The negative impacts of non-native speakers of English on native speakers in primary schools in England
Question:
Discuss about the Ways to Cope with the Non-Native Speakers of English in Classroom.
Non-native speakers of English and its impact on native-speakers in primary schools in England:
Non-native speakers of English are often being considered as to have the negative impacts on native speakers of English. A very same issue was being established by Geay, McNally & Telhaj (2013) in the article “Non?native Speakers of English in the Classroom: What Are the Effects on Pupil Performance?” The article has noted a few criticisms being shouted against the impact of non-native speakers in the classroom, in particular, the primary classes in England. The evidence produced in support of the criticisms was like such non-native speakers will need extra efforts from tutors. Hence, this is only spoilage to the productivity of the education. Facts like the ethnic population are getting increased in the population were also being highlighted as an issue. To justify whether the escalated issues are genuine, National Pupil Database between 2003 and 2009 were being used. The results thus show non-native speakers doing fairly better performance than the native speakers. Additionally, most ethnic minority groups were progressed faster than the white British students. The improvement in terms of proficiency in the English language was one of the major factors of success. It is also understood that in most cases the primary students catch up in English proficiency at a very faster rate. Hence, they do not impede the progress of other students especially the native-speakers of English.
Evidence-based reform: enhancing language and literacy in early childhood education:
In the chosen article, early childhood education was thought to be as centred on reducing the complexity level of different format of educational resources like the preschools. The existing curriculum and the advancement of technology have not been sufficient in developing language and literacy in early childhood education. The authors Slavin & Chambers (2017) have identified that the existing developments in regards to curriculum design and others have not been proved effective in the USA and the UK. However, an evidence based program can really bring an improvement to the different levels of education. The attainment of the fact is possible through following ways (Slavin & Chambers, 2017):
Some pre-literacy activities in early childhood education: Some activities can really help to uplift the standard of early childhood education. Few such activities can be like early phonics and phonemic awareness. Such activities have been found as effective in terms of language proficiency development. The longstanding concern that introducing literacy at the early ages may affect the development in other areas has not been found as true. However, the article suggests having a feasible way of that. The introduction to different kinds of literacy needs to be done with the help of appropriate technologies and strategies to make it look attractive and engaging as well.
Building vocabulary in children: Vocabulary needs to be the prime focus for children in preschools especially to students of English. This means making children familiar with the body of words specific to one language. This can be done by creating new opportunities for children learning in preschools. There is a need for a structured design that creates a moment to get indulged in and learn a new set of words every single day.
Evidence-based strategies for enhancing language and literacy in early childhood education
Use of the appropriate technologies: Technology can be used to make the learning sessions engaging. It does not mean hampering the exchange of communication between teachers and the children. It rather means making curriculum more productive. The idea behind the technological intervention is to increase the time spent limit of children on themes, phonemic awareness, math, letters, and music. Such technologies should be an important inclusion in the classroom. It needs to practice at home as well, so that, children are filled with interest and do not get deviated from it when being at home.
Development of speaking skills for non-native speakers of England:
Those who are non-native speakers of English can be helped to develop a proficiency in English speaking. As opined by Boonkit (2010), non-native speakers can be helped to develop a proficiency level in English through effective curriculum design. The curriculum design needs to have scope for the creativity of topics and also a wide range of vocabulary. ‘Creativity of topic’ means presenting a list of different topics in an interesting way to make those engaging for non-native speakers of English. Such thing is necessary for attracting the non-native speakers. Moreover, non-native speakers will have more opportunities in the form of a variety of topics. Hence, they will have ample of opportunity to make them familiar with the foreign language. The other strategy was to offer a wide range of vocabulary to students. In this way, students will come across a wide variety of different words. Hence, they will come to know different words every day. In addition to what all being suggested to the non-native speakers, students are also required to focus on improving their listening skills.
Listening skills are necessary not to non-native speakers only. It is rather important for every single student. However, non-native speakers must have the listening skills, so that, they could stock more words in their dictionary or other storage option. It is also necessary for them to be attentive while during a topic discussion. If they have good listening skills they may also feel engaged in the learning session. Moreover, students with good listening skills will be able to take the help of both strategies such as the creativity of topics and the vocabularies (Slot et al., 2015).
A change in the perception of early childhood teachers:
It is important that teachers in the early childhood settings have broader views on both the home and the foreign language. As argued by Dobinson & Buchori (2016), teachers in the early childhood centres need to have interest in both the foreign and the home languages. Additionally, they also need to be well versed in both home and the foreign language. The fact has been identified from an investigation being made over a small group of teachers in the chosen childhood centres. The group of teachers was being found as less interested in teaching students in both home and foreign languages. They felt anxious while dealing with such students. However, such settings are not a healthy sign for early childhood education. The chosen article also recommends a few important points for teachers so that, they come up with a changed mind and enhance the productivity of such centres.
