Interview with Carlos
Here is the link if it does not play below: >> click me !! <<
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.
