Based on your knowledge of language acquisition and disabilities, provide an analysis of the student in the vignette below.
Carla is a 6-year–old English language learner in your kindergarten class. This is her second year in kindergarten. Her first language is Portuguese. Carla is able to participate in small group activities and uses two word English responses, commands, and simple grammatical sentences, points and uses non-verbal gestures to demonstrate her understanding of some of the concepts. You noticed that Carla is having difficulty remembering her ABCs, numbers, as well as some of the songs that you all sing in class on a daily basis. Your school district has provided a teaching assistant whose first language is also Portuguese so that she might assist you. Your assistant has informed you that Carla doesn’t know her alphabet or how to count in Portuguese and she also doesn’t remember directions or stories as told in Portuguese.
What do you think might be going on with Carla (refer to this week’s readings)? How would you handle this situation?
Sample Solution
