Senior Practitioner's Need for English - Case Study Example

Senior Practitioner Introduction Rene is a three year old Spanish girl who lives in Manchester. At home her parents speak Spanish and English when they have English speaking friends. Rene lives in a heavily dominated Mexican neighborhood therefore the people who she interacts with are Mexicans. Rene’s parents live with so many relatives of theirs from Mexico and it is sometimes easy to forget that they are in an English speaking country. However, Rene attends Manchester preschool where she is the only Spanish in her class therefore, most of her friends and associates are English speaking. Rene speaks and understands Spanish and little English since English is her second language. She is still in preschool. Transition For the transition from Spanish to English René was placed in a class with all English speaking students. In fact her school accommodates three quarters of English speaking students. Since René is still young and a fast learner but very shy she was administered a senior practitioner with her parents to help aid her through the transition. The practitioner predicted that René would learn fluent English soon because apart from being a fast learner, she is young. The practitioner explained that according to a linguist Noam Chomsky, children are born with a brain that is referred to as tabula rasa. This means that they have a clean slate and the slate is to be filled with ideas as they grow thus making language acquisition faster and easier unlike adults. Moreover, the practitioner believes that at three years René is still in a stage where speech starts to emerge and can understand words without necessarily knowing the meanings although will make errors but has a good chance of grasping a new language quickly (Philp, Oliver & Mackey, 2008). At this stage a child does not understand between joke and seriousness issues thus jokes are avoided at all costs. Local statistics Manchester is in the United Kingdom in a city called greater Manchester in England. The population of this city is approximately 514,417 (Paton, 2015). It is located among the second most populous cities in the United Kingdom however, according to a British magazine the telegraph; due to the high number of immigrants one in every pupil speaks English as a second language. This paper further states that young children who speak English as a second language have significantly increased by round 54000 in the last year (Paton, 2015). Moreover, since the 90s preschool children have doubled as stated by the department of education. Due to this rise primary schools need to be built since yearly intake of primary student in general is approximately 250,000 (Paton, 2015). This has been accelerated by the high number of English as a second language speaker passing the one million mark. Personal social and emotional development Role of language Language plays a very significant role in the lives of children and any other person. In fact for René language will play a bigger role in her life. First, language will ensure that René can better understand her lessons (Orloff & Lawson, 2009). This will ultimately lead to passing her exams and going to a good college and eventually getting a good job. Secondly, language will enable René to have friends since they now have something to talk about and language is not a barrier. She will definitely fit in easily with her schoolmates, teachers, and the environment in general (Bruce, 2011). Thirdly, language will enable René to have confidence in herself that will eventually boost her self esteem. Self esteem is good for her health, studies and making friends at home and at school. Finally, language will enable René to have friends of the opposite sex when she reaches the right age because she will have fit in and developed self esteem to make her attractive. Furthermore, language will make her love herself, her parents and everybody since she will feel part of them and will reduce instances of rebellion or deviant behaviors that occur due to depression (Lamy, M.-N. & Zourou, 2013). Language development and theorists like Piaget, Vygotsky In Rene’s case, the senior practitioner decides to combine the two perspectives developed by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky and Swiss psychologist jean Piaget. Jean Piaget’s perspective leans closely to Noam Chomsky’s perspective in that she believed a child is born with the necessary materials that enhance language acquisition (Brain & Mukherji, 2005). Therefore, children learn through action which they explore in their minds. In relation to this Piaget believes a child should be actively involved in things like play as this is how children are designed to learn. Just like Piaget, levy Vygotsky believes that children learn through social interaction (Brain & Mukherji, 2005). For example play is good for children because the feedback they get from their peers is enough to teach them and the help accorded by their peers makes it easier to learn than imitating adults and being given instructions. This Russian psychologists further states that children learn quickly by watching their peers, internalizing this observations and solving their problems. Vygotsky emphasizes that for better results, teachers should teach