Developing speaking skills for non-native speakers of English
The recommendations were for a cultural shift in teachers and their adaptability to different languages. The cultural shift means changing perceptions or mind. The chosen group of teachers had the perception that it is full anxiety to deal with non-native speakers of English language. They had avoided or perhaps not had tried any innovative way of coping with the situation. The other recommendation was learning the different languages. Based on the information derived from a group of Australian teachers, this can be said that adaptability with different languages is important to release the anxiety level which the selected teachers feel so. Such things could only be possible if they consider changing their perception of the child development strategies. They need to realise the importance of establishing an environment where both native and non-native speakers of English could survive and do not become the reason for spoilage for either of them. The realisation will only give way to innovative strategies needed to enhance the standard of childhood development process (Kale & Luke, 2017).
On the basis of my reading on Pine’s (2009), The Disconnection between Educational Research and practice, the teacher-action research is a pragmatic approach as it promotes an egalitarian, democratic, participatory and non-hierarchical leadership to be displayed by the teachers. In this type of research, there is encouragement to enquire about the school and its various policies that includes questioning the learning, teaching, improvement and development. This approach emboldens the teachers to engage in consciousness raising and collaborative research. My action research approach that I believe are appropriate and closely related would be the participatory and collaborative action research.
The nature and course of my research has convergence with the research of example 2, Christine an action researcher within an LEA. It is because her research also entailed selection of children as participants by their respective class teachers. In similar lines to my research in which there would be workshops for children, Christine’s action research too incorporates enrichment program to be attended by the children. Christine’s research employs a variety of methods like interview with the children, photography along with seeking the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders of the research as well as reflection and Julian’s systematic element which I will also will be working with individual children and check their progress (Koshy, 2005). My research design is in consonance with the elements and values of example three- Julian who is a year 4 teacher (Koshy, 2005). Julian’s research was concerned with assessment of effectiveness of children’s level of understanding, rectification of the misconceptions and suggestions to improve the lesson. Similar to my research her study also had a systematic strategy succeeding the review of literature. Similar to her research that aims to enhance the participation, my research aims to enhance the English speaking among non-native kindergarten children.
In the text on ‘A Paradigm of Teacher Action Research’, there is the mention of eclectic-mixed methods paradigm is befitting for the future action research. The feature of this paradigm is to deploy different methods to study a phenomenon or an issue. There is openness inherent to the eclectic mixed paradigmatic paradigm (Pines, 2009). In the modernist era, mixed methods and methodological pluralism is perceived a neutralization of the war of the paradigms. The mixed method promotes triangulation that underlines the implementation of more than one research methodology. The second aspect of this paradigm is that it promotes complimentarity by encouraging the research to view the research problems from a variety of perspectives. The development aspect of the paradigm is characterized by the information of one method on another. The feature of this paradigm as envisaged by different scholars is that the possibility of ultimate control might be narrow but there is scope for improvement. The paradigm of my research is in consonance with the mixed method paradigm as I have used the survey (quantitative methodology) followed by an engagement with the kindergarten children in the sessions (qualitative). The first stage of survey guided me to devise strategies for the improvement of English of non-native children. This can provide a better understanding of my research problem or issue in enhancing the language for non-native speaker.
References:
Carr, W., &Kemmis, S. (2003). Becoming critical: education knowledge and action research. Routledge.
Hine, G. S. (2013). The importance of action research in teacher education programs. Issues in Educational Research, 23(2), 151-163.
Koshy, V. (2005). Action research for improving practice: A practical guide. Sage.
Pine, G. J. (2009). Teacher action research: Building knowledge democracies. Sage.
Boonkit, K. (2010). Enhancing the development of speaking skills for non-native speakers of English. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 1305-1309.
Dobinson, T. J., & Buchori, S. (2016). Catering for EAL/D Students’ Language Needs in Mainstream Classes: Early Childhood Teachers’ Perspectives and Practices in One Australian Setting. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(2), 3.
Geay, C., McNally, S., & Telhaj, S. (2013). Non?native Speakers of English in the Classroom: What Are the Effects on Pupil Performance?. The Economic Journal, 123(570).
Kale, J., & Luke, A. (2017). Learning through difference: Cultural practices in early childhood language socialisation. In One child, many worlds (pp. 11-29). Routledge.
Slavin, R. E., & Chambers, B. (2017). Evidence-based reform: enhancing language and literacy in early childhood education. Early Child Development and Care, 187(3-4), 778-784.
Slot, P. L., Leseman, P. P., Verhagen, J., & Mulder, H. (2015). Associations between structural quality aspects and process quality in Dutch early childhood education and care settings. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 33, 64-76.
Yanagi, M., & Baker, A. A. (2016). Challenges experienced by Japanese students with oral communication skills in Australian universities. TESOL Journal, 7(3), 621-644.
Aboultaif, R., Elvin, J., Williams, D., & Escudero, P. (2016). Lebanese Arabic listeners find Australian English vowels easy to discriminate. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 6-9 December 2016, Parramatta, Australia (pp. 297-300).
Ong, J., Terry, J., & Escudero, P. (2016). Can Australian English listeners learn non-native vowels via distributional learning?. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 6-9 December 2016, Parramatta, Australia (pp. 289-292).
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