Analytic Essay

Sebastián Aranís
Language IX
Crystal Hickerson
25 May 2009


Common Interest in Children’s Language Acquisition

Courtney B. Cazden, in the book “Language in early childhood education” suggests many ways to help children to improve the native language they acquire when they start developing the speaking skill in a determined context. Through this book I could realize that Cazden is interested in knowing what we know about language acquisition. She tries to support her idea by showing pictures and information tables that can be understood by teachers. However, since this book is also addressed for parents, the information and the suggestions needed to be clearer for them to understand. My suggestion for Cazden is to use concepts and information that can be effectively understandable for both in order to apply them properly in each situation.

at the very beginning of the first chapter Cazden gives a question in order to reflect on the development of children language in the preschool stage: "When we say that children have learned their native language by the time they enter first grade, what do we mean they have learned?"(Cazden, 3). Focusing on that question, Cazden refers to the first time children starts communication with others by repeating and interpreting any sentence they hear, although they expresses them in an inadequate way. Cazden states that “children learn a limited set of rules” (4) when they start communicating. I totally see his point because I know learners were not taught how to speak correctly, but I would simply suggest parents that children need to talk with an adult who can make children to repeat at least the needed word to express what they want to express.

Cazden also suggested that teachers must provide a proper environment in which learners can feel comfortable, like a respectful atmosphere which must consider any diversity feature inside the classroom. In my opinion, this is an important suggestion that all teachers should know. However, most of teachers do not reflect on that suggestion and for that reason the lessons in the classroom are sometimes a mess. For that reason this measure needs to be applicable in every classroom, because students need to feel comfortable when they learn something new, and allow them to participate without being afraid of committing mistakes during the learning process. Besides teachers must provide didactic activities and interesting topics for discussion that allow an efficient learning of language.

The book need to encourage the interaction teacher-parent regarding the way the book should give more precise information about the improvement of children’s language. Parents must also be concerned about their children's language acquisition. For that reason, dialogues between them are fundamental to improve the learners' abilities to communicate. Moreover, teachers should promote group work activities which allow students learn language by interacting others in a real context.

In conclusion, Courtney B. Cazden wrote this book in order to know about how students acquire language and give parents and teachers some suggestions to improve it. Even though the suggestions are mostly useful, those need to be understood for both teachers and parents. Basically, the reason of giving clear and precise suggestion is due to the fact that teachers as well as parents need to know how improve language acquisition in those children.

Cazden, Courtney B. Language in early childhood education. Washington, D.C: NAEYC,1982

Language in early childhood education (Corrected)

Language in early childhood education
Cazden, Courtney B. Language in early childhood education. Washington, D.C: NAEYC, 1982
One of the most concerning issues in the educational system is to make students learn how to communicate with the environment that surrounds them. Little children need to develop the ability to produce and receive language. Therefore, it is important for teachers to be aware of how students in preschool stage can acquire language effectively.
The book "Language in early childhood education" is aimed to teachers and parents of children from preschool by offering suggestions to develop their children's language. First of all, there is a brief description regarding learning a native language, which starts with three questions:
"When we say that children have learned their native language by the time they enter first grade, what do we mean they have learned? A set of sentences from which they choose the appropriate one when they want to say something? The meaning of a set of sentences from which they choose the correct interpretation for the sentence they hear?"
Teachers are suggested that they need to provide a proper environment in which learners can feel comfortable. It means that children need to be immersed in a respectful atmosphere which must consider any diversity feature inside the classroom. Besides teachers must provide learners the tools, like didactic activities and interesting topics for discussion that allow an efficient learning of language. On the other hand,parents must be also concerned about their children's acquisition of the language. For that reason, dialogues between them are fundamental to improve the learners' abilities to communicate. Moreover, teachers should promote group work activities which allow students learn language by interacting with their peers.

Annotated bibliography (Correction)

Burns, David J. “Will I do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students’ expectations.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 8.3 (2008): 1-19. Burns analyses the question of whether students’ expectations affect their performance in the exams or not. Burns explains that when students anticipate failing results at the exams or they know they do not prepare properly before being tested, the scores will be evidently low. Throughout this article, Burns attempts to prove his argument by mentioning factors that may support it and quoting several authors who concerns about what occurs in the educational system, in order to find a final conclusion to the analysis. It seems not
difficult to discover the answer to that question, just by focusing in students’ behavior in the classroom. However the test demonstrates that there are other factors that influence students’ performance, like the methodology in teaching, which makes the analysis even more complex. The relationship between expectation and results needs to be properly supported to get to the expected conclusion. Therefore, it is not proven concretely that students’ expectation can influence their performance at the schools.

Language in early childhood education

Cazden, Courtney B. Language in early childhood education. Washington, D.C: NAEYC, 1982
One of the most concerning issues in the educational system is to make students learn how to communicate with the environment that surrounds them. Little children need to develop the ability to produce and receive language. Therefore, it is important for teachers to be aware of how students in preschool stage can acquire language effectively.
The book "Language in early childhood education" is aimed to teachers and parents of children from preschool by offering suggestions to develop their children's language. First of all, there is a brief description regarding learning a native language, which starts with three questions:
"When we say that children have learned their native language by the time they enter first grade, what do we mean they have learned? A set of sentences from which they choose the appropriate one when they want to say something? The meaning of a set of sentences from which they choose the correct interpretation for the sentence they hear?"
Teachers are suggested that they need to provide a proper environment in which learners can feel confortable. It means that children need to be immersed in a respectful atmosphere which must consider any diversity feature inside the classroom. Besides teachers must provide learners the tools, like didactic activities and interestic topics for discusion that allow an efficient learning of language. Parents, on the other hand, must be also concerned about their children's acquisition of the language. For that reason, dialogues between them are fundamental to improve the learners' abilities to communicate. Moreover, teachers should promote group work activities which allow students learn language by interacting with their peers.
This second version of the book was edited from the original edition published in 1972 by Courtney B. Cazden. This book consists of interesting images and examples which emphasize the methods and models that teachers should take in consideration when they teach language to students in preschool.

