Language Comparison- Anna a Student from Poland

Hi Everyone,

I create a Prezi presentation about the person who I evaluated for mistakes in English. I had a great time learning from Anna, who is originally from Poland. Please enjoy yourselves! The link to my presentation is below.

http://prezi.com/rn_oi7niyjnd/anna/

U11 Responding to Student Errors

In this blog entry you will read about three ESL students attempting to write a passage about a good speech. Below the passage is information about the mistakes they made and how I would work with them to become a better writer.

Student A:

to give a good speach and prsuasive the pepole you should talk with trust and blieve what are you talking about. second your voice should be loud and clear so people can listen to you give them a minute to think.now what you should avoid never play with your hair and dont be shy or nervuse, do not look to the floor and speak so fast try to keep your eyes on the audience

Looking at the paragraph of student A, it looks like the major errors are due to grammar and spelling mistakes. Just by switching the sentence over to a word document you see that the student made several spelling mistakes and there are grammatical mistakes like using a double negative like avoid and never. It seems as though the student is on the right path to becoming proficient, but still needs a lot of refining with their English skills. However, when reading this passage I can still interpret the thought and I believe that the meaning they are conveying is not lost with the errors. If I was teaching this ESL student, I would focus on the sentence structure and allow the student to practice forming sentences in common word order form. I would not be so worried about their spelling mistakes because as you see, they are making a great attempt to spell the words phonetically. I am happy that they are beginning to understand the sounds they hear in the words, so I would probably comment on how their spelling is improving. In order to help this student in the future, I would ask them to formulate their sentences in their head, and then give me some detail about what they want to write about. Then, we can work on using the correct grammar together in order to form better sentences. I’m not sure how long this student has been learning English, but it seems like they’re on the way to success. I would like to see a better effort with the writing though. This could be an indication that this student is only comprehending basic information about the components of a good speech. It would be nice to sit down with them and get an understanding for what they were trying to write about.

Student B

always people attention for good speech, but there many thing beside speech make support opinions and points. First, the dital with respond and date it's strong prove in the debate. second, sometime the new information support points better then old information. Third, if the information from some books, the name of book and author most impotent digital in the debate in conclusion the respond, date, new information and name of books and author are support opinions and points in the debate.

when speakers speech, there are things avoid his/her speech. The lewder voice make people attention when the speaker speech. the speakers must speak slowly to be his words clear. The speaker should not be nervous when he/she speech. moreover, chose good words in speech is very impotent thing to makes speech strong, also to steal attention. in finally, always speech avoid speakers.

Student B is having a tough time with using the correct words in his sentence and their grammar makes it difficult to understand what they are talking about. I believe that their inability to correctly use the words and the order in which they use the words makes it hard to understand the message their trying to convey. This would be a situation where I would want to work with the student one on one and just talk about some of their word choice and really try to understand what they are saying. Then I could use this information to show the student the correct way to improve their sentence structure and also teach them about the differences in the words that they’re using. I really feel for these students because words like important look so close to the word impotent, and I don’t want their effort to be looked down on or even laughed at because of tiny mistakes they made. The student should be more aware of those vocabulary mistakes, but I applaud the effort that he is putting into his work. There are a lot of strong points that they are making, but if we clear up the message, then their message will be meaningful to our class and it is important information that will be beneficial to their comprehension of the material.

Student C

Good Speech

Good speech and presintation is an important tool for the speaker to comunicate with audiance and convensing them about a specific point. Humans use 60% of comunication through body language, so it is not only about the verbal language.

To deliver a highly persuasive speech, the speaker must do stratiges and suggestions in order to attract the audiance. By increasing the pitch of the speaker's voice at the important points, people will pay more attention. An important thing to do while speaking is making eye contact to the people, not only focusing on one persone but instead scanning them all. Standing stright and appeare confident of yourself is the most important element of giving a good speech. Good speakers allways prepare the speech or the presintation befor they presinte it, preparing ahead helps you to practice.

There are many thing that the speaker should not do while giving a speech. Reading from a paper that includes all the speech should be avoided. speechs and presintations allways have truble makers, the speaker should not make any trube with them instead he should stop the speech and look to the truble maker eye without saying any word for few seconds. Never point by the finger to something on the board of the screan of the presintation, using a liser pin or any other toole to point is good idea.

The differance between somebody attractive and convincing when giving speech and somebody not is how did he gave the speech. Using all the means to comunicate with people and showing them respict are what make a good speaker. These techniqs and stratiges are learned so any body can learn how to be a good speaker

Student C clearly made a great attempt to write about a good speech. The first problem that I see with this passage is the spelling, but the words that they have chosen can be understood and with a computer program this student could fix that problem in a matter of minutes. It does look like the student may have some difficulties with the short vowel sound. In one of the sentences above, the student used liser instead of lazer. That worries me because he may be attempting to spell words using both their native language and English. I think that this student would have to study the letters and the sounds and really get a good understanding of what each letter sounds like. I think that the problems that I’m noticing do not affect the meaning of his passage, and like the other two students, I would commend this effort. I think his word order is good and he gave us the steps of good speech in a logical order. We could always take the time to go back through his writing and find areas where he should placed the words in a different part of the passage. I really like this effort, and I think that this student has been working hard on his English proficiency.

U10 Exercise 2 Do You Speak American?

Reading the articles about sociolinguistics helps and educator to understand where the English language is changing. The one article stated that there are teachers and writers continue to show people the correct way to form a sentence, but we have to be aware that the students are being exposed to different ways of speaking and writing. Students are emailing and texting with the thought of communicating at a rapid pace, rather than worrying about the correct way to write a sentence. In other parts if the country, we see the Northern Vowel shift in which words are being pronounced differently. As a teacher, you have to understand how your students communicate with their peers, but you must also guide them to understanding the importance of using English in the proper format. The information you present in class has to be relevant to all learners, but you must also take the time to understand why students are using the English language and their purpose for doing so.

