Publishing Web for Students' Final Papers
Publishing Web for Students' Final Papers |
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From: Valerie Boes
Email: vboes@cats.ucsc.edu
Course: psych101: Informal learning and technology
College: Crown colllege
Instructor: Eugene Matusov
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/psych101
ChildrenObservations: Yes
Date: 13 Dec 1996
Time: 18:12:23
Remote Name: hart1102-8.ucdavis.edu
The most important lesson I learned from my quarter at a local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center is that there are ways to overcome or at least minimize the walls created by language. This paper is my account of how I learned from children with a different first language. The local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center is a center that has various activities to help children stay off the street. It is a organization that works hard to give children an alternative to gang violence. the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center in collaboration with U.C. Santa Cruz began a project in which thirty two children work together with thirteen undergraduates from U.C. Santa Cruz in an informal setting in order to facilitate learning. It is informal in that there is no set agenda. The children and undergraduates can work on computers, color, write letters, or do anything else that is available to them. The majority of the children that attend the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center come from a different background, mainly Hispanic, than the undergraduates who assist in their learning. The undergraduates first language is English while the children at the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center primarily speak Spanish in their homes. Though most of the participants at the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center speak English as well as Spanish, there is evidence of language barriers that separate the children and the undergraduates.
Introduction
Attaining information, whether it be instructions on an assignment or directions on a task, is obtained by oral language. While there are other methods of gaining information, the majority of it is done through language. When you are in school or on the job, a good portion of learning takes place with language. Through the years people have migrated from country to country bringing with them their languages, cultures, and ways of life. While many people have adapted to the language spoken in their new countries others have not been as successful, have not wanted to , or simply not made a choice either way. Children must go to school in this country and need to be educated in order to survive in the society. "A recent concern of educators in our age of changing demographics is how to provide access to educational resources for language minority children at every level of the educational system"(Vasquez, 1994). One level of the educational system being informal learning. One idea of informal learning has been transformed into after school programs where children, many times bilingual, work with undergraduates "where all major categories of leading activities-learning, play, peer interactions and affiliation"(Cole, 1995) take place. Modeling from after school programs such as Vasquesz's La Clase Magica and Coles 5th Dimension, U.C.Santa Cruz has shaped it's own after school program-the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center. I am an undergraduate attending U.C.S.C. In my time at the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center, working with the children who speak a different language has proven to be challenging. Challenging but more importantly, a learning experience.
Method
Sample
There were thirty two children and thirteen undergraduates. Both undergraduates and children were separated into two groups. One group met Mondays and Fridays, while the other group met Wednesdays and Thursdays. I attended the Wednesday and Thursday sections. Most of the children came from Spanish speaking homes while all of the undergraduates came from English speaking households.
Materials
The local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center was equipped with computers, games, markers, paper, and other items for the undergraduates and the children to play with. There were two rooms; one contained the computers, the other tables and chairs.
Analysis
The local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center "is a national coalition against gang warfare and violence"(E.L. 1996). It is a non-profit organization that stays open with help and financial support of people who believe in it's cause-"stopping the violence". the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center and U.C.S.C. came together to develop a place where children and undergraduates could work together with technology. Children that come to the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center might otherwise not have the chance to use the technology that is provided. It atmosphere is informal-not like the traditional classroom. Children come and choose what they want to work with. The undergraduate helps, works with, or simply observes the child or children they are working with. I spent the majority of my time in the room with the computers. The teaching or observing techniques of the undergraduates are determined by prior experience, class readings, class discussions, and talks on the web. Before attending the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center the undergraduates are not trained on computer technology or trained how to teach the children. The knowledge they have is from prior experience and a brief orientation given at the beginning of the quarter. The orientation I went to gave me a chance to meet some people involved at the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center, but did little else.
When I went into the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center I was nervous and felt unprepared. From the first day I realized that I was going to need to know some Spanish if I was going to communicate with some of the children. My first experience with a child who hardly spoke any English was in my third week in the course. My first field note was clustered with uncertainties of how to deal with a child who spoke a different first language than me:
"Hang man was a total disaster. I couldn't really explain to her how to play it and it is sort of important to be able to spell in English to play hang man. But for a few minutes I think she enjoyed pressing the letters and watching the screen. The last game we tried was jacks. At first neither of us got it but then I saw the point so I tried to tell her in 1% Spanish and 99% English how to do it but obviously she couldn't understand".
