Bansri Patel Case Study

The assignment was achieved by aid of a face-to-face interview. The interviewee’s name is Bansri Patel. Bansri is 21 years old, and she is originally from a small village in India where they speak Gujarati as their native language. Bansri first arrived in the United States at 8 years old. At this time she live in the state of Georgia for eight months before moving to New Jersey. Bansri tells me that when she was enrolled in school in Georgia she was placed in the ESOL program. She said, “I had to take that course to be on the same level in English as everyone else. To better understand English and speak it well.” She went to school in two different states, and as such it’s hard to recall where exactly to place her memory of the early school

This is exactly what Bansri pointed out in the interview. She did not like focusing on the academic disciplines, but she was oral proficient except for times when she was afraid to speak. I strongly agree with her idea of making a bridge between languages. I’ve learnt that in order for students to learn a new language their first language have to act as a building block. In Bansri’s case she had some experience with English, but I have worked with one student who had little to no experience with the new language. It was very difficult to help him understand what I was trying to say. I tried using images, presenting the questions in both languages, and having a student interpreter. Over time the student showed great improvement. In fact the article points out that “When ELs write, they draw on the sum of their language experience…they utilize their metalinguistic awareness, or conscious attention to the ways in which language is used and conveys meaning,” to overcome constraints (Olson, 2013, p. 383). As a result it is important for educators when working with ELLs to utilize first languages as a medium for our students to grasp the new language. It’s important for educators to understand that it can be very difficult for even English-speaking students to understand academic language. I was taught British English growing up in Jamaica. The

There’s an article I have read that talks about allowing children new to the country to write in their first language. They are yet to have enough vocabulary to write in the new language. This can be difficult as the teacher does not understand what the student might be saying, but it does allow the student to be comfortable in the environment. Olson (2013) notes that “ELs need to be in safe classroom space where it is okay to participate, even with less-than-perfect English,” (p. 385). One means of doing this is learning about your student. Make some connections to them in the lessons. Learn a little about the language if you can, and provide students with interpreters to translate for them. Olson mentioned the use of a word book where students can write down new words, their definitions, translations, and providing a symbol or image (Olson, 2013). This is more effective than telling a student to repeat a word many times. It is great for building vocabulary. In Mrs. Monaco’s class they do something like this, but was more of a reading and language arts notebook. The students use this book as a literacy resource. In elementary school language arts was text book based. There were phonic texts books and the like that parents had to purchase. However, the reading and language arts book is more personal and