Something that really resonated with me was an idea that Candace Harper brought up in her article, “Misconceptions about Teaching English-language Learners”. Harper brings forth a problem that teachers have with their ELL students and that is that they have trouble understanding the common struggles ELL students have when learning. She says, “Teachers need to be aware of common writing errors for ELLs, such as problems with verb tenses, plural and possessive forms of nouns, subject/verb agreement, and the use of articles, and they should realize that many of these errors are developmental and/or influenced by the student’s native language and are not equally responsive (or impervious) to correction” (Harper 3).

While I am not an ELL student, I have come across this problem in my Chinese class. Last year, my Chinese professor was abroad and my class had a visiting professor who had come straight from China. She had never had any experience in teaching native English speakers and had a difficult time communicating with us and understanding our common errors. My Chinese professors in the past had all been aware of the common mistakes English speakers make and addressed these problems as we were taught new grammar structures. Since the visiting professor had trouble understanding the roots of these errors that my classmates and I were frequently making, she did not know how to address it and struggled to teach the curriculum.

Another serious problem Harper addresses in this same argument is that often times, “Errors are seen as deviations from target language forms and may be interpreted as cognitive disorders instead of evidence of a learner’s interlanguage,” (Harper 3). If teachers are unaware of the cultural and linguistic background of their students, they may falsely identify these students with disorders when they are actually just struggling to adapt to a new and unfamiliar learning culture. Due to these reasons, it is essential that teachers are aware of a wide range of different ethnic learning styles, cultures, and languages in order to better understand their students and how to teach them.