1. Meg Shephard
TAL305
12/1/14
Using Linguistics to Aid ESOL Students
at Southwest High School
This field experience placement with Southwest High School has been an
extremely intriguing juxtaposition with my previous field experience placement at South
Miami Senior High. In my previous field experience there were intense difficulties with
reading and comprehension with certain students that were placed in an AP 12th grade
English class. Similarly, I am most working with seniors in my current placement as well
who also have reading challenges (ESOL students), creating a clean comparison from
which I may draw conclusions regarding instruction for learners with specific difficulties
with the English language.
In my previous placement, the issue with instruction was content based.
Currently, the deep-rooted issues permeating the classroom with Mrs. Debbie Rodas are
founded on a lack of motivation in the classroom. Although there are a few errors in
instructional content (a lack of breaking down symbolic imagery and concept imagery in
language), the major problems are behaviorally related, all which stem from a lack of
incentive system. The first and most effective way to jump start cooperation in Mrs.
Rodas’ class would be to have the students facing behavioral issues construct, agree to,
and sign a behavior intervention plan. The objectives, with each one pertaining to the
individual student, would include various statements such as “student will attempt to
perform given assignment when asked the first time”, “student will independently
complete given assignments”, “student will work for ___ minutes before asking for
assistance”, “student will be productive in a group situation…” When dealing with Mrs.

2. Rodas’ ESOL students, we must keep in mind introversion that innately comes from
learning a second language at an adolescent age in which we experience Erikson’s fifth
psychosocial stage of development. In this stage, young adults “explore possibilities and
begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. Failure to
establish a sense of identity within society leads to role confusion. Role confusion
involves the individual not being sure about themselves or their place in society
(Simplypsychology.org).” As is visible in Mrs. Rodas’ classroom, a majority of her
students are experiencing difficulty with competency in the ESOL class. This forces the
student to see themselves as a product of their success or lack thereof in the classroom,
directly affecting the creation of their identity outside of the classroom as well. Mrs.
Rodas must use the behavior intervention plan in order to clearly establish attainable
goals that the students can witness visibly achieved in the classroom setting. This will aid
the students in creating a positive identity for themselves, further motivating the seniors
in the ESOL class, resulting in less distractions, less reluctance, and more effective
instruction time.
The second way to improve Mrs. Rodas’ ESOL classroom is to maintain the
standards stated in the behavior intervention plan by following the steps outlined in the
following excerpt from the case study I wrote regarding my students at South Miami
Senior High.
“We can conclude from this case study in my field experience that ambiguity
is created when the meaning of language is difficult to discern. The act of
decoding language is an intricate process that South Miami Senior High tests
by having students read books such as Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
The complex language employed in this text tested my student’s
comprehension ability, who is a Level 2 in the FCAT. Still, he was placed in
his 12th grade AP English class despite his preexisting reading challenges. To
make it easier for students like the one I work with, they need to be taught how
to decode language instead of just reading words without understanding what
they symbolize. This includes unpacking embeddings, breaking down

3. nominalizations to their roots,deciphering the details given in prepositional
phrases,and highlighting the hints that relative pronouns provide to the
meaning in sentences.I recommend that the teacher work with the students that
have comprehension challenges by working the process just described in the
previous sentence.This will help the students rid instruction of ambiguity.”
Simply put, Mrs. Rodas needs to address the ambiguity naturally found in
language by teaching the students how to decode singular words as well as complete
sentences. This should be done by teaching students how to: 1) decode symbolic imagery
and word chunks (break down multisyllable words), 2) create concept imagery in
language (reading comprehension), 3) unpack embeddings (grammatical clauses), 4)
break down nominalizations (verbs and adjectives transformed into nouns), 5) decipher
prepositional phrases (phrases functioning as adjectives or adverbs), 6) decipher relative
pronouns (understanding modifier clauses), and lastly, 7) decipher process verbs (verbs
that indicate changes in state).
These are some of the foundational blocks of English that students in AP English
classes as well as 12th grade ESOL classes need to understand before tackling difficult
reading assignments with little to no help. If Mrs. Rodas were to commit to teaching the
above seven foundations of language to her students (either as a refresher or brand new
information [differentiated instruction]), they would be a direct correlation in increased
understanding of material and increased class participation coupled with decreased
reluctance and disruptions in the class.