Although some English Language Learners ( ELL) have lower academic achievement than a student that is completely fluent in English, there are ways that we as teachers can help to fix this problem. In the articles “Multilingual Stroop performance: Effects of trilingualism and proficiency on inhibitory control” and “Classroom, School, and District Impacts on Diverse Student Literacy Achievement” we learn just how to do that.
I found The Stroop Test to be very interesting. My Incongruent time was drastically slower than my congruent time The article “Multilingual Stroop performance: Effects of trilingualism and proficiency on inhibitory control” really walks us through what the Stroop test is and what it measures. We were introduced to a case study performed on individuals who speak more than two languages. It was very intriguing to me to read about these different results.
So how exactly can we help bilingual students with their academic performance? The article “Classroom, School, and District Impacts on Diverse Student Literacy Achievement” explains to us what is going wrong in these classrooms through various case studies that we are walked through. One way we could help bilingual students with higher academic performance is a higher frequency of group discussions. This has been proven to help bilingual students achieve. Although when it comes to groups, teachers should be aware of the size. Studies show that when bilingual students are working in smaller groups, they tend to obtain a higher level of achievement.
One thing that really jumped out at me was the study that exposing bilingual students to technology-based reading programs can help a lot. When a student is working on their own on these programs, it allows them to move at their own pace and gives them a sense of confidence.
Overall, I thought both of these articles were very interesting and I learned a lot from them. I think it is extremely important for every teacher to understand how we can help english language learners in the classroom.
Citations:
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H., Mizrahi, E., Kania, U., & Cordes, A.-kristin. (2012). Multilingual Stroop performance: Effects of trilingualism and proficiency on inhibitory control . Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 1–23.
Wilcox Campbell, Kristen, H,. Lawson, j., Angelis. (2015). Classroom, School, and District Impacts on Diverse Student Literacy Achievement. University at Albany, 1-39
