Reflection:

Standard 5.a. ESL Research and History

The artifact I choose for standard 5a is a research based paper from ESC 760:
Second Language Acquisition. This artifact demonstrates my knowledge of language
teaching methods in their historical context. It also shows that I stay current with
recent research, methodologies and strategies in the field because one of the
requirements when gathering this research was that the research could not be more then
ten years old.
For this research paper we were to come up with our own topic/question of choice
that related to language acquisition, and collect research to answer the question.
Gathering information for this research paper allowed me to see how student
acquire a second language, what effects students acquiring a second language, and way
that teachers could help. For example, in my research I found out that parental
involvement is key when children are acquiring a new language because the parent is the
childs first teacher; therefore, if the parent is not involved in their childs education this
will affect the childs attitude towards their own education and could even lead to loose of
interest or dropping out.
This artifact has contributed towards my professional understanding of this
standard by giving me a grasp of the importance of research in the field of education.
After all, how can we teach our students to change the future if we dont learn from the
past?
The vast majority of the school I am currently working in is an ELL, so to better
meet their needs, an area that I would like to consider improving for this standard is to
make sure that I familiarize myself with the federal, state and local laws and policies on

Reflection:
Standard 5.a. ESL Research and History
the instruction of ELL student. This way I can help meet the individual needs of my
students to the best of my abilities.