I never wanted to be a language teacher. I always wanted to be a Principal. This is my 9th year as an educator and I have found that though I have reached my goal to be a Principal, a better description of my job is that of a language teacher. My first real teaching job, or more specifically the first teaching job I had where I felt like I was experienced enough and in a situation to make a difference was at Acwsalcta First Nations Independent School in Bella Coola, BC. I entered the school thinking I was going to make a great impact on the students’ lives and really open their minds. This was a very naïve mindset, and it quickly became apparent that their minds were already open, and though they might not share my interests or beliefs, they did have their own equally worthwhile mindsets. One thing they did lack though was the language skills to express these beliefs in a successful way. Due to a myriad of reasons many First Nations youths are English as a Second Dialect learners. (Malcolm, & Konigsberg, 2001). This in itself is not a problem, however it is a barrier to success in the traditional academic system. Thus my job became helping students develop the language skills to be successful in BC’s secondary and post-secondary education system.
After Bella Coola I moved to China, where I currently live and work as a Principal of a BC Offshore school. All of the students at my school are Chinese nationals who hope to go to Canada, USA, or Western Europe for their post-secondary education. These students are incredibly gifted, last year we had 6 students get 100% on the Math 10 provincial exam and we had 4 get perfect on the Science 10 provincial. They are also some of the most creative students I have ever met, with many of them being profoundly talented musicians, actors, and artists. That being said, they have severe problems with their academic English language skills. They can speak fine, and when they go to Canada they will be able to communicate their needs and get what they want with minimal problems, however when it comes to formal academic writing the have severe deficiencies. These problems were strongly evident from the moment I got here, and as such I began implementing the material that I learned working with my students in Bella Coola. In the three years since that time we have built a strong language program to support our students, but it is not enough and we need it to be stronger.
For students to be successful in language acquisition they need to be provided with authentic language encounters and the opportunity to interact in the language, instruction needs to account for individual learner differences, and they need to focus on meaning and form. (Ellis, 2005) There are more criteria for an effective language program but these are the ones that are the most important. In my context much of this criteria cannot be met through traditional educational practices. My staff and I can help our students focus on meaning and form, and they can account, to a certain extent, for individual learner differences, but it is very difficult to create authentic language encounters, and it is even more difficult to give them opportunities to interact in English. The main reason for this is that we are a BC high school and our primary focus must be in achieving the learning outcomes decided by the BC Ministry of Education.
My goal for this class is to find new ways that I can build an effective language-learning program in my school and ways that I can enhance the language program we already have in place. I think one of the keys to strengthening out language program is to implement a learning management system that can effectively administer and personalize content for out students. Currently our school’s language program, which includes vocabulary building, reading and writing practice, and a small speaking and listening component is grade based. Inside the classrooms teachers can differentiate around student’s needs and interests, but designing a largely self-directed language course that occurs outside of classroom hours, I have not been able to find an effective way to individualize content. I hope that as I get more exposure to learning management systems I can find a way to better support my student’s language acquisition, and in general elevate their overall success.
My secondary goal is to find more effective ways to carry out assessment in our language program. Currently my Chinese homeroom teachers, bilingual Chinese nationals, mark all of the student work. This is not an ideal situation as it takes up a lot of their time, but more precisely they do not have strong enough language skills to assess this material in an effective manner. Their language skills are good but by Grade 12 most of our students have stronger language skills than the Chinese homeroom teachers. I would like to discover more effective, preferably low cost assessment technology that can be used in our language program to give students the feedback they need to improve.
I recognize that much of what I need is still not developed yet, but I think that what is out there has the potential to be put together in such a way that it meets or at least supports my requirements. I have created much of the language program we have in place right now, and I fully expect this process to continue. To do so effectively I will need to learn more about how to effectively administer learning management systems, and how to implement online curriculum. I will also need to get more exposure to technological assessment and the ways assessment can be automated in learning management systems. There is a lot more I don’t know than I do know, and in general by best “guestimate” for what I need to learn is as much as possible.
References
Ellis, R. (2005). Principles of Instructed Language Learning, System 33(2), 209-224
Malcolm, I., & Konigsberg, P. (2001). Factors affecting the acquisition and use of the standard dialect by aboriginal youth. Paper presented at the Pacific Second Language Forum. Manoa, HI. October 4-7, 2001. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED468882).