ESL Tech Essentials

This week, I was so happy to find what it is I am always looking for; articles involving both technology innovation and the ESL community.  The article that fits the bill this week, written by Toshiko Maurizio, is all about the technology essentials she uses to help bridge language gaps and reach the ELLs she manages in Oregon.  Maurizio manages over 5,000 ELLs in her school distract and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to address language needs and to engage her students and teachers.  They are a Future Ready school distract that always encourages teachers incorporate technology and collaboration into their daily plans. In the past, Maurizio (2017) wrote that she used tapes to record students, listen to progress, and to assess, but these technologies below have helped to modernize the progress.

• Lightspeed Redcat audio systems – These are simply amplifiers for teacher’s voices to eliminate shouting and to allow all students to hear directions and content clearly. Which certainly is critical to understanding in the classroom.
• Laptops – Maurizio describes these as the educator’s lifeline and for a Future Ready school district, that makes sense.  In their district, laptops are primarily used for lesson-planning, presentations, and for visuals, “which are extremely important while teaching ELL students, since pictures help them make the connection between their native language and English” (Maurizio, 2017). 
• iPads – Students utilize these for Google Translate, which can apparently change the keyboard letting to their native language to aid in communication (Maurizio, 2017).  Maurizio (2017) explains that they find it helpful when students can have open access to their native language to help transfer over to English. 

While I appreciated the information in this week’s short article on ESL and technology, I honestly felt a bit letdown in how obvious the three mentioned were.  Now maybe just because I take online courses for continuing my professional development I can write that, but I was expecting more information about specific programs or techniques rather than a reminder to simply use computers and make sure students can hear your voice, especially coming from a Future Ready school.  I would like to check in on more of these articles as I believe there will be a series of them in the future with more essential technology tips.  But I suppose what the title indicates is correct; laptops, iPads, and audio systems are not teacher secrets necessarily, but indeed essentials for everyday use.  While my students can simply turn up the volume to hear me better online, I do in fact need my students to have access to their provided laptops and other devices to receive their direct instruction and the majority of their curriculum.  Though work may be done offline in textbooks and workbooks, they must check in online to submit work, mark attendance, and attend my virtual LiveLessons.  

References

Maurizio, T. (2017, July 19). ELL Specialist: These are “My Tech Essentials”. Retrieved from https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/07/21/curriculum-tech-essentials/

"Reverse the decline in language education"

           I wanted to again find an article from this week that related to both technology and ESL, but I am afraid I did not find too much in those combined fields.  Instead, I managed to find an interesting article about how to reverse the decline in language education in the United States.  This opinion article from the Editorial Board of the Herald Sun, present data to suggest that learning languages other than English is taking a downturn and has been for decades.  As the world is becoming “smaller” with the help of technology and global partnerships in business, people from the US may be at a disadvantage if the partners do not speak English as the lingua franca.  

            The article states that from 75% in 1998 to 58% in 2008, there has a been a decline in the number of middle schools offering another language other than English and a 6% decline in elementary schools as well (Editorial Board, 2017).  The article continues to report that only 15% of elementary schools actually offer a second language course with 50% of private elementary schools offering them (Editorial Board, 2017).  The article presents some staggering information when the US is compared to other countries’ language programs too.  Two-thirds of all European adults make the claim to be able to speak a second language to some extent, while only 20% of Americans can say the same (Editorial Board, 2017).  And though the populations of the US and China are quite different in size, the amount of US students taking Mandarin compared to Chinese students taking English are very different.  The article contends that is 200,000 US students compared to 300-400 million Chinese students.  But are these differences in language competencies and course offerings because English is often indeed used as the lingua franca or is it that language skills other than English are not found on state assessments?  The Editorial Board (2017) suggest that US educators and political leaders push to promote more language learning through the creation of more courses and the hiring of more teachers.  They believe language proficiency will allow more people to get along with each other and for America to get ahead in the global market.  

            I first started my foreign language learning with Spanish in 6^th grade.  I never had any background in school before and I honestly do not remember it ever being offered any earlier than middle school.  Though I had great teachers, I just could not get into it during that time in my life.  Perhaps my other subjects like Math, Language Arts, and Science were more at the top of my mind at that point.  I often wish I could go back in time and involve myself more with learning the language.  Perhaps that is what I’m doing now as now language learning is at the top of my mind.  At my school where I teach now, we do offer several languages as early as kindergarten and first grade I believe like Spanish, Mandarin, etc.  Though these are online courses, we do have a Spanish teacher on staff for elementary and middle school students to get LiveLessons and real-time content.  I agree with the article though, we need more language teachers like her.  One is not enough.  I’m sure as my school expands and grows that will be something on my administrations to-do list.  

References

Board, T. E. (2017, July 13). Reverse the decline in language education. Retrieved from http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/article161131128.html

English: The Language of Success?

            As my title for this week’s blog suggests, some people are believing that when it comes to using online educational programs, knowing English is what really makes you successful.  This is certainly a discouraging statement and one that must be addressed by educators and those who make such programs available to help our ELL population of students. 

            The article I found for this week, written by Jen Curtis (2017), details how many ELLs in schools use online programs that boast their translation skills, but that may not be enough to help them achieve.  As not all translation services are created equal, a vast amount of work and manpower must occur in order to make sure what is translated makes sense and is presented in the right context (Curtis, 2017).  Directions are also important in online programs, which are actually often not translated at all.  The fundamental linguistic differences between Spanish and English, for example, is where human translators are usually need to ensure translation is properly done.  But when that translation is done properly, it can actually raise the difficulty of a text by making it multisyllabic (Curtis, 2017).  Curtis (2017) gives the example of how Diary of a Wimpy kid is written at a fourth grade level, but when translated into Spanish suddenly becomes a sixth grade level book. 

            Though Achieve3000 tries to match content at the appropriate Lexile level to each ELL, some online products are ditching translation services altogether.  IXL and i-Ready are two of those such companies that recommend matching an ELLs current English reading level to the material rather than translating it (Curtis, 2017).  Their reasoning for this is due to the fact that many ELLs are coming to school with difficulties in literacy in English and their native languages so therefore they cannot rely on reading skills in another language that they may not have.  I-Ready and IXL rely more on strategic scaffolding then to help student progress in English literacy. 

            I was especially interested in this because I saw i-Ready and IXL mentioned, both of which we use at my school.  Though i-Ready Reading and Math were new to us last year, we really thought the program was valuable to our struggling students who needed those extra scaffolds in their learning.  I had my ELL working in there every day actually to improve her skills and she really seemed to like it as it worked on her level.  As for translation services, I would actually like to see a combination of that and the scaffolding at the appropriate Lexile levels.  In my school environment, translation in a program would often help Spanish speaking parents help explain to their students what is necessary to complete, while the scaffolding in the appropriate English levels would help students understand the language more proficiently.  But this always brings me back to one thing, which is making lower level stories interesting and enjoyable for older students.  I always say that if there is one area I think someone could make a lot of money in is making low level readers interesting for an older population.  Kindergarten and first grade passages about dirt bikes, video games, and other “older” themes rather than cute bunnies and other children’s characters. 

References

Curtis, J. (2017, June 29). When ELA Tools Can't Adapt to Students' Native Language - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-06-29-when-adaptive-tools-can-t-adapt-to-students-native-language