Entry Two: Interview With ELL
For this entry, I have decided to interview a close friend of mine - Josselin Maravilla. Ms.Maravilla is currently a senior at The University of Houston and is a student teacher at CFISD. When she was just one year old, she moved to the United States from her native country, El Salvador. Growing up Ms.Maravilla spoke primarily Spanish and wasn't exposed to her second language until she entered school. This being said, Ms.Maravilla was considered an ELL in school and throughout her interview, we delve into her experiences and emotions towards her bilingual program.
As mentioned, Josselin Maravilla moved to the United States when she was just one. Until enrolled in school, she did not speak any other language besides Spanish. Ms. Maravilla tells us in her interview that she was automatically placed in a bilingual program in preschool and was then considered an ELL. This is where Ms. Maravilla's journey in learning English began. "An English language learner (ELL) is a student who is in the process of attaining proficiency in English as a new, additional language"(Wright, 2015, p.1).
Throughout Ms.Maravilla's journey in her English language development, she stumbles upon teachers and materials that aid her in her second language learning, but deter her from acquiring fluency in her native language. In her interview, Ms.Maravilla mentions that she was part of an early-exit bilingual program. As she was describing her program I came to the conclusion that the program was most likely using a content-based instruction approach. "CBI is an approach to second language teaching in which content-area subjects and topics are used as the basis on instruction" (Wright, 2015, p.62). In other words, Ms.Maravialla's program used her content areas such as math, science, reading, and English, to deepen her understanding and acquisition of English. This being said, her primary teacher was a bilingual teacher who taught both in English and Spanish but focused more on English. In addition to this, Ms.Maravilla was often tested with TELPAS in every subject to keep track of her language development and assess her English language abilities.
Although helpful in English language development, Ms.Maravilla feels as if these policies had a negative impact in retaining her native tongue. In her interview, Ms.Maravilla explains how she felt about her school's policies. She explains that the policies did indeed help her with her English, but she felt that she lacked the support needed to improve her Spanish skills. Instead, Ms.Maravilla describes to us that her teachers often would tell her to stop speaking Spanish and focus primarily on English within the classroom. Wright labels these kinds of teachers to have a "monolingual perspective," where they "feel reluctant to allow students to use any of their home language in the classroom"(Wright, 2015, p.59). These kinds of teachers insist on the strict separation of languages, which could be damaging to the development of both languages. It is very interesting that Ms.Maravilla mentions this because Wright writes that this monolingual compartmentalized perspective has been dominant in U.S. school for decades.
In her interview, Ms.Maravilla gives us some great insight as to what it was like in the school system as an ELL student. Being bilingual has always been a big part of her life, and she now plans to switch roles by becoming a bilingual teacher herself. She hopes to provide the help and support her students will need in order to learn and acquire their new language of English, yet still, grow to love their native language.
References:
In her interview, Ms.Maravilla gives us some great insight as to what it was like in the school system as an ELL student. Being bilingual has always been a big part of her life, and she now plans to switch roles by becoming a bilingual teacher herself. She hopes to provide the help and support her students will need in order to learn and acquire their new language of English, yet still, grow to love their native language.
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Hi Alexander, you did such a great job conducting your interview and picking questions from the text to ask. Like your interviewee I am also from El Salvador and did not speak English when I started school in the United States. It seems as though she was extremely motivated to do well and succeed in learning the English language. Wright states, “academic success depends in large part on how the school and the wider society treat them, their language, their culture, their families, and their communities” (Wright, 2015). It seems like Josselin was able to receive the help she needed in early childhood classes which led to her language acquisition that allowed her to excel in her academics.
ReplyDeleteHi there Jennifer! Thank you so much, I had a lot of fun interviewing Ms.Maravilla! I completely agree with the observation you made about Josselin receiving the help she needed in early childhood classes in order to succeed in her English. In her interview, Ms.Maravilla always brought up the fact that every teacher was there to help her learn English, not just her ELA teacher. This corresponds perfectly with what Wright mentions about all teachers. He states that “whether you are, or plan to become, a content-are teacher or specialist, or any other type of teacher, you are also a language teacher” (Wright, 2015, p.61). I feel like this is the kind of mentality Ms.Maravilla’s teachers had, which really helped her in the long run.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Alexander,
ReplyDeleteHey Alexander! I absolutely love your description of the interview with Josselin as well as the video. Your efforts and time into it really show. Fantastic job!
Based on Josselin’s description of her elementary school bilingual model, I think her district was really big in implementing the Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) program (Wright, 2015, p.97). This makes sense since this is the bilingual program that gets the most federal funding (Wright, 2015, p.97). Unfortunately, just as Josselin described, the TBE program lacks the support of on student’s native language in older grades (Wright, 2015, p.98). In my opinion what kept Josselin’s Spanish alive is the fact that her family mainly speaks Spanish. This is great because one can always find it simpler to develop a language if they know the bases.
