Week 7 EFL

               My initial reaction to this topic was, “Why am I learning about English as a Lingua Franca?  I will never be teaching students who will use English as a Shuttle Language as Baker has explained.”  As I continued to read I learned more and started to think more broadly.  It may be true that right now in my education career I will not come across students who use ELF, but in the future maybe I will.  Who knows where I will be teaching and what types of ELLs I will come across.  It is important to know the difficulties these students face as well. 

                When reading the chapter by Mckay and Bokhorst-Heng I came to a conclusion.  It is not important to correct my ELL students for every mistake when they are speaking.  If I understand what they mean I can continue the conversation without drawing attention to the error, however I might repeat the sentence correctly.  If the student is able to express thoughts and comprehension is made then perfect grammar doesn’t need to be focused on.  The important thing is to maintain flow of conversation, and encourage students to talk!  The authors also talked about code switching.  This is something my colleagues and I have discussed at length.  It is really important for students to know what is appropriate in specific settings.  This is actually important for all students not just ELLs.  Many students do not understand that there is a very important distinction that needs to be made in particular settings.

                The video we watched last week about writing was very interesting.  I never even considered that writing could be so different depending in the culture.  I stand very firm with the statement “Equal is Not Always Fair and Fair is Not Always Equal.”  I guide many actions in my class by this statement.  This is exactly what the person in the video stated about writing.  Holding the ELLs to a standard of what’s good enough but maybe not perfect.  The purpose for writing is comprehension, and if that is met details can be overlooked.    Now I’ve mentioned this overlooking twice, and I don’t want it to sound like I am holding my ELLs to a lower standard.  That is not the case.  I believe it is very important to focus on one error at a time and build confidence.  Imagine how you would feel if someone picked apart everything you said or wrote and told you all the ways it could be better.  Confidence is most important, and then skill by skill can be address.  The biggest aha when watching this video is to ask your students to tell you what will be most helpful to them when looking at his/her writing.  Even at first grade my students could answer that question.  What a novel idea!