Understanding a foreign language text blog #4

            As I stood looking at all of the foreign language texts to choose from, I was immediately drawn to anything that had pictures, as this seemed it would be the best way to make some sense of the print that was on the page.  My first text choice needed to be something I should be proficient in, and there was one book that had a couple of sketches in it so I decided to take a closer look at it.  It was a Russian text written by Moliere.  The first pages of the text were a ‘Biographie’ on him.  I know this because the word biographie looks familiar to our English translation biography, and because there were dates on the page.  Next to his picture were the dates he was born, and passed away and then throughout the biography there were other dates listed within his life time that must had had significant implications of his life.  I was not able to read any of these, but recognized the numbers.  Then as I looked into the book, I realized that it was a play.  On the first page I saw, ‘Acte 1 Scene 1’ and using meaning that I had from this structure, I knew it was a play.  The people in the sketches were dressed in clothing from a period of time long, long ago and there was a man and a woman in them, but I was not able to gather much more information than that.   To scale back the difficulty I chose a picture book that was also a Russian text.  I was drawn to this book for several reasons, the first was the title, first written in Russian, but below it said “A Chinese Cinderella.”  I am familiar with the English version of Cinderella, and thought this would help in making meaning of the story.  The next structure that I saw was the detailed pictures on every page.  Even thought I still could not read the text, the pictures gave me some clues as to the similarities and differences between these two versions of Cinderella.  In the Russian version fish bones seemed to play an important role in the story, but I could not determine what that role was.  When actually looking at the text, I noticed a few of the symbols in Russian looked similar to our English letters, but not enough of them to make sense of what was printed.  I also did not know if the familiar symbols in Russian made the same sound as their English look a likes.  It would have been helpful to have a Russian-English translation dictionary, or an understanding of the sounds that go with the Russian symbols to try and decode what was written.  The thought of ‘translating’ even the easier text seems like an overwhelming and daunting task, and after working that hard to decode I am sure my comprehension would have long been lost!

            To make sense of this text I used clues from pictures, text structures, cognates, and background knowledge.  Even with all of these strategies I could not make any sense of the text at all.  I found myself feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and not too sure I was interested enough in this learning to continue what would have been a huge process.  Going through this exercise reaffirmed what I know about Kindergarten children coming into school, but made me think more in depth about what an ELL student must feel like and the specific nature of their needs.  As a teacher with ELL students in my room I will need to:

            * Create an environment where students feel safe and comfortable

            * Make as many connections from their language, background knowledge and text structure to English as possible.

            * Provide picture clues whenever possible

            * Provide opportunities for the students to have conversations (if they are comfortable) to help them make meaning of what is surrounding them as well as to help to continue to develop their oral language.

            * Make sure to scaffold their learning, and keep a clear focus on the objectives of the lessons you are teaching the ELL children.  I think it would be very easy to over teach and therefore not have any learning solidified.