characters in Lexia English are the same age as the emergent bilinguals, they are all from different countries, they are bilingual, and they share their cultural backgrounds. Although the core content of Lexia English is in English, students can hear the task instructions in their home language. I think Lexia English is a very good language program. The characters’ backgrounds are similar to emergent bilinguals, which resonates with them. And the characters will teach them how to learn English by using their home language to support them. This promotes emergent bilinguals participation and affirms their identities.

qiyi6287 — 2025-02-10 01:53:58 UTC

The article argues that teaching early literacy skills in a language that students already know becomes the foundation of a second language. I agree with this view because I think that by teaching in a language that the students can speak, they can better understand the new knowledge they are learning. And by the level of reading and spelling students have mastered in their first language can reflect on how much or how fast they can progress when learning a second language. As a student who immigrated to the United States, I had a similar experience. At school there was a program that helped me improve my English, and since the teacher only spoke English, I couldn’t communicate with her a lot of the time. But when she was teaching me English, she provided me with pictures and translations to help me know what the words meant. I think this helps me because I know what the word means in my home language, I just don’t know what it means in English.

qiyi6287 — 2025-02-17 04:06:07 UTC

In this article, teachers are provided with five steps to establish a positive and nurturing learning environment for emergent bilingual students. One of the steps mentions "Let students use their home language for specific activities." As an emerging bilingual student, when I immigrated to the United States in the sixth grade, I didn't speak much English. And my teacher uses this step. In her classroom, she allowed me to answer questions in Mandarin if I wasn't quite able to express myself in English, and someone would translate for me. I think this helped me a lot because I was afraid that I wouldn't know how to express my thoughts in English when the teacher called on me to answer the question. My teacher saw my confusion and said that in her classroom I could use my home language to answer the question. It makes me feel comfortable in her classroom. I enjoyed participating and expressing my ideas in her class.

qiyi6287 — 2025-03-10 01:57:39 UTC

According to the article, in order for emergent bilingual to participate in classroom activities, some teachers will use "equity sticks", meaning that these sticks have students' names on them. When a teacher asks a student a question, a stick will be randomly drawn out and the selected student need to answer the question. But doing so creates an environment of tension and panic for the emergent bilingual. It also takes away their motivation to participate. As a student, I had a similar experience. When I came to the U.S., my English was not so good and I was afraid of being asked to answer questions. One time my teacher said that she got us named sticks to answer questions for whoever was called. I was afraid that she would ask questions I didn’t know and that my classmates would make fun of my accent. During the reading, she then drew the stick and called on me to answer the question, and I didn't know how to answer that question. The class waited a long time for my answer, but eventually I still didn’t know how to answer the question. Then she called other students to help me. Every time if the teacher randomly calls on someone to answer a question, it makes me nervous and scared.

qiyi6287 — 2025-05-19 23:17:29 UTC

This article mentions that there are an increasing number of bilingual students in rural communities, especially those who speak Spanish. Southwest DuBois County School has developed the Dual language program. In this program, 50% of their instruction is in English and 50% of their instruction in Spanish. This helps emergent bilinguals because they can develop both languages at the same time. And use the first language to help them continue learning the second language. Based on my fieldwork observation, I have seen this teaching method in PS.24. I saw that the teacher used to speak in Spanish first and then repeat her words in English. And I also saw that on the PowerPoint, the left side of the lesson was in English and the right side was in Spanish. She explains the content in Spanish and then asks the students to repeat after her in English. This teaching method not only values students’ home language and culture, but also promotes academic success.