LOOOONG assignment

This is my assignment in English Education.
I hope you will take a look and give me suggestions, and corrections.

As I am studying at a grad school in the US,
please don't hesitate to correct if you hint unnaturalness in English usage, not to mention grammatical errors.


Scenario:

"Assar came to the US from Pakistan with his family 2 years ago, speaking Urdu only. He progressed quickly and moved from ESL level 1 to level 3. However, after entering high school in the 9th grade, his performance in content classes in comparison did not whow the same pace of progression, Although he liked biology, it gave him the most difficulty. The textbook language was filled with jargon and so many complex and abstract "big words" that he had no way of comprehending all of what he was reading. Furthermore, he has trouble connecting his reading that he does for homework with the discussion the teacher has in class. Even though he took notes in class, he couldn't understand his note when he got home because the teacher used a lot of abbreviations that Assar wasn't familiar with. Although he worked hard, he showed no improvement in reading comprehension.

Question:

What the theoretical issues described in the handout case are, and what I would do as a teacher to address the need of this learner?


My Answer (Essay):

In this paper, I would like to analyze difficulties Assar is facing, and then suggest specific measures to cope with the issues. This is organized in the following manner. First, I classify him as an English language learner (ELL) and discuss his possible tendencies as a learner. Second, the gap he is facing is analyzed based on the classification mentioned in the previous paragraph. Thirdly, I list possible theoretical issues and explanation on them. Last, I propose measures to address his need and how to cope with them.

Classification as an ELL student

We should consider Assar as a Generation 1.5 student (Harklau, Losey, & Siegel, 1999), considering the facts that 1) he was at the age of 14 or so when he came to the US, and 2) he had no knowledge of English back then.

Generation 1.5 students, as mentioned in Hedgcock & Ferris (2009), are “caught between languages and cultures.” They receive education in their second languages, being surrounded by native-born students. They are often treated equally with native speakers, while they still have their own first languages but with limited cultural background. Due to the incoherent language proficiency and the cultural circumstances, even those learners in regular college-level education may often show distinctively limited skills and lag far behind native speaker students.

The situation Assar is facing apparently fits to the description above, (e.g. He is seemingly as proficient as native speakers, and thus treated equally as such, he faces academic difficulties). So I conclude Assar’s problems are typically those of Generation 1.5 students, admitting the irony that Generation 1.5 students may involve much more versatilities than learners categorized in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, and immigrants. Assar’s problems shall be mostly due to lack of formal English (L2) knowledge, and consequent lower reading skills in English.

The challenges Assar is facing

Apparently, he is facing academic difficulties despite his intrinsic motivation and effort to study, as seen in the following descriptions, “although he liked biology, it gave him the most difficulties” and “Although he worked hard, he showed no improvement in reading comprehension.” Add to that, his quick English proficiency progress, made in ESL classes up to level 3, proves that he did obtain certain linguistic proficiency, and thus he was estimated to have enough English proficiency to get into a regular high school. Consequently, we should focus on challenges he faces after entering the high school.

According to the information provided in the scenario, he has the following conundrums.
1. He cannot fully understand the expertise in the textbooks.
2. He has trouble connecting the written knowledge to what is discussed in the class.
3. He takes notes in the classes, but the notes end up unknown words to him because they are full of abbreviations he is not familiar with.
4. He apparently is not consulting with anyone for support.
In the following, I will list theoretical issues that correspond to these issues. It should be noted that these issue elements are not necessary mutually exclusive.

Issue 1: Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis

One sure problem he faced as getting into a regular high school even after successfully performing in ESL classes is that he was surrounded by regular high school, and he himself was treated as such. Here, it is highly possible that although ESL classes do help students to narrow linguistic gap between regular classes, but they don’t assure students’ knowledge and skills to be fully developed in classes where English is used to convey content, not English itself being taught. This gap may be critical to his case, considering a linguistic threshold (Cummins, 1996) and his English knowledge. According to this, his English knowledge was good enough to perform well in ESL classes where English is taught, while it was insufficient to do similarly when English is used to convey context behind it. Seemingly, if not surely, he at his age does not have L1 skills to enhance his L2 reading skills (Clarke, 1979, 1980; Cziko, 1978).

Thus, if his knowledge level was classified higher than the threshold for ESL classes, but not as high as that of a regular high school, his unexpectedly low performance in the regular high school despite his good record as an ESL student shall be explained.

