Randy V. Garcia

EDUC 6080

ELL

T.V. Assignment-Reflection

            At first, I was not sure what language I was watching.  Though it sounds sad, I thought I was watching a Japanese language channel.  In reality I was watching a Korean language channel.  It forced me to really evaluate how sensitive I truly was to the ELL students.  I felt very comfortable with the way I approach my ELL students because in my class and school, they are all of Spanish language origins.  Since I am fluent in Spanish I was flexible to their needs.  After watching the six o’clock news in Korean as well as two very entertaining game shows, I realized that I was not as prepared as I thought to deal with all types of ELL students.  I came to realize that if I was teaching in a different region or an environment that had something other than Hispanic ELL student that I would not be equipped to help them.  When I was watching the news I thought it was easier because I had an idea of what was happening and the video clips also helped to clarify the on-goings.  My prior knowledge of what a news cast was supposed to look like also came into play.  For example, I knew when they were talking about weather and sports.  This verifies the importance of tapping into prior knowledge of students to give them opportunities to be successful.  On the other hand when I was watching the two game shows I had absolutely no idea what was being said.  I really thought some of the actions were funny but was completely lost in the reasoning of the actions.  It was fast paced action and the talking was just as quick.  I feel that if I were teaching in a different environment with different ELL students, like, Korean, Vietnamese, Armenian, or any other language, I would be a bit frustrated with not being able to communicate with some students but I absolutely know that I would do whatever it took to try.