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In what ways was your work in the language assistant program an effective tool for students aged 12 to 16?

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Well, I think that the program in general, it's an enriching program because most of the TAs that come or the language assistants that come, they tend to be very young.

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So I feel like, in a sense, they're mentoring the students, and they get to exchange with the students, like, different ideas.

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They get to learn about the culture, and then they see exactly the benefits of going abroad

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because they get to learn about the different experiences from someone from a different region.

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And I think this is just an effective tool because you get to speak with someone firsthand about their own experiences and they exchange ideas and learn about current news.

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And I think this is makes it a very effective tool because you get to talk to someone firsthand.

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So I think there's a lot of reasons why my work as a language assistant is an effective tool.

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For me, I think the most important is adding an extra dimension to the class.

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So my students are really used to coming into class and doing the same activities every day,

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and having a language assistant is new and exciting for them.

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We can play games with them, we can do activities with them, we can teach them about our culture or our country,

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and I think that helps engage them more than maybe their normal grammar exercise.

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Also, I take a lot of small groups out of the classroom, and I think this is a really amazing tool

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because my collaborating teachers work with 30 to 35 students,

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and there's no way that all those students can practice speaking in 50 minutes.

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So when they come with me, it's sometimes their only chance to practice their speaking skills.

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What is the most helpful collaboration of language assistants

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to help students improve their English language skills?

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What are some of the difficulties encountered?

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students, because at least in my institute, a lot of us had classes that

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overlapped. So some of us had, you know, third SO for biology, but another

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class had third SO also for biology. So what we would do, we would share

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information regarding the students' mood, what they were learning, and then we

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would share presentations. So if we had something to do that was, that overlapped,

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We would share information so we could collaborate and figure out how to most effectively help

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the students.

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In terms of what the difficulties were, is if we only had a class once a week or something

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like that and no one else had that class, it would be sometimes a little bit more difficult

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to figure out what those students' personalities were, stuff like that, so it was harder to

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tailor presentations to them and share information.

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How can a language assistant help students to improve their learning skills in other

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subjects taught through English?

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What are some of the difficulties encountered?

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I think one of the great things about the bilingual program is that most language assistants

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are placed in more than just English classes, and so if you come from a background of history

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or political science or physical sciences, you have a real opportunity to build upon

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what you've studied in college with your students in high schools.

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Some of the difficulties of that are just establishing a common vocabulary.

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So there's a lot of terminology that English speakers are used to using in history to talk

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about politics, to talk about science that don't enter into typical English language

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textbooks for students. And so one thing that I noticed this year giving classes in fourth of

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ESSO history and social science is that I had to be very careful to make sure that the terminology

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that I was using to talk about the Enlightenment or liberalism or the American Revolution was a

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terminology that was usable for my students, not just that they could understand me, but so that

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later they could put that information into their own words and I think the

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best thing about that part of the program is that you're really seeing

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them use a more technical English and something that might serve them further

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down the road not just not just to pass the language exam not just to go through

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their normal day-to-day English courses but you know conversations that they'll

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have on the street with their friends or in other settings and may interest them down the road.

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Yeah, so I think one of the biggest trends that I kind of noticed at the school is the difference

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in the English language ability of the English teachers and then the bilingual teachers that

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are responsible for teaching other subjects. So obviously the English teachers, they have been

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studying English language and grammar and all of these difficult structures for so long,

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whereas teachers in other subjects, although they have a command of the English language,

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it's definitely not to the same degree. So I think a lot of times they really do struggle

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to describe some of these concepts, whether it's the anatomy of the human body or whether it's

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the history of the colonization of America. I think it's hard for them in English sometimes

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to describe these concepts, so I think this is where it's really important for the teaching

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assistant to come in. And even if you don't have the strongest background of that subject,

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just to be able to maybe explain different concepts in different words for the students.

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Also, I know that I've had the opportunity to lead some reviews and things outside of the

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classroom time that I think have really helped students. So a couple weeks ago, I led a science

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review during the break time, and I think it does kind of help for the material to just be

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reiterated in a different way so i think like those are my almost like the key classes where

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assistants are needed so well there are a lot of difficulties trying to teach a subject that

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is not english specifically for example there are subjects such as history and science and geography

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taught in english and so the vocabulary is very different from that that you would learn in an

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original classroom of just English and so I think that the best way to go about

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that is to create a foundation with the vocabulary in order for them to really

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understand what they're learning in the other subjects I think what you

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compromise when you're teaching a subject that's not particularly English

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for example history you compromise that maybe they don't necessarily understand

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all of the words associated and so I think that the most important thing is

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to create a solid foundation of the vocabulary.

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So I think that being able to teach English

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or teach other subjects in these schools in the English language

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is a great opportunity,

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and I think that it should be taken advantage of

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if there are subjects that you would like to teach.

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For example, in my school, I teach English,

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but in addition to that, I teach biology, music, and physical education,

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And these are all subjects that I love, and especially biology, which make up half of my classes.

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I've found that it's really rewarding to be able to teach students vocabulary outside of the normal English vocabulary that they learn in their English language classes.

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When a student is in a biology class, for example, there is so much vocabulary,

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so many concepts that they don't really get in a normal English language class.

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And it's fun to be able to teach that alongside the subject.

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That being said, it is a bit difficult.

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Sometimes it can get a little frustrating as progress seems to go very slowly.

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But I think I have to keep reminding myself that it's because they're learning both a language

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language and a subject at the same time, which is a very difficult thing to do, to ask these

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students to do, and the fact that they're able to do it is pretty admirable, and I think

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it's just to maintain perspective on how much they're expected to learn in a short amount

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of time, and with that perspective I think comes the enjoyment of being able to teach

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both at the same time.