Blog Entry #2: Interviewing a (Former) ELL

For my second blog post I was asked to interview a young adult or adult who learned English as a second language in the United States in the public-school system.

I chose to interview my good friend, Jennifer Chavez.

I met Jennifer through our jobs at a gym in 2014. She is around my age (a year ahead school-wise) and is the Operations Manager of the same gym where we worked together and became friends.

Having recalled a past conversation where Jennifer had mentioned to me that she grew up in a Spanish speaking household and learned English after moving to Pearland, I called her and asked if she would be willing to be interviewed about her experience as an English Language Learner during her elementary school years, to which she kindly agreed.

To watch Jennifer's interview, click HERE

Jennifer was raised in a Spanish speaking household and grew up learning only to speak Spanish from her parents (they were not English language speakers). When she was in second grade, her family moved from the city of Houston to Pearland, which is about 20-25 minutes south from the city. This is where Jennifer began to attend a public elementary school and was introduced to the English language.

Through conducting my interview, I learned that Jennifer attended a form of ESL instruction known as the pull-out ESL model. According to the text this meant that the demographics of Jennifer’s school included only a small population of ELLs, and these students were most likely spread out across several classrooms. (Wright, 2015, pg. 107)

In the textbook, it is also mentioned that the pull-out model has been highly criticized as the least effective model (Ovando and Combs, 2011). They claim this because there are problems such as students missing out on instruction in the regular classroom when they are pulled out, mainstream classroom teachers may begin to view ELLs as responsibility of the ESL teacher, and even that many students may feel stigmatized about being pulled out day after day in front of their English only peers. (Wright, 2015)

However, through Jennifer’s interview I learned that the pull-out method for ESL was very beneficial for her because she was not proficient in the English language at all when she first moved to her new school. From her perspective, it was better for her to be pulled out for ESL instruction to learn the very basics of the English language as opposed to sitting in a classroom where she could not understand anything that was going on at all. It took Jennifer two years to become proficient and comfortable with communicating in English, and even longer to catch up to the reading and writing levels of her peers (a few years of summer school were involved with getting her there).

As a young adult today, given her management position in a large gym, phenomenal people/communication skills, and ability to adapt to change in a level-headed and resilient manner, you would not be able to tell that, as a child, she struggled with understanding and learning the English language.

References:

Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Calson, 2015. Print. Second Edition.