Akitsu Koyama

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About me

My name is Akitsu Koyama. I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. I had a chance to came to the U.S. when I was 16 years old as an exchange student and lived on a horse farm in Kentucky with an American host family for a year. I received my undergraduate degree in International Politics from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. I worked as a cabin attendant for ANA(Japanese airline) and Austrian Airline. After getting married and having our kids, I started working as a researcher at ANA Strategic Research Institute and had a class for studying hospitality/International understanding at the University in Japan. I had lived in Lausanne, Switzerland and Dusseldorf, Germany with my family for 2 years. Now I am living in Westchester, N.Y. and this is my second semester of the CDIT program at UAlbany. I am looking forward to learning new things and bringing those to Japanese schools in the future.

My Topic/Purpose

This course will provide participants with a better understanding of English as a Second Language or English as a New Language students in the U.S.A. and find a way to motivate and support those students. The ENL/ESL students who first came to the U.S.A. will face many changes in their lifestyle and the way of communication dramatically. The first year in the U.S.A. is particularly difficult and it is important for them to have someone to help and encourage not only their English developments but also their motivation and efforts for their school life. This course will provide educators as well as students’ parents/guardians a way to help and encourage ESL students to support those students.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• Define the major problems of ENL/ESL students (Verbal Skills)
• Understand the need to address ENL/ESL students’ difficulty (Attitude)
• Describe common misconceptions and myth of ENL/ESL students (Intellectual Skills)
• Design their own means for helping ENL/ESL students (Intellectual and Motor Skill)

Needs Assessment/Analysis of the Learner and Context

1. Instructional Problems

The lack of understanding diversity in education is crucial whereas racial, ethics, and linguistic diversity is increasing among U.S. Students (Diaz, Pelletier, & Provenzo, 2006). When non-English-speaking students come to the U.S. for the first time, they will face many changes in their lifestyle and the way of communication. As their first concern may be the English developments, not all of ESL/ENL can have support from ESL certificate teachers. It is a critical situation that those ESL/ENL have difficulty in learning and communicating at school without any understanding or support from teachers and parents/guardian. This mini-course will focus on the need to address those ESL/ENL students with appropriate understanding and effective support from classroom teachers and their parents/guardians to support and motivate their learning.

2. What is to be learned

Participants will learn the importance of the support for ESL/ENL students who come to the U.S. for the first time and are having many difficulties in their everyday school life. By understanding ESL/ENL students’ difficulties and problems in American schools, participants will gain the skills needed to support and motivate ESL/ENL students at schools.

3. The Learner

This course is intended for educators at any schools as well as the parents/guardians of ESL/ENL students who come to the U.S.A. for the first time and start going to American schools without sufficient English skills for their grade level.

4. Instructional Context

Participants will learn content within this mini-course online completely so that they can choose their location and time for their learning. However, participants will need to have access to a computer with an internet connection to complete this mini-course.

5. Exploring the Instructional Problem and Solution

Because not so many teachers have the experience of living in abroad nor being in the community with the second language, it is not so easy to understand for them to understand of problems and situation for ESL/ENL students. It is important for ESL/ENL students to have someone who understands their problems and feeling to encourage their motivations during their difficult situation. Not only the educator but also their parents/guardians’ supports are crucial. This mini-course will provide the educators and parents/guardians of ESL/ENL students to understand their situation in order to support and assist those students’ learning.

6. Goals of Mini-Course

The primary goal of this mini-course is for educators and parents/guardians of ESL/ESL students to have a better understanding of ESL/ENL students’ difficulties and their situation in order to help and support those ESL/ENL students at American schools.

Performance Objectives

Course-level objectives

• Given information on ENL/ESL students, participants will be able to identify the major problems of those students.

• Given examples of ENL/ESL students, participants will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the support for the major student’ difficulty.

• Given examples of ENL/ESL students, participants will be able to clarify common misconceptions and myth of those students.

• Given examples of support for ENL/ESL students, participants will be able to design their own assistants for those students.

Task Analysis

Purpose

In this course, participants will be able to understand the situation of young English as a Second Language/ English as a New Language students in the U.S.A. in order to help and motivate their learning.

Unit One: Understand ENL/ESL Students

 Given the provided narrative information on ENL/ESL students, the participants will be able to identify at least five major common problems of ENL/ESL students

 Given the provided narrative information on ENL/ESL students, the participants will be able to define the importance of the support from educators and parents/guardians for ENL/ESL students.

 Given the provided narrative information on ENL/ESL students, the participants will be able to clarify at least three common misconceptions and myths of those students which prevents understand the difficulties of ENL/ESL students.

Unit Two: Design your support for ENL/ESL Students

 Given the provided narrative information on ENL/ESL students, the participants will be able to identify the main difficulty and problems of ENL/ESL students to design your assistant for those students.

 Given the provided narrative information on ENL/ESL students, the participants will be able to find at least two means to support ENL/ESL students to design your assistant for those students.

 Given the provided narrative information on ENL/ESL students, the participants will be able to evaluate their means to support ENL/ESL students to have better support for those students.

Essential Prerequisites

 The participants should have the ability to utilize an online Wiki course.

 The participants can identify narrative and instructions.

Supportive Prerequisites

 The participants are intrinsically motivated

 The participants will desire to help ENL/ESL students.

 The participants are open mind to take different actions.

 The participants have a positive attitude for communicating with ENL/ESL students.

References and Resources

Dias, C. F. (2009). Multicultural Education. In Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education (pp. 518-527).