After interviewing my friend Genesis, I found that her story
was very similar to other former English Language Learners in my life. Genesis
was born in the United States to two Honduran parents who spoke only Spanish to
her when she was a very young child. When she was in kindergarten, she was
enrolled in a bilingual class and moved to a general education class in first-grade.
She would be a part of the ESL program from then on to fourth-grade. When I
asked her if she thought the age at which she started learning English affected
her fluency, she said that because she started learning English at such an
early age, she was able to achieve the native speaker level of proficiency she
has now. The Critical Period Hypothesis would agree that language learner at a
young age reaps many benefits. According to Wright (2010), younger students
tend to receive “a much greater amount of instructional time in K-12
educational systems” to learn a language than adults learning a new language
and tend to “feel more comfortable using their new language” (p. 37). However,
I also found it interesting that her parents encouraged her and pushed her to
learn English at a young age, despite not being fluent themselves. It is
probably because they saw the need to speak English well in order to survive in
the United States and therefore, had high expectations for their children. “Young-school
age children often have greater motivation, pressure, needs, and opportunities to
develop second language proficiency than adults” (Wright, 2010, p. 37). Genesis
mentioned that her parents often read books to her and her siblings as children
and was able to practice and use her English with her peers in school. It is
not surprising that her fluency is that of a native-speaker in the present.
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Blog Entry #4: Self-Reflection
After a semester of this course and a nearly a full school year of working with ELL students, my understanding of learning a second or ...
Hey Thanh,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your interview with Genesis! I agree with her when she noted about the benefit of learning English at such a young age. I too was an English Language Learner and I came to the U.S. when I was in Kindergarten. I was put into ESL around my 1st grade year, and as far as I remember going through these classes weren't that hard. Granted there were some things we learned that were hard to grasp, but overall my experience in the ESL classes was good. With that being said, the reason why it was such a smooth transition learning English was because as a child I knew I had to do this. I had to learn in order for me to talk to my peers and succeed in school. Plus, on the other hand of things, I have some friends right now who are adults learning how to speak in English and they're having a hard time learning. I believe it's because as a child we learn things and absorb what we know quicker. As Wright (2015) stated, "The critical period hypothesis holds that language learning must take place during early-child if an individual is to attain "native-like" proficiency. This hypothesis has supported the popular view that young children have cognitive advantages that enable them to learn languages better and faster than adults" (p. 50).
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.
Hey Kohleen! Thank you for commenting. Yes, as a former ELL I agree with both you and Genesis that learning English at an early age is much easier than learning it as an adult. I too had smooth progress whenever I was pulled out for ESL. Now as an adult, I question the concept of young ELLs since they typically English at the same time as their peers. However, I understand that English native speakers have probably been more exposed to English than us at that point and it is important to provide support to ELLs and to prevent any disparities for the future.
DeleteYes I too agree, that nowadays most ELLs are being put into situations where they are in classroom mixed with different student backgrounds. Rarely do I see ELLs being pulled like the way they're used to, and I guess it could be more of an immersive approach. However, we should continually be cognizant of ELLs having open resources and good support as you stated earlier.
DeleteHi Thao,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching your interview. You had really great questions, and Genesis gave you a lot of great feedback. I definitely think that since Genesis started learning English at a young age, she was able to accomplish being proficient faster than an adult trying to learn it. This is because she had more time to learn it during instructional time at school. Wright states that “young-school aged children often have greater motivation, pressure, needs, and opportunities to develop second language proficiency than adults” (pg 69, 2015). Children learn best through observing an adult, and then imitating the action. Children also tend to learn languages better when they have positive encouragement in school.
Taylor, I agree with you completely! I think with learning any language, there should be some form of structured and formal instruction, such as the instruction young children receive in school. As an adult, it is difficult to receive formal instruction as there are other things even English native speakers must prioritize, such as supporting their families, income, etc.
DeleteHello Thanh, thank you for your blog entry, I enjoyed the questions you asked and Genesis’s answers. I think the most common theme I am seeing among the different interviews, and even from the friend that I interviewed, is that they all felt they were at an advantage due to the young age they began learning English. Wright states that "The critical period hypothesis holds that language learning must take place during early childhood if an individual is to attain 'native-like' proficiency," (pg 50, 2015). I definitely think this hypothesis holds true after hearing all of the interviewees opinions on the matter.
ReplyDeleteThanh, thank you for your blog post! How wonderful for your friend to have had so much support from her parents when it came to school and on her journey to learn English. Unfortunately, that has not been the case for some of the kids in my mentor’s classroom. A few of our ELLs receive very little support at home as far as homework and willingness to come in to meet with the teacher concerning progress. I do not know if this is because they are busy with work, or because they do not know how to help, but I can see a difference between the ELLs who get support at home and those who do not. It seems that most of the blog two’s that I have listened to are focused on Spanish speakers. This follows the statistics illustrated in chapter 1. Over half of the children whose parents are immigrants are Hispanic (Wright, 2015, p.6).
ReplyDeleteright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.