When reading a text in an unfamiliar language, there are a few strategies that I used. The first strategy that I used was to find words that looked similar to the English language. For example, I assumed that the German word "einmal" meant animal. After struggling to find any more familiar words in the first paragraph, I began to use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words. Apparently, "einmal" doesn't even mean animal. It means man. Slowly but surely, I made meaning of the first sentence, but I gave up on the rest of the paragraph and the rest of the story because it was frustrating.
What does this mean when teaching students who are learning English? First of all, I need to know more Spanish so that I can talk about words that look similar to each other. Also, I need to be able to define more English words in Spanish so that my students can better understand each lesson. I also feel that non-linguistic representations such as pictures or gestures are necessary for students to comprehend, which means that I need to provide more of these non-linguistic representations in my classroom. I also need to understand that students who are learning English can become easily frustrated when encountering many unfamiliar words. Overall, as a teacher of English Language Learners, I need to apply more strategies in the classroom to not only help the English Language Learners in my classroom, but all learners.
Your comment about the frustration is key. How frustrating do we make our teaching if a student has no idea what we are talking about? Motivation is lost so often when we expect a student to understand a concept without teaching using other techniques that you have stated. Great post.
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