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Classroom diversity and how teachers are adapting their classrooms to the process of assimilation: Steps towards better integrating immigrant students. By Tristan Verboven It takes time to learn a language. Even longer to learn a culture. Immigrant students have a lot on their plate. To create life-long learners, teachers need to know what and who they are dealing with. Effectively integrating immigrant students into a learning environment involves re-examining the three main factors in the education process. Here are three approaches to making the transition smoother and more genuine: -creating an inclusive learning environment -focusing on what motivates students -cultivating a dual identity
Integrating students also deal with issues of identity. School-aged immigrants carry a heavier cultural burden than their parents. They are expected to learn and participate in two cultures simultaneously, often with conflicting values and attitudes. Many find their place between two worlds. Students who are encouraged to act as a liaison between cultures and languages find more opportunities to participate in their communities. Immigrant students have more to gain from cultivating a dual culture than from living a double life. Monitoring a students integration is not done by simply testing their ability to assimilate. Schools need to meet students half way. A healthy learning environment is more than just a place to learn. Students need to know that it is theirs to learn in. Nobody wants to learn in someone elses school. To cultivate the enormous potential of integrating students, teachers need to do as much listening as they do talking. As long as students are talking, they are participating in a culture that is their own. Integration comes from participation. Assimilation comes from submission. They need to know that they are a welcome and valuble part of the learning community and not a burden
When it comes to learning a language, new immigrants already have good reasons to learn beyond the need to satisfy curriculum requirements. They perform differently too. Studies show that on average, students integrating into a new culture have better long-term language retention than non-immigrants learning a second language. Students learning as an elective, however, tend to show better standardized test results. These tests are not doing their job. A newly-landed immigrant learning the local language cannot be assessed in the same manner as (for example) an American student learning French as a second language. Yet, as long as current funding policies reward and punish schools based on standardized test results, administrators have no choice but to favor measurable achievement over successful integration. Thats bad news for schools with high immigrant populations. Schools with low test scores often unfairly begrudge students who bringing down averages. Say what you want about assessments, they reveal more about the system that designs them than the students that take them. Teachers on the front lines are much better placed to determine the needs of their students. Unless assessments take into account teachers instructional style in relation to students educational history, they are meaningless. They do little more than assess a students ability to conform to a system, which is not their explicit intent. It is a teachers responsibility to identify this misuse of motivation to insure the cultivation of a student full potential. Students learning a foreign language need opportunities to use the target language with feedback and assessment to show their progress. Integrating students learning the local language dont. As soon as they leave the classroom their opportunities are ongoing and their feedback immediate. What they need is help with cultural transition and support. It is for the teacher to provide them with the right learning environment. Genuine motivation is hard to come by, and should never be wasted. To create a positive learning environment, teachers need to know what kind of motivation their students already have, and whether or not they are benefiting from the ones being provided
Education is a group effort. A lonely, alienated student cannot learn. Teachers need not accommodate nor indulge integrating students. It suffices to understand their needs and allow them a means to participate in the culture. Whether teachers host a melting pot or a cultural mosaic, an inclusive classroom is a richer learning environment for everyone. Students with dual culture are an asset, not a burden. Their goal is more than just catching up and keeping up, it is to thrive. If the education offered is to be consistent with the values held, then all
students deserve to cultivate their full potential. Immigrant students come to us with valuable prospects; teachers need to learn how to make the most of them. The greater a man`s desire to persuade his audience, the more he will train himself in true culture, aestetic and moral, and in gaining the estime of his fellow citizens. Isocrates from the Antidosis (4 th century BC)
1. What is/are the issue/s addressed on the article? 2. What approaches should the teacher use to conduct a good class? 3. How can the teacher motivate students in learning? 4. Why can the teacher separate the immigrant students from the local students? 5. Explain the last phrase from Isocrates of the article.