ZapperZ said:
but shouldn't they be learning this in English? After all, they came here to learn, not stayed at their home countries.
It appears that you are, for lack of a better word, enabling their handicap in English. The incentive to learn it in English isn't that crucial if someone is translating it for them.
Do you also have someone translate the exam and what they wrote as answers? Any of these students plan to go on to grad school and may have to take graduate standardized tests? Are any of them offered in their native language?
Zz.
Your comments are, for lack of a better word, inane for multiple reasons.
1.
"It appears you are... enabling their handicap in English."
The students get plenty of practice in English. For one, they take an English class. Secondly, even with the assistance of other students and the sentences I translate for them on the SmartBoard, the majority of what they're hearing (including all the words that come out of my mouth and the mouths of their other teachers) is in English.
2.
"The incentive to learn [math] in English" is diminished when it's translated.
You're mixing up two separate goals. We want them to learn math and we want them to learn English (which they do). There is no need for them to "learn math in English". As their math teacher, I want to give them as much assistance as I can in order for them to learn a subject which is difficult enough for many students to learn even with no language barrier.
3. SmartBoard translations help them learn English. They hear me say something, they see the words typed out in English, and then they see a translation below.
4.
"Do you also have someone translate the exam and what they wrote as answers?"
Yes. The state math test is given in their language. As for my own tests, I translate word problems where necessary.
5.
"Any of these students plan to go on to grad school...?"
I have the kids in middle school. From September to June, the vast majority of the students increase their understanding of English enough that I can speak directly to them and be understood. The idea that they are in danger of not becoming fluent by the time they reach graduate school because of the assistance I'm giving them is absurd.
