ELL Student Reflective Report

From my experiences in tutoring and finding that I often needed to resort to explanations in Spanish, I believe that as an ELL student, I would require some assistance or instruction in my native language. In many cases, this is quite possible within the classroom, but for teachers who do not have skills in the students’ primary language, they can utilize community or other student resources to help support the new learner. The expectation that students new to English can quickly learn a new language without any support from the primary language is unreasonable, and it is imperative that teachers should allow and even encourage the use of the first language in the classroom. However, in order to accomplish this ideal, there is a need for …show more content…
Like many others, I have long held the view that Standard English is “correct” and that other variations are “incorrect”. Mallinson, Strickling, and Hudley (2011) present an intriguing alternate viewpoint that says that all linguistic variation is correct and no one dialect is “intrinsically superior over another” (Mallinson, Strickling, & Hudley, 2011). The emphasis of the presenters is that since the variations in English all have their own rules and structure, this qualifies them as legitimate dialects to be accepted and valued rather than scorned. These variations “are not the same as language deficits, errors, mistakes, and confusions” (Mallinson, Strickling, & Hudley, 2011). At the same time, they do acknowledge that the standardized English should be the language of the classroom. Therefore, holding this viewpoint on language variation, teachers must then find a more respectful manner for correcting students by helping them to understand the difference between standardized English to be used in the classroom and the dialect used at home. Teachers must also work to instill respect for language differences used by all students in the