Interview with Carlos
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Hi everyone. For this vblog, I am going to be interviewing my friend Carlos and asking him about his experience
learning English. Carlos was born in Colombia and moved to the United States
when he was 10 years old. His English development has improved vastly because
of the environment at school and his personal motivation.
Carlos’
primary language is known to be Spanish, but he was able to pick up English
through his siblings and friends upon moving to the United States. After the
interview, I asked Carlos about his experience with ESL interventions. He
shared out that he actually was not put into any ESL sessions where he was pulled
out of his core subjects to practice his English. In this case, Carlos may have
had a teacher that was trained and certified to teach ESL (Wright, 2015, p.
108). Through his connection, I witnessed some of this during my field
observation where ESL teachers goes into the regular classroom to work with the
classroom teacher and the ELL students (Wright, 2015, p. 109). This is shown to
have a positive learning experience for the ELL students because they are given
that one on one support and guidance when the classroom teacher is instructing
as a whole-group. Both teachers must be communicative and responsive in
delivering information and activities to the ESL student.
Another interesting point I would like to discuss are his motivation
in learning English. Although Carlos mentions he still had trouble conversing
with his peers, his influence was conversing with English speakers daily. Similarly,
Carlos experienced the same situation as Wes from Tokyo. Wes emigrated from
Tokyo to Honolulu by choice and he had a social personality that avidly seeks
people and engages in interaction (Ortega, 2009, p. 56). Carlos found by choice
that he was not helping himself if he excluded his knowledge to conversing with
his Spanish speaker peers. In order for individuals like Carlos and Wes to
improve their new language development, they knew they had to get out of their
comfort zone. After interviewing Carlos, I really want to be as flexible as
possible with my ESL students. Although Carlos had a difficult time
understanding his teacher, he was determined to communicate with his teacher
after school. Every student is different, therefore it is also the teachers’
role to build a strong rapport with the students to notice their struggles for
future references.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English
Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA:
Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Ortega, L. Understanding second language
acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2009.
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI thought Carlos' second language acquisition process was interesting. You can tell that he benefitted from his family support in learning English. I did find it surprising that his parents and siblings knew English before he began to learn. Do you know why or how this came about? Most circumstances are usually that the parents are unable to speak English, and although Carlos stated his parents were not as proficient as his siblings it still must have helped him some during his acquisition process, especially if English was spoken at home. Is Carlos still proficient in his Native language? I am curious because Rowland (2014, p. 181) mentions the two theories regarding bilingual development and I wanted to know if Carlos would consider himself bilingual. If he does, does he reflect more of the autonomous systems theory or interdependent systems theory (Rowland, 2014, p. 181)?
Hello Emily! Carlos is very proficient in his Spanish-speaking skills. He learned English through the social interactions with his siblings and friends. According to Ortega, Carlos may fall under the category as a good learner in relation to thinking beyond the personal commitment to learning (i.e. motivation) (Ortega, 2009, p.208). For example, these individuals monitor their production and try out their new knowledge. I believe these individuals were able to adapt to the language switch and preserve through the content- despite not having an instructional approach at school. In addition, I think Carlos displays an independent system theory because of the cross-linguistic overlaps he has when conversing from Spanish to English and vice versa.
DeleteHi Michelle! Hearing Carlos talk about his experience being in ESL classes reminded me of my own experience, however since I was so young I was lucky enough to not struggle with having an accent, though I cannot say the same for my older siblings. Carlos said he still sometimes has an accent when he talks to fast, this reminded me of the investigation of Julie, Ortega (2013), a native British English speaker who showcased her non-native Arabic (p. 15). While some of the listeners though Julie was a native Arabic speaker the others specified that her accent was not quite the same as that of a native speaker. My guess is if Carlos had learned English earlier in his life he would probably sound like a native speaker.
ReplyDeleteHello Karen! I would also agree that if Carlos had learned English prior to Spanish, he would maybe not have an accent as a native speaker. I think one of the main characteristics of why his accent is still strong as of today is because of the continuous Spanish-speakers of his family. According to Rowland, language mixing is simply that children mix languages because they hear adult mix languages (Rowland, 2014, p. 180). I think although Carlos was not played into interventions, he grew up in a naturalistic environment and displayed motivation of learning English by socializing with English-speakers as often as possible at school.
DeleteHi Michelle! I found your interview with your friend, Carlos very interesting as he appears to be very motivated in learning his L2. Ortega (2013, p. 59) notes that Schumann predicts “that the more acculturated a learner can become (that is, the closer to the target society and its members, socially and psychologically), the more successful his or her eventual learning outcomes will be.” I think it is evident that Carlos was actively seeking opportunities to practice his L2 with those who spoke English fluently and this helped him learn his L2 successfully. Also, I like that you asked him about any advice that he would give to a person who is struggling to learn their L2.
ReplyDeleteHey Krystal! Carlos did show great affection to his capabilities of learning English. He also told me that his parents still struggle with English as of today. According to Ortega, older adolescents and adults are better learners initially, but children is better in the longer run (Ortega, 2009, p. 16). Carlos immersed himself with English-speakers which also helped him to maintain his English-speaking skills at a young age. In addition, he was able to feel more comfortable when speaking to not only his friends, but his teachers were able recognize that Carlos did not need to have additional accommodations.
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