Standard 5.a: Candidates demonstrate knowledge of history, research, educational public policy, and current practice in the field of ESL teaching and apply this knowledge to inform teaching and learning.
The artifact I chose for this standard is from ESC 759-Foundations of Bilingual Education. This artifact demonstrates my understanding of new instructional techniques, research results, advances in the ESL field, and education policy issues and demonstrate knowledge of the history of ESL teaching. One particular piece of research that I found fascinating is “linguistic distance”, the idea that the closer one’s language is to English, the easier it will be to attain English comprehension. As an educator who teaches students of varying cultural backgrounds, understanding current thinking in the field of ENL teaching enables me to perfect my lessons. For example, my Asian students may require additional time to improve their grammar, thereby dictating what types of scaffolds I create.
In addition to analyzing new concepts in ENL education, my artifact also provides evidence of my knowledge of history, research, educational public policy, and current practice in the field of ESL teaching and apply this knowledge to inform teaching and learning. An aspect of my paper that connects with this substandard is my discussion of the burgeoning research on the connection between culture and academic success. One point I mention is the theory of the “model minority” and how Asian American academic achievement is directly related to their cultural beliefs on education. By extracting some of the customs in Asian American households, such as Saturday School and intense family involvement can have a positive impact on ELLs academic proficiency.
Since writing this paper, I have made it a point to increase my knowledge of not only ESL research but also the history of education as a whole. With the continued inconsistency of ESL standards and practices, it has become difficulty to state with certainty which procedures are proven effective for the increasing number of ELLs in NYC schools. However, by having a number of techniques in my teaching arsenal, as well as attaining a historical understanding of ESL pedagogy, I am more able to be an effective educator.