Later in my field note there was evidence of learning. Learning took place not only for Lisa but for me as well:
"After watching me she started doing it herself. When she passed the first level she continues picking up 1 jack, so I told her 2 and up up two fingers. She had to start with one jack again. Once she passed the level I put up two fingers and we said two together. By the end of our time together, whenever she had to start over, we would go "ahhhh" together. I really felt by the end of the day that we were speaking the same language"
I learned on my own how to teach a game to a child who spoke a different language than me. Thorough body language such as pointing and modeling, I was able to teach a game and learn how to expand my communication skills. Lisa was able to learn from me, and me from her. Lisa is a thirteen year old girl. She speaks Spanish and knows a few English words. This first experience also raised my awareness on the importance of learning a second language, especially when working in a place like the local Santa Cruz Latino Youth Center. Learning in a different language than the one you speak is a difficult task. "According to second language theorists Krashen and Biber (1989), Œbackground knowledge helps make input comprehensible', and Œlanguage acquisition results from comprehensible input'. For bilingual children, this means using home language, Spanish, and Mexicano culture to learn the second language, English"(Vasquez, 1994). While I don't know enough Spanish or Latino culture to make this work completely, I tried to use this advise when working with Lisa the second time playing a word game. "For a while whenever it would click on something like a shirt I would say "camisa" or what ever the object was in what Spanish I knew. In response to my Spanish she would correct me (which happened a lot). Then we tried it that when she would click on something I would say it with the character on the screen. then Lisa would say it". By using her language I was able to broaden my vocabulary. We developed a relationship that fostered both of our languages. By seeing pictures and hearing words in both Spanish and English, Lisa learned how to use different senses to learn, or at least pronounce vocabulary.
After working with the same child week after week in an informal atmosphere a friendship starts to form which opens the door for learning. Each time I worked or played with Lisa we would try to speak to one another with language, signals, and help from other children who knew both Spanish and English. About the seventh week into the course, Lisa and I were working on a computer. She decided that she wanted to color so we went into the room with the tables. Lisa "started to draw a picture of me. After she had made the head of me, she asked me how to spell my name. I sounded the letters out in Spanish and she would repeat and correct me if I mispronounced a letter. After she wrote my name over my head, she wrote the word "CARSON" on my sweatshirt ("CARSON" was printed on the sweatshirt I was wearing)". Through an interaction like this, Lisa was able to work on spelling and I was able to work on sounding out letters in a different language. This is an example of how learning can occur in an informal environment.
While language barriers will always exist, it was good to learn that there are ways of getting around them. Whether it be in a formal setting or an informal setting, the opportunity is always present. I was not alone in struggles with the difference of languages, one undergraduate wrote "I was wondering how I could surpass the language barrier without the non-English speaking children. I did not find a complete answer, but I did find that it possible to communicate, and even enjoy each others company"(J.T.). I end this paper with an example from a fellow undergraduate who also worked with Lisa. It is an example of how differences in language can actually present an opportunity for learning to take place.
"I called Tom over to translate, and he said Lisa wanted to write. I loaded up a word program for her, and Tom showed her some basics. She typed yo my llamo Lisa. I figured that she meant that her name was Lisa. She seemed to ask me how to go down to the next line, and I showed her the way to do it with the mouse and the return key. She then wrote my mama tishari... Then she named her father and her friend in the class. I read the names out loud, and I asked her if I was right. I thanked her in Spanish for helping me pronounce the names and she seemed very pleased. I then loaded a word program on the computer next to me, and wrote, yo my llamo Dan. she smiled, and I wrote what my mother's name was. She then showed me how to do father, brother, and sister's names"(J.T).
References
Boes, V. (1996). Field notes
Cole, M. & LCHC (1989). Kids and computers: A positivee vision of the future. Harvard Educational Review, 59, 73-86
Lopez, E (1996). Comment on paper
Thyne, J (1996). Field notes
Vasquez, O. (1994). The magic of La Clase Magica: Enhancing the learning potential of bilingual children. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 17(2): 120- 128.
