CBLP: Reflection blog 1 (Pre-service reflection)

EDUC 8215 002

Lingyu Wang

Describe the program/community where you will be teaching.

The program I will be teaching is held by the Northeast Academy of Philadelphia; it’s

a non-profit English program and aims to teach international/2 nd generation students’

parents English. This community is composed mostly of first-generation immigrants.

Who is the coordinator of the program? Is the program coordinator also your

site supervisor?

Dr. Xie Wei. And yes, he is also going to be our site supervisor.

How are your students? What are their level? Why are they learning English?

I have not met my students yet, but I think they’d be excellent students. They are

mostly parents in their 40s, who obtained at least college-level degrees, meaning their

level of English is way past survival level, but at the same time because they learned

English in their homelands (China), they might have more trouble expressing

themselves clearly (speaking and writing). Because this program’s students are

parents who already have jobs or equities sustaining their lives, they are not learning

English to apply for further studies/careers, rather, they are looking to improve their

linguistic skills so they can build better relationships within their current communities

or fulfill daily needs. Some need to learn English better so they’d find more sense of

belonging or at least have more understanding toward their children’s lives.

What could be the potential needs of the community? What can you do to

contribute to its development?

Maybe they’d have the need to understand the pop culture that’s trending in their

children’s lives and to know more about the area’s religious and cultural background.

I think I can use materials from TikTok or YouTube as in-class discussion topics so

they’d feel closer and more connected to their children.

What are the other ELX students taking 8215 that will be teaching at this site?

Yaqi Xu, Peilin Li and Sally Chen will also teach at Northeast Academy of

Philadelphia with me this semester.