VBLOG #2
After my interview with Lizbeth Garcia, I now have a deeper understanding on how second language strategies are applied in the classroom. Liz mentioned to me prior to the interview that she was in a transitional bilingual program. This is where instruction is taught in both Spanish and English, with Spanish as their primary language, while they integrate English. During my personal reflection on her experience I recognized a couple strategies I learned in this course such as: scaffolding, interaction, and structured language support. Liz mentioned the use of Spanish-English dictionaries, sentence stems, and visual supports hung around the classroom. These strategies connect to the idea that students need support to unlock a new language rather than immersion alone. According to our textbooks language learners benefit from guided instruction and structured input (Brown and Larson-Hall,2012). From our talk I could tell how her teachers intentionally provided tools to make English more un...
