Isela Pena

Improving Literacy
I remember as a child my mom turning on the T.V and putting on our favorite shows
Teletubbies and Barney and Friends early in the morning. Me and my twin sister loved these
shows and now realize why my mother turned it on for us. As a mother who didn't speak nothing
but spanish tried to help my sister and I to hear what the English language sounded like. Many
people argue that the best way to teach a child a language is to speak to them; however, not
knowing english made it impossible for both of my parents to teach it to us. For this reason, my
first language became spanish and caused me to struggle when going into school. Growing up as
a multilingual student made me challenge myself more and has helped me become a better reader
and writer.
I am a Mexican-American who grew up learning both spanish and english. Although I
was introduced to english at an early age I was able to notice a difference between myself and
many classmates. Spanish was my first language, taught by my parents and relatives. Most of my
relatives came to the United States at a later age where english became hard for them to adapt to.
For this reason, spanish was what was spoken and did not necessarily have someone who could
teach me english. Therefore, going into preschool for me was hard since I did not know as much
english. I remember crying every time my mom dropped me off because I felt scared and lost for
not knowing how to communicate to my teacher and peers.
Furthermore, before entering pre-school the only english I really heard was from
watching tv shows such as the teletubbies and Barney and friends. With this said preschool was
the first place where I had to adapt to the english language and learn things such as the alphabet
and counting in english. In my preschool/kinder class I remember having to do weekly
homework packets that required me to trace and remember the alphabets, numbers, colors, and
etc. Using these packets and writing on the paper with 2 parallel lines and a dashed line in
between was the first time I was introduced to this type of material. This was the beginning of
my transition from learning not only spanish but english as well. Another thing that helped
improve my literacy was story time. Sitting in the squared carpet for story time was my favorite
part of the day especially when it came to The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle or The
Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. I remember these being my favorite books and reading and
rereading them. Not only was I reading them for fun but also learning things like the days of the
week, fruits, counting and more. These educational books along with others were read to us and
ultimately was a way that I started learning and gaining more information.
As the years advanced I remember feeling behind especially when it came to writing.
Grammar was something that I always struggled with and greatly affected my writing. I would
receive my report card with a note from my teacher asking my mom to take me to the library and
for me to read more. I felt behind and embarrassed because I wasn't good enough or that
something was wrong with me. As a ML student as Ferris explains in Multilingual Students and
College Writing, I had language issues and was falling behind. The lack of english caused me to
have a harder time understanding the material and greatly affected my writings.(25) Even though
I struggled with this more at a younger age, I often times do find myself now with similar
problems and challenges Ferris described; therefore, I had to work harder and do extra things. It
wasn't until third or fourth grade that I noticed I wasn't the only one who was struggling. I was
placed in an English Language Development(ELD) class where I was finally comfortable in
asking for help and really understanding the material better. ELD is a program that helps students
advance and is dedicated for students whose first language was not english. I was also in the
after-school program during elementary where I was required to go to tutoring and get extra help.
Doing these extra things really helped my literacy and help me be prepare for High school.
Summer after 8th grade was the start of International Baccalaureate and was in this
program throughout all of high school. High school was a period where I found myself
struggling and stressing about my teachers expectations. I was recommended to enter this
program that is dedicated to help student and prepare them for college. That being said, teachers
had high expectation and required us to do a lot of work. Junior year was the most difficult of all
when I had a strict and picky english teacher. With her I was required to read a lot of books
throughout the year, annotate almost everything I read, do an essay of length 1,500-3,000 words
every week, and apart do all of my other homework from other classes.This year in high school
was very difficult for me and required me to pull a lot of allnighters and work extra hard. I
remember wanting to give up and getting out of the program every time from all the stress I felt.
I felt like I wasn't good enough and struggled with balancing all of my homework with sports,
clubs and community service. With the support and help from my parents and friends I was able
to complete high school and learn many new things. One thing for sure was knowing how to
balance everything and becoming a better reader and writer.
In addition, High school was also the place that I learned a new type of Spanish. Like
Anzaldua explained, speaking to different groups requires to speak to them in a different way. In
my spanish class; although I already knew spanish, I was still able to learn much more. I learned
more of the proper spanish which is something different then what I spoke at home. It is where I
also saw my weaknesses in Spanish and notice how much spanish I had lost from not speaking it
as often. Likewise, in How to Tame a Wild Tongue Anzaldua states that Chicanas feel
uncomfortable talking in Spanish to Latinas.(58) I found this interesting and made me realize
how even I oftentimes find it uncomfortable speaking to Latinas as well. It's every time I go to
Mexico that I feel embarrassed for not knowing the Spanish language as well. Now I speak
mostly English or if I talk to my parents I speak spanglish. There is never a time other than when
I go to Mexico that I find myself having a long conversation in Spanish. For this reason, I believe
that learning english myself and parent has affected my spanish literacy. It has led me to
speaking spanglish and ultimately forgetting many of the spanish vocabulary.
In conclusion, after seeing my progress in Literacy it has made me see how my struggles
are what has helped me push myself and become a better reader and writer. As a multilingual
student I was able to get into different programs throughout elementary that prepared me for high
school. Likewise, being in the IB program throughout high school I feel really helped prepare me
for college and improve my literacy.