March 15

            Branch 3-6 of this chapter intrigued me. It posed a question that I feel comes up recurrently in teaching. When looking at the difference between how the girl and boy answered the dilemma of morality, the girl received a much lower score for her moral development than the boy. It seems as though this girl just did not interpret the problem in the same way the boy did. Although the book was targeting this example to Kohlberg’s six-stage theory of moral development, for me it can be related to all of my future students.

            I think that all too often I forget that children in general look at and process things much different than each other and than me. As educators, children can be labeled wrongly because they are not thinking the same way the other students are or because it is different than what the teacher expects. This is especially important to remember when it comes to second language learners. Not only does every child learn differently and interpret things in their own way, their background greatly affects how they learn. If a child comes to the U.S. from a Spanish speaking country, even aside from the language barrier they are likely to interpret things differently because they grew up in a different culture. This is the problem with many standardized texts; the cultural context is often related to white, middle-class Americans.

            When the author went back and looked at what could have caused the girl to interpret the situation differently it made me reflect on how we can do the same thing as teachers. All too often we blame the students for being wrong, when in reality it might be the way we are teaching that is not cohesive to their learning strengths. Also the girl’s answer was not wrong, it was simply different. This will be one of the most important things to do and remember as a teacher, to not judge a student’s response because it is not what you expected or it is different. The way we teach our children needs to be meaningful, always looking at how we pose questions, how we assess and what we are doing to help them learn. If we can demonstrate and open mind, students will be more likely to develop the same acceptance and the learning environment of the classroom will become richer.

 Annotated Bibliography

1)

            Effective Early Literacy Skill Development for Young Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners: An Experimental Study of Two Methods studies the early literacy development of English language learners. The group of children were divided into a control group which receive regular high-scope curriculum, a group that received  high-scope along with small groups from the Literacy Express Preschool Curriculum and the third was the same as the second, but began in Spanish and transitioned to English instruction. Part of the research in this study was also based on what the children received at home, whether English or Spanish was spoken more often, or equally. This source will supplement my own research because it focuses on pre-school aged children and the efficacy of a method used in English language acquisition. The home aspect of the study will also correlate well as I am researching what works best in the home environment as well.

Farver, J, Lonigan, C, & Eppe, S. (2009). Effective early literacy skill development for young spanish-                                                   speaking english language learners: an experimental study of two methods. Child Development, 80(3), 703-719.

2)

         Learning For Life, A Structured and Motivational Process of Knowledge Construction in the Acquisition/Learning of English as a Foreign Language in Native Spanish Speakers explores the methods of a theory, Learning for Life. This theory focuses on student centered instruction with emphasis on human values as a part of instruction. Each student is seen as unique and the teacher is expected to know of and be involved in aspects of their life even outside of instruction. The article also touches on acquisition versus learning under this circumstance. This will aid in my research because it is specific to Spanish speakers learning English as a foreign language. 

Miño-Garcés, F. (2009). Learning for life, a structured and motivational process of knowledge         construction in the acquisition/learning of english as a foreign language in native spanish speakers. International Journal of English Studies, 8(1), 81-89.

3)

          Mother Brand English as an Effective Approach to Teach English for Young Children as a Foreign Language in Korea explains this method, developed by parents and used by mothers and father in Korea to help their own children acquire English in the home. This study shows the use of outside resources such as media and the internet to provide access to natural English input for the children.  The goal of this method is natural acquisition of the language by exposure to rich English surroundings and environment along with appropriate stimuli. The study iterates which steps and stages children go through as they are acquiring the language. This article will aid in my analysis of research as I am inquiring of methods to use in the home, this parallels my research question and will help to find useful strategies to use in the home.

Seung-Yoeun, Y, & SookHee, L. (2006). Mother brand english as an effective approach to teach english for young children as a foreign language in korea. Reading Improvement, 43(4), 185-193.

4)

           Language Immersion Programs for Young Children? Yes, but Proceed With Caution analyzes a dual-language immersion school in Hong Kong that equally exposes their students to English and Mandarin. They have found that there are cognitive advantages, but that young children do not “absorb second languages like a sponge”.  They have also found that these programs must be carefully created and monitored to be effective. This article will compliment my analysis of other research as it shows parts of the hardships of second language acquisition in young children. It will help me to answer my research questions knowing not only what works in teaching English as a foreign language, but also what does not work.

Soderman, A. (2010). Language immersion programs for young children? yes..but proceed with caution. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(8), 54-61.