children through a method called scaffolding. This is where a teacher gives directions or instructions to a child that will yield the needed learning outcome but gradually shifts the responsibility to the child without them noticing. This method is a sure method for success since the child will find themselves doing nearly everything by themselves and needing the teacher less and less until they can stand on their own. Role of play in early years The senior practitioner encouraged René to play a lot with the other children more so the English native speakers. Play is important because it means that René will be socializing with the English speakers a lot and with time they will influence her English too (Holt, 2009). Furthermore, playing with English speakers adds more vocabulary or new worlds and their meanings to René in an easy learning mode and not in a classroom setting. This makes learning easy and memorable. Moreover, play will give René the confidence to learn quickly knowing that she can relate to other children who speak English and that it is not difficult. Key worker system Role of settings and practitioner The role of the settings that the practitioner suggested was to bold a conducive environment where René could learn English without ridicule and harassment. The practitioner guided René into the easiest and fastest channel to learning English as a second language. The practitioner’s role is also to talk to the people who interact with René and giving out recommendations on how René can be aided in her quest for English as a second language. The practitioner was also to develop and monitor Rene’s progress, areas of difficulties and areas of interest and find solutions to them. Learning support that others give the child The practitioner alone cannot achieve the desired results easily; she needs help from people who interact with the René. The practitioner suggested that a meeting with the parents of Rene and here she discussed the ways they can help René acquire English fast and easily. The practitioner suggested role plays like René can pretend to be mother and give out instructions to the mother and father (Fletcher & Garman, 1986). This will help build Rene’s vocabulary since she will try to use adult words she has had her parents use. The practitioner also held a meeting with Rene’s class teacher and suggested ways she could aid Rene in her second language acquisition. She suggested to the teacher to be giving Rene dictation work where she reads out a word and Rene writes it down (Yoon & Kim, 2012). Moreover, Rene was to be allowed more chances than the others in class when it came to spelling and reading aloud. This was to boost her confidence and to monitor her progress. The practitioner finally suggested that Rene be allowed to take home as many English storybooks as she could. Reading interesting stories build vocabulary while adding knowledge too and becoming more interested. She emphasized on the importance of communication to Rene that if incase she had a problem it would be good to speak it out and the same for the other people involved in Rene’s life. They had to work as a team since the journey to Rene’s English acquisition was a team effort (Pahta, 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, Rene’s needs of acquiring English as a second language are steadily progressing since as per now she has good understanding of English words. Furthermore, she can now speak a few English words on her own and they are often meaningful and coherent. She can even construct simple sentences on her own. She tries to be grammatically correct but sometimes misunderstands and confuses the past and present tense and sometimes the verb and noun agreements. In general she is doing well and learning fast. The practitioner has guided Rene’s journey and made it smooth and stress free. As a matter of fact Rene’s parents did not have to do much neither did the teachers as the practitioner and Rene’s playmates did the rest. References Bruce, T. (2011). Learning through play: For babies, toddlers and young children. London: Hodder Education. Brain, C., & Mukherji, P. (2005). Understanding child psychology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Fletcher, P., & Garman, M. (1986). Language acquisition: Studies in first language development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Holt, J. C. (2009). How children learn. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. In Lamy, M.-N., & In Zourou, K. (2013). Social networking for language education. Orloff, D., & Lawson, J. E. (2009). Hands-on english language learning: Early years. Winnipeg, Man: Portage & Main Press. Paton, G. (n.d.). More pupils speaking English as a second language. Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10152869/More-pupils- speaking-English-as-a-second-language.html Philp, J., Oliver, R., & Mackey, A. (2008). Second language acquisition and the younger learner: Childs play?. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pahta, P. (2010). Social roles and language practices in late modern English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. Yoon, B., & Kim, H. K. (2012). Teachers roles in second language learning: Classroom applications of sociocultural theory. Charlotte, N.C: Information Age Pub. Read More