Analyzing Journal and Discussion 5

¶ … multicultural and multilingual societies, schools play a huge role where both linguistic and cultural resources are either strengthened or devalued. In spite of the significance of language in education, debate on schooling minority language speakers usually focus on one issue, whether other language instead of the dominant one should be a means of instruction. Although resolving the issue is essential, particularly for individuals speaking minority language, the limited focus on only the means of instruction tends to hide many other language decisions in schools that shape experiences for multilingual learners (DeJong, 2011).

In the past, immigrants to the U.S. were able to succeed economically without having to attend specialised programs in schools. They were able to work in jobs requiring little language since the economy mainly focused on agricultural and industrial work. However, today's immigrants must attain high levels of English literacy in order to overcome poverty in the current service economy, which calls for high language levels and continuous collaboration and interactions with others. Thus, simply putting newcomers in English speaking setting would not properly prepare such individuals to engage fully in nation building. Specialised educational programs are needed to ensure that language as well as academic needs are met for English language learners. Thus, schools are obliged to resolve language barriers, which give way to marginalization of linguistic minority (Samway and McKeon 2007).

Part 1

What influence does culture have on a student's success?

When a student's performance is compared between oral and literacy, it is evident that literacy comes out on top. One of the factors that is responsible for this is the exposure of the student to content that is in question in their native tongue. This improves the English language learner student's performance in English. Research done in this area has indicated that better performance and improvement in a language that is not the native tongue is seen when native language is used in the academic preparation (Samway and McKeon, 2007).

For most students whose culture, language and curriculum match, the required learning principle is in place and favours them, unlike the students who do not have these factors matching. Thus, where a student comes from a background socially and culturally as that which the curriculum adopts, he/she has an advantage over other students in benefiting from the school's curriculum (DeJong, 2011).

How does linguistic diversity influence classroom performance?

Many English language learner students have a background that is rich and diverse in terms of experiences, and this helps them because they are much more developed cognitively. When these children are older, they have even more experience. They may thus be ahead of the younger children who are native speakers of the English language and may be able to perform better than these in the classroom. This inequality in the language capability in the social and school environment may cause lagging academically, and slowness to progress in science subjects and social subjects (Samway and McKeon, 2007).

What Impact do Culture and Language have on a family's involvement in school and on their child's education?

When it comes to academic success, there are several factors that influence it. Some of this are the language itself, the cultural background of the student as well as that of the school and the affirmation that the student receives from the society as well as the school. Thus, learning the language is essential for ELL students, but this is not the only contributor to their academic success. A student picks up cues about themselves from the school so that they learn to identify themselves the way the school identifies them and this affects how well they perform. Many of the ELL students come from backgrounds of struggle, starting with their immigrant grandparents and the government has recognised this and provided for their needs in the constitution. In this way, their specific needs in terms of education, are provided for by the government (Samway and McKeon, 2007).

Part 2

List of best methods, tools, strategies and techniques to teach ELLs.

The classes that these students are in should be conducted by teachers knowledgeable and proficient in the curriculum of acquiring a second language and the contents of it. They must be able to deliver content in a way that the ELL students can understand. This may require that there be a leaning on gestures and other meaningful elements to enable the student to relate with the material taught (Samway and Mc Keon, 2007).