Language Learning

Teaching English as a Second Language to Hebrew Speaking Israeli Children

A picture taken in Snazar School

Although there are some schools like the Snazar School in Acco that introduced the English language during the first grade, English is taught to students only in the third grade in Israel because of the results of research conducted that had shown that the age of 8 is the best time to introduce a second language since their well developed knowledge of the first language would help them to easily acquire the second language.

The MASHAV - MCTC Experience

Language Learning

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Want to learn how a second language is taught in Israeli school? Read on.

Teaching Hebrew as a Second Language to the Israeli Immigrants

I had a marvelous time visiting an Ulpan, a transition class where immigrant children learn how to speak and write the Hebrew language as a second langauge in a low-income area of Acco on March 11, 2004. I found out that a teacher is assigned to teach the Hebrew language to children from Russia, Ethiopia and even Lebanon.

Julia, the Hebrew language teacher in this school, had individual and group session with the children. These children attended the regular class in the school like the rest of the class who has Hebrew as a native language but they also spent part of their time in school, learning the Hebrew language.

Hebrew is taught to immigrants children in an ulpan. No matter what the age of the children they undergo the same level and activities as the younger children. What matter is the time of exposure to the Hebrew language, so if an immigrant child came to Israel

while in the third grade s/he will receive the same lesson as a child in the first grade who came to school at the same time.

However, the rate that a child goes through the lesson is a case to case basis. A child for instance, can finish studying Hebrew for six months though some of the children take 2 years to learn the language. A child can be pull out of his/her current level in an ulpan and transferred in the next level anytime, depending on the results of the evaluation that the teacher of the ulpan conducted to determine the childrens ability in learning the language.

Aside from this, children in an ulpan are encouraged to speak in their native language at home because the teachers believed that their knowledge of their fist language would help them acquire the Hebrew language faster. Children in an ulpan also attend their regular classes, they just put extra hours for their time in an ulpan.

...free Hebrew lessons for adult immigrants during their first year in Israel

The adults immigrants could learn the Hebrew language in a 6-month intensive lessons during their first year In Israel, however, some of them opted to work immediately for financial reasons losing this privilege in the process thus when they realize the importance of learning the language they ended up paying for

it.

Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) in an Ulpan

Visiting their computer room, where the children from the Ulpan class spend an hour a day five times a week, and regular children spent one hour a week, is very interesting. Julia developed a computer assisted instruction lesson in powerpoint.The children have the lesson they are currently studying in the Ulpan or in their regular class. For instance, the children are shown furnitures one at a time and they are required to type their answer in the box provided. They go on with the rest of the furnitures from one slide to another just by clicking enter.Childrens are doing activities based on their level so some children have a different lesson from the rest of the class. Some children, need to type the days of week but some are required to type dialogues inside the call-outs based on the pictures presented in the screen, while a child need to write a story about a picture.