The person that I interviewed was one of my sisters in my sorority, and her

name is Nora Sanchez. She said that learning a second language to her was so that

she could communicate with her peers, and so she could understand the lessons in

school and succeed in her academics. She believes that a second language is learned

through teacher and student interaction, and also experiences rather than

bookwork. This way of learning through experiences rather than boring worksheets

and bookwork is what is focused on in the textbook. In the textbook, when

discussing learning academic language through worksheets it says, This type of

curriculum is boring and alienating for many students. It also fails to stimulate them

in ways that develop complex forms of language proficiency (pg 17) which is how

Nora viewed it as well. When Nora learned English in elementary school, she said

that what really helped her was when her teachers were patient with her. She said

that her specific ESL class that she went to was really helpful because it was equally

taught in Spanish and English, but it was hard for her when she went back to her

regular classroom because all the instruction was in English, and her teacher didnt

speak any Spanish except the few words she learned in order to help Nora. Nora

remembered one specific moment for her when she was learning English that was

sort of a break through moment for her. She had really been struggling so far in the

school year, and she was working on an assignment where they had to read

something and then do a worksheet where they had to fill in the blanks. She was

really having trouble with it, but her teacher was helping her and wouldnt let her

give up on it. Nora ended up finishing the assignment on her own and went to show

her teacher, and it was one of the first times shed spoke an entire sentence in
English and she told her Thank you for helping me finish my paper, teacher and

her teacher got so excited for her, and made Nora feel excited too, and like she

finally accomplished something. Theres actually a name to what Nora experienced,

and its called the silent period. When ELLs are very quiet and hardly talk in

school, then all of the sudden start speaking English in full sentences, it can be

surprising for teachers because they just assume the student wasnt learning, but in

fact they were learning through comprehensible input (pg 19).

Me Nora

Flexibility-the curriculum
in the course needs to be Believed she needed to learn
Patience a second language so she
able to be adjusted based from the
on the specific student could interact with her peers
teacher, school,
etc.
Acknowledgement that Language is learned through
standardized tests are hard teacher and student
for them and they will need interaction
extra practice
Bilingualism
Actual
experiences(no
work-sheets) Language is learned
so a student can
Native language succeed in school and
acknowledgement understand the
curriculum

Literacy in native language promotes literacy

development in English
Transfer happens in every well designed
bilingual program
Phonics can be counterproductive for ELLs
Sheltered-subject matter teaching works really
well for ELL students

Literature
 Looking at my opinions, Noras opinions, and the textbooks opinions, most of

our beliefs about how and why language is learned are very similar, and we all three

agree on most of the main points. However, one big point that the textbook touched

on but neither Nora nor I did was the fact that literacy being taught in an ELLs

native language helps develop literacy in English. Because in order to learn how to

read, one simply has to read it makes it much easier to learn to read in a language

that you already know. Once youre literate in one language it makes it easier to

learn to read in another language, because once you can read, you can read (pg 20).

Now, when I have a kindergarten classroom in the future and I get students that no

little if any English, I can help them by taking everything that Nora and I said, and

combining it with the information in the textbook like the incorporation of the ELL

students native language, fun interactions rather than boring and easy work-sheets,

and the focus on developing an ELL students reading in their native language before

their reading in English, to make my classroom and students successful. I dont feel

like my thinking of how language is learned has been changed too drastically, but I

do feel like now I understand theres a lot more detail that goes into it, and all those

details are important in guaranteeing an ELL student learns with the best quality

possible.

Works Cited:

Crawford, J., & Krashen, S. (2007). English learners in American classrooms: 101
questions, 101 answers. New York: Scholastic.