Entry 2: ELL Interview
For the video log, I interviewed 20-year-old Gabby who learned
English as a second language. Gabby originally spoke Spanish at home with her
parents until she started going to public school in the United States at age 5.
She is a bilingual speaker who is currently proficient in both languages.
Gabby's story is interesting to me as I have never learned a second language,
and I could not relate to many of her experiences. One of the things that
really stuck out to me was when she said, "you're never fully living life
in English." She explained how when she reads books in English, she is
always thinking about it in Spanish as well. Wright reminds us that as teachers
we need to be aware that "the languages in an individual’s repertoire are
not separate and compartmentalized, and students always draw on what they know
and can do in one language to make new meanings in another" (Wright, 2015,
pg. 40). This is important to understand because we should always be looking
for opportunities to expand off of our students’ prior knowledge in order to
help them make connections.
It is important for educators
to know that "students from immigrant and minority homes may find the
culture of the school vastly different from the culture of their home"
(Wright, 2015, p.29). Gabby mentioned several times throughout the interview
how different her native culture is from the American culture and how this had
an impact on her language learning. Wright explains how the teacher is an
"agent of socialization" and it is their job to ensure that students
are not only making progress in the language, but they also are able to
interact with other native speakers. When these students feel that they are a part
of the culture and the classroom environment, this increases their motivation
to learn the language and interact with their English-speaking peers. I am glad
that I had the opportunity to do this interview because it has helped me
understand more about the way that ELLs think about English and American
culture in a classroom setting.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hey Morgan!! I really liked your interview with Gabby! It is really cool that she is still completely proficient in both languages. I am in the same boat that I think all of these interviews are so cool because I cannot relate at all. The point that you made about Wright saying that teachers are "agents of socialization" is a really important point to make. Wright also says, “interaction is essential for SLA to occur” (2015, page 53). Although I do not know another language, I have seen this happen in classrooms and talked to teachers about the benefits and they are so immense!
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Yes! I have seen this first hand. At my current job, we have an 11 year old girl who is an ELL at a summer camp surrounded by native speakers. At the start of the camp, she was shy and only spoke when she was spoken to first, but after a few days of interacting with other English speakers, she felt more comfortable with conversing with other children. It is really exciting to see students making verbal progress. Wright tells us that, "learners need opportunities to interact with other speakers," which means that they need to be apart of natural conversations (2015, p.53).
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hello Morgan! I find that very interesting myself of the comment from your interview about how she also changes things into Spanish in her head even though she is reading something in English. According to Wright, "As many socioculturalists remind us, emergent bilinguals draw on all of the languages (including varieties of the "same" language) in their linguistic repertoire to make meaning" (2010, pg. 39). I feel as if this is something the same, if not similar of what Gabby does when reading. Although I am not fluent in another language, I hope to be able to make great accommodations and be able to help relate to the students through both languages.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
I have always been interested to know what it is like to think about something in two languages. On top of that you mentioned, Wright also explains the importance of allowing our students, "the opportunity to use their home languages as resources" (2015, p.39). This is something that teachers like us, that do not speak a second language, would take for granted if we were not properly educated about the importance of students drawing from both repertoires.
DeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Morgan, I think another interesting point to be made is that oral language is not focused on in the classroom as much as it should be (Wright 2015).Gabby mentioned that She never fully lived her life in English because she always thought about things in Spanish as well. In the classroom, I think that having more of a focus on on oral language practice would help with balancing the two languages. Gabby predominantly spoke Spanish at home, meaning she was frequently getting practice with the phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and pragmatics of the Spanish language and hearing the rules of Spanish out loud, allowing her more practice to self correct. If she is not spending the same amount of time practicing English orally, it would probably take longer for her to learn the language.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.