Ell Reflection

Going into this class my thoughts of what an ELL was before reading Coehlo (2004) and Li, Myles, & Robinson (2012) was someone who had immigrated to Canada and English was not their first language. It is probably a common assumption among the majority of the population even though it is a wrong one. I also only viewed an ELL as someone who is initially learning the language, but as talked about in the lesson, the learning never really stops. I never would have viewed an individual who is a Canadian citizen, and has been in Canada for quite a while as an ELL. However, now that this has come to my attention, my friend’s mom who came here from Mexico 30+ years ago could still be learning English daily in her interactions with others. After …show more content…
Or even that native born Canadians that are exposed to English at school (Coehlo, 2004). From this new knowledge it has enlightened me that ELLs can be anywhere and it is important that teachers should know how to address this in classes. Another interesting fact that I learned from the Li, Myles, & Robinson (2012) reading was that seventy percent of immigrant are adults and many of these adults are educated in their own languages. However, when in a country where their language is not the dominant language they seem to be at a disadvantage. For myself, this would be a very tough situation as I think it would be hard to ask for help when you’re in your thirties as I would feel like I am being looked down upon. This is another reason it is important to have knowledgeable teachers in this field to make these learners feel comfortable and not like they are being treated any lesser. In my opinion it is important to keep the learner in a positive state of mind because as soon as negativity arises it is unlikely any more learning will happen. After the first lecture and the readings I personally want to try my best to learn how to make my classroom friendly to ELL students to support their