Entry 2: An Interview with an English Language Learner
Hello all and welcome to my second Vblog entry. For today’s
entry, I am sharing an interview I had with an English language learner who is
very close to me, Fernando Leal, who also happens to be my father. Through the
interview, I was able to learn about experiences, both positive and negative,
that he was subjected to in the public school system in San Antonio, TX.
Fernando was a native U.S. born ELL, as described in Wright
Chapter 1 (2019). Were immigrants from Mexico and he and his siblings were first
generation Americans. He began school when he was 6 with limited English abilities.
The English abilities that he did have was due to his older siblings.
In school, Fernando was placed in a general education
classroom without any specific language support. Fernando described the excitement
he felt with going to school and the intrinsic motivation he had to do well. He
spoke about working harder in school to make up for the deficit he had due to
language. This wasn’t the case for many of his peers who were also English
Language Learners who did not have that same motivation and lacked antiquate
support from the school system. These peers ended up dropping out of school.
This supports the higher drop our rates for Latinx students that Write (2019)
mentions.
When asked what strategies his teacher’s used to teach him English,
Fernando only remembered them rephrasing statements or using gestures. Without
having effective language education at school, Fernando said that he spent much
of his free time working to gain language through reading at home.
His advice to current and future educators of English
language learners is to be understanding and encouraging. I will do my best to
always keep this in mind when I work with English language learners in my own
classroom.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language
Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2019.
Print. Third Edition
Hi Brittney,
ReplyDeleteI loved learning about your dads experiences as an English Language Learner in schools. It is good that he had his older siblings at home to help him learn and practice more English so he was able to learn the language faster. I believe that starting the process of learning another language earlier in life makes it easier for the students. Wright mentioned that young children are more motivated to develop second language skills and proficiency than adults (Wright 2019, pg 52). I heard your dad mention that he had a pretty good understanding of the language within the second or third year of being an English Language Learner, which is awesome considering he did so without any language supports.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy,
and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2019. Print. Third Edition
Hey Alana. I was surprised to hear how quickly my dad became proficient in English as well. I think part of him being able to pick it up quickly was the fact that he had older siblings. Chapter 1 mentions older siblings being a factor that aids in language acquisition.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2019. Print. Third Edition
Hey Brittney! I think it is really cool that you were able to learn more about your dad's experiences through your interview. It is interesting that your dad was placed in regular classes despite not knowing much English at the time. Since he was placed in a mainstream classroom with little to no ESL specific instruction, it sounds like he went through the submersion model (Wright, 2019, p.111). According to Wright (2019), the submersion model is set up so that the ESL students "are left to sink or swim" (p.111). As your dad mentioned, many of his peers dropped out because did not have the motivation to learn English independently like your dad did.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy,
and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2019. Print. Third Edition
Hey Crystal. I did enjoy getting to learn more about my dad's school experiences. I was surprised by a lot of what I learned and am very grateful my dad had the determination he did. His motivation not only had an impact on his success in school, but undoubtedly on my own existence and experiences as a child.
DeleteHey Brittney. So cool that you got to talk to and learn more about your dad and his life experiences. He did start early enough however to learn English well. I share somewhat of a similar experiences to your father as far as schooling goes. I was also put into school with no actually ESL or any kind of support teacher after mere weeks of moving to America. Luckily for more I did have a wonderful teacher first grade who cared enough not to see if I would sink or swim but to teach me how to swim instead. As well how Wright states that "younger children have many social advantages over adults in learning a second language". I think that plays into it a bit as well because being able to learn along side peers is a little bit more helpful than just trying to learn alone.
ReplyDeleteWright, W.E. (2019). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia, PA. Caslon.
Hey Brittney.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the interview you did with your dad. I think your father benefited significantly being a six years old kid when he first started learning english and also having older brother who knew more english than him. according to (wright 2019) " young children have many social advantage over adults in learning a second language" your father being six and only having one teacher for the whole day helped him more because in my opinion when you are in one class for the whole day, the teacher have time to spend one-on-one with you. Having one teacher for all your classes is also great in a way because the teacher is with you for the whole day therefore they can see any progress you make and decide if they need to re-teach you differently.