Observing A School's Language Climate Analysis

Observing a school’s language climate can be incredibly telling of how a school operates. In some schools, it is easy to study the language landscape. In others, it is incredibly difficult. At this school, it was very easy to decipher the language landscape. From bilingual classrooms to having bulletin boards in two languages — it was easy to find the supports available for English Language Learners and their families. Throughout this study, the school was found to have excellent language supports in the school, but was lacking in terms of resources outside of the school. Reflecting on the school reveals the three key ideas that were found in nurturing a supportive environment for English Language Learners and their families, while also
In the book, Schoolwide Approaches to Educating ELLs by Sonia W. Soltero, several myths regarding English Language Learners are discussed. First, the myth that English Language Learners don’t need specialized support for language development is far from the truth. English Language Learners need as much support as possible when it comes to language development. At the school observed, support was given throughout the school and throughout the curriculum. Another example of a myth states that speaking means proficiency. While speaking language is incredibly important, that does not mean fluency. In school, being able to read and write the language is incredibly important, as well as simply being able to comprehend orally and speak the language. If we want our students to succeed, they need to be able to do all four aspects of
Right now, students not in a bilingual classroom have to go outside of the classroom to receive English Language services. By bringing services into the classroom, any stigma would be removed from the students that have to leave the classroom to receive services. The stigma at the school regarding this issue is minimal, however, this change could impact how a student learns language by providing even more levels of services. There are three primary principles that one should follow when organizing a supportive school for English Language Learners. The first one would be having several different options for classroom language. Having both bilingual and single language classrooms in this school really allowed for the language program to flourish. In this model, students had the chance to be placed in a classroom that suited exactly what they needed in order to succeed in