Chapter 7 Reflection

Chapter 7 looks at how technology and digital media can be used to assist ELL students in transitioning to using the English language comfortably.  The idea was that students that are not comfortable with using the English language will feel less comfortable talking and conversing with someone who is in the room with them.  If they communicate with someone virtually through the computer, even if the other person is in the school building they do not feel like they are being judged for the mistakes that they make and they are more willing to try and make mistakes.  There are several different types of media that are useful to ELL students including writing blogs, using speaking applications where they can practice their verbal skills, Facebook to work on their social skills to name a few.  There are certain goals and standards that ELL students should work towards to help integrate them into the rest of the English speaking population and all of these goals can in one way or more be fulfilled by using virtual/ digital technology.

I don’t know how I feel about the fact that ELL students are being allowed to hide behind a digital screen while they are learning English.  I think physical contact, response, and becoming comfortable with speaking to a person directly is a very important part of learning English.  I fear that allowing these students to hide will give them a confidence in seclusion but create a fear of social settings.  While this is helpful if all ELL learners are planning to live in a box and communicate on a computer, but if they hope to become a part of society they will need to work on their social skills. 

I do think that using digital media is a great way to supplement language learning skills including listening to someone else correctly pronunciate words, watching social settings in a movie or on TV to see how people interact, or to read other peoples casual slang.  These are all important skills that they will need to use to interact with English speaking friends efficiently, but these things should not become their only means of learning.  I do believe that these things can also fill a gap in schools where trained ELL teachers are not employed.  These activities can help to answer questions and help students better understand when the teacher cannot help.