Annotated Bibliography

Burns, David J. “Will I do as well on the final exam as I expect? An examination of students’ expectations.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 8.3 (2008): 1-19. Burns analyses the question of whether students’ expectations affect their performance in the exams or not. Burns explains that when students anticipate failing results at the exams or they know they do not prepare properly before being testing, the scores will be evidently low. Throughout this article, Burns attempts to prove his argument by mentioning factors that may support it and quoting several authors who concerns about what occurs in the educational system, in order to find a final conclusion to the analysis. It seems not to be difficult to discover the answer to that question, by focusing just in students’ behavior in the classroom. . However the test demonstrates that there are other factors that influence students’ performance, like the methodology in teaching, which make the analysis even more complex. Relating expectation and results needs to be properly supported to get to the expected conclusionTherefore, it is not concretely proven that students’ expectation can influence their performance at the schools.

Education ONLINE

DATABASE

EDUCATION WEEK

http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html

This database is useful to find information about education. Here you can finds different topics from newspaper articles or magazines regarding to how education works in a specific society. The titles are linked with the information about any topic of interest related to the educational system.

OEDb (Online Education Database)

http://oedb.org/

This is a reliable database because users can find whatever information they need about education by looking for different subjects form different categories. The sources are available for the different degrees levels: Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degrees, Master’s degrees, Doctorial degrees and certificate programs.

Ibo.org
International Education Research Database

http://www.ibo.org/programmes/research/database/

This database shows the most important publication regarding education. There are also severla links with information about students, educators, programmes, and other topics of interest.


ONLINE JOURNALS

The Global Education Digest
UNESCO Institute for Statistics

http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev.php?ID=2867_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC

This is an useful on-line journal which has the support of UNESCO. It shows a lot of information about education, literacy, technology and any other topics of interest for the researchers.


AERA SIG Communication of research

http://aera-cr.asu.edu/ejournals/

This is also a free and an easy access journal which offers several links connected to education articles from different countries.

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
AERA journals

http://www.aera.net/publications/Default.aspx?menu_id=32&id=308

This on-line journal cointains useful information, PDF format articles and publication about education.

JOURNAL OF STATISTICS EDUCATION

http://www.amstat.org/PUBLICATIONS/JSE/

This joural offers several topics related to education organized into different categories which allow an easy research for the users.

OXFORD JOURNALS
Oxford University Press

http://www.oxfordjournals.org/

This is an on-line journal form Oxford University. It contains different topics for the users, especially the ones who are interested in education issues. Here we can find several articles, publications and journals related to the required topic.

Debating about Religion in Highschools

One of the subjects that are being taught in most of the high schools in the world is Religion. In fact, the educational system, whose administrators possess strong religious beliefs, considers it necessary to teach religion because of its fundamental role in the social context.In a Social Studies Review article, whose author stays anonymous, states that “Study about religion is essential to understanding both the nation and the world”(Anonymous, 1). However, due to the fact that religious beliefs are divided in Catholicism, Judaism, Protestants, Atheists, among others, teaching this subject can become a controversial issue difficult to control.

Even students can take religion teaching personal or not. In a classroom, teachers can face students of different religions; therefore they can have different points of view about the topic, which can create a controversial situation in the class. In order to teach such a controversial topic, teacher must be aware about the respect to diversity in a classroom.

It seems fundamental for religion teachers to teach, for instance, some passages from the bible as part of the lesson. On the other hand, some topics may have different versions depending on different religious beliefs which can be points of debate for learners. Schools could also discuss about the case of Bill Maher, a person who criticizes religion. In an NPR interview carried out by Terry Gross,he states that “religion has done way more harm than good in the world”. (Maher,1) This person, along with Larry Charles were interviewed by the NPR in order to share their opinions about the documentary film Religulous, which aroused the believers critiques. Maher aslo claims in the New York Times article that“If it’s profitable, it’s not taboo. If they think it’s marketable, then maybe the tabooishness doesn’t matter so much.” (Maher, 2)

Perhaps the majority people who believe in religion may disagree with both Maher and Charles. Teachers in highschools as well as their students can about them express whether they disagree or agree. However, teachers have the duty to know about students’ reality when they deal with certain issues.All those topics about religion can be discussed in class as a way to encourage students’ critical thinking. However, as authorities in a classroom, teachers must me aware of students diversity in order to deal these topics with respect and tolerance.


• Gross, Terry. "Bill Maher and Larry Charles, Getting Religulous". Interview with Larry Charles.Fresh air. NPR. 30 September 2008. 2 October 2008
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95210724
• Leland, John. “Cameras Roll, and Faith hasn’t a Prayer.” The New York Times 26 September 2008. 28 March 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/movies/28lela.html
• Anonymous, “Teaching about religion in publuc schools”. Social Studies Review. 1 October 2002
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-275376771.html