Our classrooms today are filled with students that come from different cultures and very diverse backgrounds. My job as an educator is to give every student and equal opportunity to achieve and be successful in the classroom. I teach at a career center that is approximately six years old, and my district is supportive of the program. The curriculum I use to teach my advanced electrical class prepares students to become electrical apprentices after they graduate. When I look at the make-up of my class, over half of the kids are ELL students. Learning the required vocabulary that electricians use can be challenging for my ELL students. Regardless of the hands-on skills, my ELL kids have, it is important that they know and understand the vocabulary
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I am teaching young men and women to be professional electricians. As electricians, they will communicate with other electricians as well as customers, and they will need to read and understand work orders. Without knowing and understanding the vocabulary that the electrical industry uses, my ELL students will struggle and may not make it as electricians. When I think of my question, and I look harder at the data the literature shows, it only emphasizes the importance of using instructional strategies that will lead my students to success. When my ELL kids enter the workforce after graduation, I want them to be prepared and confident with the vocabulary that electricians …show more content…
Nam focuses on many studies that have been done on retaining and understanding vocabulary. For example, Hulstijn and Laufer feel that open-ended tasks contribute to students’ vocabulary retention (as cited in Nam, 2010). Furthermore, Plass, Chun, Mayer, and Leutner suggest from their findings that students remember unknown words better when a picture accompanies the written meaning (as cited in Nam, 2010). There is plenty of research for me to look at when conducting my study. With the changing demographics that are taking place in our country as well as our classroom, more research is being done on ELL students and
I am teaching young men and women to be professional electricians. As electricians, they will communicate with other electricians as well as customers, and they will need to read and understand work orders. Without knowing and understanding the vocabulary that the electrical industry uses, my ELL students will struggle and may not make it as electricians. When I think of my question, and I look harder at the data the literature shows, it only emphasizes the importance of using instructional strategies that will lead my students to success. When my ELL kids enter the workforce after graduation, I want them to be prepared and confident with the vocabulary that electricians …show more content…
Nam focuses on many studies that have been done on retaining and understanding vocabulary. For example, Hulstijn and Laufer feel that open-ended tasks contribute to students’ vocabulary retention (as cited in Nam, 2010). Furthermore, Plass, Chun, Mayer, and Leutner suggest from their findings that students remember unknown words better when a picture accompanies the written meaning (as cited in Nam, 2010). There is plenty of research for me to look at when conducting my study. With the changing demographics that are taking place in our country as well as our classroom, more research is being done on ELL students and