That being said, I will like to add that this interview really got me thinking on my bilingual life. I personally see myself as a heteroglossic, viewing bilingualism as a norm and using both languages frequently (Wright, 2015, p.115). However, since I learn to speak English in such a late age (15) I wonder how can I as a future teacher influence children whose’s primary language is not English to maintain and develop their native language but also develop their second language? From personal experience, I find it very difficult because I had to put my Spanish aside in order to learn to speak, read and write English. I would love to hear back from you and from Josselin with any thoughts on this question. I would appreciate it tons.
Thanks,
Lucy
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi, Lucy! Thank you so much for the kind words! As I bilingual speaker myself, I saw my Spanish drop significantly when I being taught English. I have often wondered the same question, and I believe it all comes down to the type of program you advocate for your students. Many districts will impose a program that we may not agree with, but being able to advocate and speak up about certain practices is important when thinking about things like native language retention. Wright mentions that effective programs should value students’ home language and translanguaging practices. He states that programs should recognize that “bilingual students should not be expected to stop the development of their home language as they develop proficiency in English” (Wright, 2015, p.307). Wright explains to us that we should be able to value, honor and build on students’ home language skills. In other words, we should push to not keep both languages isolated, but instead draw on students’ multiple linguistic resources as they translanguage for effective communication and learning purposes. Thanks so much for your comment!
DeleteReferences:
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Hello Alexander! You did an amazing job on your VBlog ELL interview video. The interview questions you had formulated were well thought out and meaningful for your listeners. To add on, I liked how you enhance your interview by adding background music throughout your video to grab the audience attention. I was instantly hooked and interested in watching the interview video. In the VBlog entry, you mentioned that Josselin was not exposed to the English language at home until she was placed in a bilingual program at school around the age of Pre-k. With that being said, Josselin did not have any prior experience nor knowledge in the English language until attending U.S. school. It seems like Josselin started speaking Spanish first at home before she started learning a second language at school. Therefore, she is considered to be a sequential bilingualism. According to Wright, he mentions and defines this term as “ … newcomer ELLs who already speak the language or languages of their home language but then start to learn English as a new language at school” (Wright, 2015, p.5). Evidently, it occurred for Josselin in that way. All in all, Josselin will be a great, inspiring, bilingual teacher who will be kind, encouraging, and nice to all newcomer ELLs, since she had the best learning experience with her past bilingual teachers.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hi, Sheena! Thank you! I agree completely that Josselin would be considered a sequential bilingual. At one point I thought she could have also been labeled an emergent bilingual, but after her interview, I don’t see that to be a possibility anymore. Wright mentions that the term emergent bilingual emphasizes “that a fundamental goal of these education programs should be to help students attain high levels of proficiency in their home languages and English” (Wright, 2015, p.5). Unfortunately this was not the case as you can see by her interview. She was often discouraged to speak her home language which prevented her from attaining high levels of proficiency in her home language. This being said, I believe that Josselin was never labeled an emergent bilingual and instead should just hold the label of sequential bilingual just as you suggested.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.
Alexander,
ReplyDeleteI can completely relate to your interviewee, Ms. Maravilla. Like her, I attended a school where I was discouraged from using Spanish. Based on the educational experiences she describes, I believe her school followed an assimilationist discourse. Josselin’s mention that her school wanted her to speak and behave like an “American” further proves that her school was not that invested in developing her Spanish but instead was focused on making her assimilate in American and exit the ELL program. This along with her mention that as she moved up to higher grade levels teachers were more stern with appropriate and correct English usage leads me to believe that her school was following a Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) program. Wright (2015) points out that the goal of TBE programs is to transition ELLs to English-only classrooms as soon as possible while viewing students’ heritage languages as a problem. This perfectly aligns with the experiences Ms. Maravilla described in her interview.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory,
policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
Hi Cecilia! I totally agree with you! Her program definitely fits the Transitional Bilingual Education program. Ms.Maravilla mentions that as she moved up grades, her English was stressed a lot more and her Spanish has very discouraged. I believe this fits perfectly with Wrights description of TBE. “Most TBE programs begin in kindergarten ... Each year the amount of home language instruction is decreased and the amount of sheltered instruction is increased. After 2 to 3 years, the students are transitioned to English language instruction” (Wright, 2015, p.97). This being said, I agree with you in the fact that this program aligns with the experiences Ms.Maravilla described in her interview.
DeleteReferences:
Wright, Wayne (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, Second Edition.