Hello Paul and everyone,

I cannot discern from your post below, Paul, whether there were interactions between the Hindi and Spanish speakers at any juncture.  

If I'm not mistaken, all students were physically together, is that correct?  If there were interactions, how were they "conducted"? If not, the situation you describe below might be an excellent setting for exploring how two-way bilingual approaches within the classroom might play out.

Finally, you are spot on when you assert that we cannot please everyone all the time. Any attempt to do so would only lead to frustration, because the "vehemence" of such an attempt would likely have an adverse impact on the affective (emotional) well-being of the participants.  

When all is said and done, we can only do our level best at any given time while "perfection" resides, perhaps, in another dimension.

I look forward to continuing the discussion on L1 use.  English only, as mandated for example by legislation by Ron Unz in California (Proposition 227), just made matters worse.  After conducting a 2-year case study at a middle school on the Monterey Peninsula, I realized that there were real problems with some teachers who implemented bilingual educational practices.  One of the biggest problems lay in the fact that those classes were not bilingual at all, but conducted exclusively in the L1 of the majority language group (Spanish) without mechanisms in place to transfer to a meaningful use of English over time.

In such cases, students of course didn't learn English as hoped for, but their classes were very much monolingual!

Michael

 
Michael A. Gyori 
Maui International Language School 
www.mauilanguage.com




________________________________
From: Paul Rogers <pumarosa21 at yahoo.com>
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Wed, October 7, 2009 9:49:26 AM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 5049]  L1s and multi-lingual classes


Rosemary and all 
I would like to give an example of how I have used L1 in a multi-lingual classroom. 
I once had a class of 15 Spanish speakers and 5 Hindi speakers, all of whom knew little or no English. 
All of the Spanish speakers use my bilingual texts plus my website. 
So, I bought a bilingual dictionary, Hindi-English, and gave it to the Hindi student who knew a little English and who also was the "coordinator" of the group. 
While the Spanish speakers were on my website, I spent time in another classroom with the Hindi students, building vocabulary and practicing pronunciation. We also used Barron's picture dictionary. 
The Hindi students thought that the website was useful, so after an hour I switched the two groups. 
It all worked out quite well. I also learned a little Hindi. 
So - my point is, "speaking" L1 in the class is only one aspect of "using L1" in a class. 
All of the articles and references I have mentioned talk about the significant benefits of L1 in the class. 
Actually we should be talking about "mulitple L1s", I guess. 
The students' L1 is a resource, like a dictionary or a textbook. 
One problem that may occur is that it is almost impossible to please every student, no matter how the class is conducted. I try to use the principle of majority rule. 
Paul Rogers

Paul Rogers
805-258-3310
pumarosa21 at yahoo.com
PUMAROSA.COM 



      
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