Entry #1 Introduction

For this interview, I decided to interview my oldest sister, Wendy. Wendy was born in Mexico and was brought to the U.S. by our parents when she was just 4 years old. In Mexico, she remembers wearing uniforms and being in a structured school. She thinks our parents wanted her to have a better education so the private school in Mexico was what they chose vs public. In the U.S, for the next 2 years, she was in a bilingual class where other students were also learning English and their first language was Spanish. Wendy felt like she thrived in this environment, she felt more comfortable and was able to learn English while using her first language to learn this new language. By third grade, she was in an ESL class where she had other students who knew English for the most part at that point, but their first language wasn’t necessarily Spanish. “Teachers can then determine what is likely to be challenging about a particular activity, lesson, or unit for those students and select appropriate instructional and assessment strategies.” (P.66, Wright, 2019).  This quote suggests that teachers should understand their ELL’s language because if they do, they will know how to accurately assess those ELL students. I believe Wendy did have caring teachers that took the time to understand her language and culture. There was a lot of diversity in her classroom, and that made it feel comfortable on their “English journey”. By fourth grade, she was in an all-English class. She does not recall having trouble with the language during this point, but she thinks things like writing improved after this age once she was more comfortable speaking in English most of the time. “Children growing up in English-speaking families acquire English vocabulary very rapidly and usually with little direct assistance.” (P.37, Wright, 2019). Our parents only spoke Spanish growing up, so we did not acquire the English vocabulary very rapidly. When Wendy was learning English, she said fully emerging into the language was helpful, so watching tv shows, reading in English, and practicing with her friends by only speaking English. This is what helped her learn English. She also wanted to be able to communicate with everyone, so it forced her to not be shy and scared to mess up.

References:

Wright, W. E. (2019). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (3rd ed.). Caslon Publishing.