Blog 8

I really enjoyed meeting with the people in my group. I not only got a lot of feedback and ideas for my research plan, but I found theirs intriguing and can’t wait to find out how their projects turn out. I still have the same research question “What kinds of social interactions with native speaking students help ELL students fit in to the classroom?” In asking this question, I hope to discover that talking and interacting with native speaking students help ELL students fit in to the classroom. I hope to find that ELL students pick up social languages much easier than when they interact with their teacher.

I will examine my ELL students at different periods of the school day; at lunch time, recess, computer time and when they are in the classroom. I have to find out at those times, is the student talking with peers, does he only talk to a particular type of group of students, and does he only talk to one other student? When does he speak English and when does he speak his native language?

The methods I will be using are Ethnographic research method, and by interview and a literature review. I plan on using these references:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10643-007-0163-x?LI=true#page-1

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_ViDrO8Id_AC&oi=fnd&pg=PA17&dq=ell+kindergarten+peer+interactions+socialization+classroom+practices&ots=5cTwwydgHt&sig=dOV5jLN48xf_NJqjUumbZ-2ty8Y#v=onepage&q&f=false