Language Development Methods for Secondary and Middle Schools Essay

Language Development Methods for Secondary and Middle Schools - Essay Example It presents a comparative study of about the effectiveness of the programs and services offered, key strategies implemented, significant organizational features, as well offers an insight into the challenges faced during the process. As a teacher / educator / student teacher, at the ____________ school, California; I had the opportunity to visit and observe the various programs and services offered by the school to an Elementary class and students of eight grade SDAIE class, which requires and implements both, special education as well as education in English as a second language. With most of the children identified as developmentally handicapped, and coming from non English speaking backgrounds, I was delighted to know that a majority of them responded well to the customary greetings â€Å"Good Morning, Teacher†. I observed that students of the Eight grade, displayed an impressive understanding of the language and had excellent expressive and receptive skills in the English language. Their oral and written abilities were more or less similar to those of their English speaking counterparts with the same form of disabilities. I remember a particular incident – of my interaction with one of the Span ish students called ------------------, who was a first generation American, who spoke fluent Spanish at home, lived in a predominantly Spanish speaking community of California, but interacted in manageable / fluent (choose as appropriate) English with his English babysitter / housemaid (choose as appropriate). ----xyz--------, age ----, another such student spoke fluent Spanish as his/her mother tongue, and learnt English at age 6, displayed adequate reading and writing skills in the secondary language. From these observations, I can safely conclude that the degree of proficiency and expertise in the second language i.e., English, was found to be similar to that of their primary language i.e., Spanish, especially when the secondary language was needed for day to