Reflection
During my
interview with Mrs. Benavidez, I learned a lot about how important it is to be
patient as an ESL teacher and also how critical it is for students to be
motivated in their own learning. A lot of Mrs. Benavidez answers to my questions
went back to motivation and how important it is for ESL students to be
successful. Glasser says that “…being motivated nurtures more successful L2
learning, but, conversely, experiencing L2 learning success also boosts
motivation to even higher levels, in a reinforcing cycle. Thus, motivation is
indeed central in explaining L2 learning…(p. 189, 2009). If students are more
motivated to learn their L2 language, then they are more likely to be
successful. Mrs. Benavidez brought up the fact that a lot of times students may
be afraid to speak up in class in fear that they may say something wrong or not
know how to explain their thinking. Being in the classroom, I have been able to
observe, and it is true. My homeroom students are ESL students and they do struggle
with participating because they do not want to say something wrong. But as Mrs.
Benavidez says, it is important to be patient and find ways to help these
students, whether it’s by using more visuals, allowing them to have partners
more often or even providing more audio work for them to work with. By talking
to this ESL teacher, I felt like I learned a lot and she brought up some things
that I hadn’t even thought about before the interview which is why I really
appreciated this assignment.
