Greetings, I am fairly new at teaching ESL. I just started teaching in a grade 4 classroom with one ESL student. He has been in the country for a few months but is picking up English very slowly. I would like to work with him while the rest of my class goes to French but I am told I cannot do this. I am told that ESL students should learn French. Can someone help me understand this? This child does not understand the words 'eraser' or 'store' yet so I cannot understand why he should be studying French.
Thanks
ESL student in french class
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Re: ESL student in french class
What country are you in? You say ESL and not EFL, so I'l assume you're in an English-speaking country. If that's the case, it would seem that English ought to be the priority. Common sense.kanuski wrote:Greetings, I am fairly new at teaching ESL. I just started teaching in a grade 4 classroom with one ESL student. He has been in the country for a few months but is picking up English very slowly. I would like to work with him while the rest of my class goes to French but I am told I cannot do this. I am told that ESL students should learn French. Can someone help me understand this? This child does not understand the words 'eraser' or 'store' yet so I cannot understand why he should be studying French.
Thanks
If English is not the common language in your country, then the priority ought to be the local language. If the local language IS his mother tongue, or if he has learnt it well lready, then just treat him like the other students. Is English compulsory in his school, or does he get to choose his second language? And how old is he?
It's really hard to advise based on so little information. Where are you, waht the official national or school policy, etc.
Hope this is a start.
Good luck.
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Senorita Daniels
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm
I have some low level students who have asked me to teach them words in other languages too. Learning a third language with the whole class would make your student on the same level as the others in the language, possibly making him or her feel equal to the others. There may be some pronunciation differences between the NL and French which could help the student with English.