Teachers have great power to impact the daily lives of English language learners with warmth and acceptance and to support their achievement. English learners need the support of their instructors when learning a new language and culture. Teachers should have the best interest of the EL student. Michael Focault’s language theories are most interesting to me.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy outlines Focault’s ideas about humanistic and social scientific disciplines. Focault associates language with power. “Language is related to knowledge in diverse ways…” This reflects the ideas also presented in the text. I like this idea, because it is simple and true. Students feel this power with knowledge of language.
Christina wrote, “It was last year that I realized that I had to acknowledge the student’s worries before we could move on to other core curriculum.” I love hearing teachers remember that meeting student’s needs is not just through standards or curriculum. It has become easy to get caught up in all the requirements placed on us as teachers and to forget to look at what our students really need.
Regina wrote, “I am certain I would attempt speaking those words immediately since my desire to communicate information to parents is incredibly strong and the embarrassment of errors pales in comparison to that desire.” I connect to this so strongly. I fear the same embarrassment; despite the fact that I understand Spanish and my parents are both fluent Spanish speakers. I have hung on to this fear for most of my life and it has worsened with my fear in making mistakes in a professional situation.
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