U10 Exercises Variation of Ascents Across the United States

Listening to the data that was collected, it was a very effective tool when comparing the different accents across our nation. When listening to the clips of people from the New England area, there is a dialect that places emphasis on the sound of r, and there is a different pronunciation in words like hawk, cot, and caught. Also, they put less emphasis on the sounds at the end of the word.  The New England area was settled by people from England and Ireland and they brought their patterns of speech with them (O’Grady, 2010, 490). The people from the southern part of the United States pronounce their words with a softer accent, where words blend together. They also use double modals, like might should (494), in order to sound less forceful to the people they’re talking to. I think the accent is influenced by the agricultural living from the past. We tend to think of the south as farmlands and hardworking people. The accents probably took place due to a lack of experience in formal environments. They used their language to communicate what has to be done, but there was never a need for the formal pronunciation of words. When listening to the audio clip of someone from California, it became very difficult for me to hear an accent. Their pronunciation of words was clear, and I did not notice any variations in their speech pattern that would classify this area of the country as different.  O’Grady states that places like California are beginning to shift the way the vowels are pronounced (496). This could be due to less emphasis being placed on pronunciation in schools and more emphasis being placed on content. The different dialects of our country represent the immigrants who came to our country and settled in different areas. The dialects give us an understanding of how our country evolved and where people settled and formed their own dialect of the English language.

The IPA could be used to capture the accents by forming a section called the American variation of the English language. The section could be very effective for the native speakers of English who are traveling to different parts of the country or an international student who will be studying in Milwaukee. People who travel to different parts of our country will experience a language that has a diversity of dialects and pronunciations. The section of American dialect will provide the person with more awareness of the language and a better understanding for how people communicate in that section of the United States.

What Would You Do?

I never thought about the problems that I could be exposed to if I were to be an ESL teacher in the future. The video about discrimination was eye opening. There were times where I felt ashamed by people’s reactions and other times when I was proud to be an American.  I am sure that I will find myself in a situation where people feel that teaching ESL students should not be a priority in our educational system, and people will probably wonder why these students get special accommodations in an American school. Personally, I feel that I’m a very patient person and very respectful to others, but when people approach me to tell me that their tax money shouldn’t go to students who don’t belong in the country, then I start to become a different person.  In a controlled manner, I would state that I am a teacher. I chose a profession to make an impact in young children’s lives. I hear what they are telling me, but I will never agree with them because these students never asked to be put in this situation. The students never asked to be placed in a school where they didn’t understand the language or to be discriminated against by others. These students are in my classroom, and I will guarantee that they will work hard to become proficient in English and become contributing members of our society.

Can Grammar be Inquired Through Immersion?

       I feel that an ELL student must be taught grammar. However, I feel that immersing a student in the English language is important because there are times when a student should learn to communicate through interaction with native students. Teaching grammar allows the student to practice their new language and develop the skills necessary to write clearly and effectively, and it will also help the student to develop their oral communication with people in their community. In the video the woman told a story about an ELL student who had graduated high school and wrote a sentence for one of her requirements in college. Her grammar was awful because she learned English at a time when ELL students were encouraged to learn by immersing them in the English language, rather than teaching the student the correct fundamentals of grammar.

       Why is grammar important? Grammar is important because the words we use represent who we are. When we write a paper in school or talk in front of a group, it is important to convey our message in an accurate and meaningful way. If we do not have the capabilities of expressing our words in a clear way, then our message gets lost. People would start to wonder about your input and question what you have to say. Like the video pointed out, teaching grammar should not be about all the rules, but grammar helps us to display our message that is accurate and meaningful.

       From my experience in school, I feel that grammar is slipping away from our curriculum. We spend some much time on content for the big test at the end of the year, that the students are not mastering the material. The students are being introduced to the content and then it’s time to move onto the next lesson. An ELL student has the incredible challenge of learning a new language when they are being introduced to these skills. We have to find a way to teach grammar and teach it in a way that is meaningful and where the students will use it in their everyday writing. If we do this, then students will be able to articulate their thoughts and communicate effectively.  

Simple Present and Simple Past

1.       Original Story

His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves fishing, but longs to be more successful. When he was feeling down, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters,” blue and shined it up. John asked his brother what he thought of the new look, but his brother just laughed and said, “You’re always fishing for compliments.”

If John had had more energy, he might have argued with his brother, but instead, he began making more nets, with the hopes of increasing his catch the next day.

      1a. Rewritten story

His brother bought land last winter. He sold the land to a neighbor. He needed money. John loves fishing, but wants more money. When he was sad, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters.”  He painted it blue and cleaned it. John asked his brother how the boat looked, but his brother laughed and said, “Do you want me to say I like it?”

Another part of the story that may be confusing to an ELL student is the content of the conversation. The conversation moves very quickly. It starts out with the brother buying land, then selling it because he needed money. Next, he is sad, paints a boat, and cleaned it. The ELL student may be confused about why he paints a boat when he is sad. Finally, John asked how his brother liked the boat, but his brother laughed. ELL students might not understand why the brother would laugh at that comment. Then the brother wants to know why he always wants someone to notice his work. There are nine different things happening in the conversation all within the four sentences of the original story.

I would definitely address the problem with the story changing at a rapid pace. In order to address this issue, I would translate every sentence thoroughly and allow the student to talk about what it means. Then we would move to the next sentence and question the students about how the sentences work together. I would also give the ELL a chance to predict where the story will lead to. This will help the ELL student to use their understanding of English and compare the language used in the story. Finally, at the end of the story I would ask the students to write their own short story about the same two people. They should use the same characters, but what they did after the story ended.