Teaching English to Spanish Speaking Students

Post SOLOM Assessment The student observed for the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM) was a native Spanish-speaking 16-year-old female who was a high school sophomore. Her native country was Mexico; she had two brothers and a sister, all younger; she lived with her siblings and parents in a home near the school, and they had been in the U.S. for three years. Her current language proficiency level is limited English proficiency with her SOLOM score being a 20/25.

I have met with her parents who have expressed an interest in becoming more proficient in English so as to help their children improve with the language. This fits in with the theory of Pompa (n.d.) who promotes the concept of parents participating in their children's education and Vera & Israel (2012) observe the same.

Prior to administering the initial SOLOM, my perception of the student's proficiency was that it was limited (and this was confirmed by the results); post SOLOM, I perceived some improvement in the ability of the student to converse, read and write in the English language, by using phrases and clear statements that were coherent and complete. The observation activity for the initial assessment included classroom observation, in which students read aloud, discussed what they read, identified key words, and practiced composition.

I saw that the student showed promise and simply needed to deepen her understanding of rudimentary grammar and boost her confidence in speaking. The activities for the post assessment included initiating a round table discussion with the class in which a problem was presented and the students were asked to present various solutions. Their ability to speak the solutions as well as write them in a paragraph was assessed.

The student observed did very well in identifying the main issue at the heart of the problem and described several ways in which the issue could be solved in her paragraph. My instructional recommendations for the student are that she should continue to work with her parents in becoming more proficient in English, and she has said that they are speaking more English at home now after my visit with them.

I tasked her with keeping a video blog in which she speaks her thoughts instead of writing them and then going back and listening to them to see how she is advancing in her speaking. She takes notes on words that she forgets and we discuss them during free time, which is a good reinforcing method (Gottlieb, 2006; Modern ELL Teacher, n.d.).

The primary support she needs is the support of her parents right now, as this would help her to become more fluent; her siblings can also help as they are learning English as well and the more they use it together, the more fluent they will become (Peregoy, Boyle, 2013). The student's main strengths are that she is intelligent, focused, and energetic in her devotion to school work and to learning. She always applies herself with diligence and embraces new challenges presented in the class.

She never shirks on an assignment and is always eager to accept extra work such as the video blog as she realizes that it helps her and she really does want to improve. Her main weaknesses are that she does not have the best speaking confidence and becomes shy around others who are more fluent than.