Issue 2: Contrastive Rhetoric

Difference between English and Urdu, his native language, may be responsible for his limited performance as part of viewpoints discussed in Contrastive Rhetoric (Conor, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2005; Conor, Nagelhoot, & Rozycki, 2008; Kaplan, 1966). His Urdu background may hinder his understanding of regular English textbooks. This hindrance could have been mitigated if he had spent more time on English reading as an ESL student, and become used to English textbook style. Authentic materials in the class might have been used in his ESL classes to cope with this matter, but his fast progress in ESL level eventually and surely shortened his time spent for adjustment for US culture as a whole outside the class. As seen in the description, he now has trouble understanding each word in the textbooks, so it is obvious that his level is and will continue to be below sufficient comprehension to be used to English textbook style if proper countermeasures were not to be taken.

Another possible factor that hinders his understanding in the class is the use of abbreviation itself, because such customs might be new to those without such cultural/academic backgrounds, and they could require extra work and be demotivating all the time.

Issue 3: Lack of Exposure to particular genre

His fast progress in ESL classes might have also limited exposure to textbooks themselves. Authenticity aside, in both ESL classes and regular classes, English textbooks have certain formats and frameworks. His interests and motivation to study biology might have not been fully reflected at high school due to the less time period spent on English textbooks, which was crucial considering that he started to study English after coming to the US.

If I am able to add my own experience and view here, I studied English logically back in my country, and spent two months as an ESL student in the US, studying in English is totally different from studying English itself, and the textbook styles are different accordingly. Another factor I personally have is the use of dictionary during the class. Looking up in a dictionary during class is sometimes discouraged in ESL classes because it deprives students to guess the meaning in the context and most textbooks are intended to give some information on new or big words. However, this is not the case with regular classes because 1) less contextual helps are provided because learners are expected to have certain background of expertise, and 2) you will be simply left behind if you focus on guessing instead of simultaneously understanding. I still use English-Japanese dictionaries instead of monolingual ones for most expertises in classes I am taking because what is important for those words is how clearly they are defined, not how it is used in context.

Issue 4: Cultural Differences

As mentioned in the ELL categorization as a Generation 1.5, he may have his native cultural backgrounds, which discourage or prevent him to ask teachers and classmates for help. The description indicates that he knows what to clarify, but he is not taking advantage of people around him. Some cultures even don’t allow students to ask questions to teachers after class due to various reasons, though such case can be extreme. However, if he felt he had too many things to ask, and if they are more like vocabulary-level rather than what was focused in the classes, it would have discouraged him to ask for help because it would surely be time-consuming. If his classmates, who are native speakers of English, are studying together and cooperating each other to catch up with the progress, and such style is what is recommended in the classes, it is quite natural he lags behind among them.

Addressing his Needs

Vocabulary: I suggest using proper dictionaries to start with, as his lack of expertises is definitely main reason of his limited comprehension in class. The selection would be difficult because I have to see if he has enough biology background knowledge in Urdu, his L1, which is transferrable to English, his L2. Bilingual dictionaries, even with authenticity in one’s native language, are not always encouraged in language learning, but if he has enough knowledge in his L1, those dictionaries can help connect what he knows to what he learns in limited time. On the other hand, monolingual dictionaries gives definitions in English, which may enhance comprehension in context, is also an option, but possibly those covering regular high school level vocabularies are only for native speakers not for ELL students. In that case, additional effort is expected for him.

Preparation: Pre-reading activities taking advantages of those proper dictionaries will surely help, enabling to shift his focus from vocabulary-level struggle to the comprehension of contents behind vocabulary. Here again, his background knowledge in his native language would be an issue. Still, it should be noted that he has to spend more to read textbooks he seems to have had limited exposure to English textbooks and he needs to be more familiar with their style and context.

During&Post Class: Adequate preparation mentioned above will help him to participate more during class to some extent. Encouraging him to participate activities during and after class would be helpful too.

Conclusion

I focused on the case study of a Pakistan student Assar who came to the US two years ago and now is suffering academic difficulties in regular high school in spite of his favorable record as an ESL student with motivation and effort. I first categorized him as a Generation 1.5 and then figured out possible theoretical issues and his needs accordingly based on his ELL learner type and available information about him. I suggested possible solution in the end.