ELL Student Interview Paper

ELL Student Interview Paper

Hannah Ellison
Instructor: Nalee Moua
Fall, 2017

ELL Student Interview Paper

My interviewee’s name is Traci Pak. Traci is in my sorority and is a close friend of mine.

She is the first person I first thought of when this assignment was introduced to us, because she

is so proud of her heritage and loves sharing her background with others. When I approached

Traci, she was so excited about our interview and being able to share her ELL experience with

me. Track and I had our interview at our sorority Alpha Omicron Pi, on Monday, September 25th

at 11:30 am. Traci’s country of origin is Korea, and the first language she was taught and used, is

Korean. What I was unaware of though, before this interview, was that she was not actually born

in Korea, but her parents still chose to teach Korean to her as her first language. I thought this

was interesting because although I know that a lot of people born in the United States are bilin-

gual, I had never sat down and talked to someone about the reasoning behind why English was

chosen as a second language. I learned a lot from our interview, and feel very thankful that Traci

was willing to share part of her experience with me.

I learned a lot from Traci and I’s interview. Traci shared with me that she experiences cul-

ture shock to this day, and often times has a hard time adjusting because her heritage is so differ-

ent than those of her peers and close friends (Pak, T, 2017). She explained to me, that being cul-

turally aware as a teacher in the classroom, makes learning a second language much easier due to

being comfortable and safe. I also thought it was interesting that Traci said learning to read in

English was easier than learning to write in English (Pak,T, 2017). After she answered the inter-

view questions she explained that people are so quick to mark what you did wrong in writing,

and scribble all over your paper in red marker. Traci explained to me that she felt discouraged
ELL Student Interview Paper

often times, because she knew what she was trying to get across in her writing, but there are so

many grammatical rules and functions that her teachers would focus on, she often times would

worry more about that than the actual writing itself. This really made me think of my teaching

and what I can do to help my ELL students with their writing. I think it is important to take it one

step at a time, and not focus as much on their grammatical errors, but to focus on what they are

writing specifically. If they can communicate their thoughts into writing at all, I think that is a

huge accomplishment.

My interview with Traci also made me realize how informed I need to be in other cultures

in order to be culturally aware for my students. Like she mentioned, she was not born in Korea,

so often times people just assume she was because English is not her first language. She also

mentioned that a big culture shock was expressions and food (Pak, T, 2017). Not every culture

expresses their feelings in the same ways. If you are thinking your student is struggling with

something or is happy based on their facial expression, I learned it may be better just to ask what

they are thinking instead of assuming. This way you are aware of your students emotions and

what you can do to make them feel comfortable. I also think it would be fun to celebrate different

cultures in my classroom to make students feel comfortable and like they can be proud of their

heritage. One day, we can have students bring in a favorite food from their culture, and explain

their culture and why this specific food is their favorite. They could also explain a memory of

when they first had this food. In one of my teaching and learning classes from last semester, we

had guest speakers from different cultures that told stories about their families and brought in

food and items they have that represents their culture in some way. This made me appreciate how

special we are as individuals and where we all come from.

ELL Student Interview Paper

Second language teaching to me requires patience and understanding. As a student and a

future teacher, I think communication and involvement with your students and teachers is very

important. It is difficult to know what your students need, when there is no thorough communi-

cation happening. Although, this is not an easy task to have with ELL’s, because often times you

will have a hard time contacting parents and getting them to come in for a conference with a stu-

dent. This does not always happen because they do not support their child, but maybe due to a

second job they have, they themselves do not speak English, they do not have any appropriate

technology for communication, etc. There will be many different factors as to why communicat-

ing with ELL students is difficult, but teachers have to make it a priority and do everything they

can. Some ways to communicate with your students is doing more activities with them during

class, sitting in on group discussions and having a quick meeting with them during independent

work. This way you can observe their second language learning strategies and see what they

need more of, and also what they are not liking as much. During the one on one meeting time,

asking the student what you can do as teacher to help them may be effective as well. Socializa-

tion with peers is a huge factor to learning a second language as well. Swain argues as part of the

comprehensible output hypothesis that “when learners are in conversation, making an effort to

produce language that the person with whom they are conversing and understand, they are most

likely to see the limits of their second language ability and the need to find better ways to get

their meaning across.” (Wright, W.E, 2017, p.53).

As an ELL teacher I want my students to feel safe and confident in my classroom. My

strategies in order to do so, involve being patient with my students, and always providing them

with a comfortable and safe place to learn. My interviewee, Traci, told me that a lot of times she
ELL Student Interview Paper

felt pressured by her peers because she did not want to be left out of any class games, or activi-

ties just due to the fact that she was an ELL. Traci also mentioned that communication was a

huge factor in why she learned proper English and it was one of the best strategies she experi-

enced (Pak, T, 2017). Instead of making my ELL students go to a separate classroom for extra

help a lot throughout the day, if it is necessary I would love for them to be involved in classroom

discussion, group discussion, group projects, and anything that involves them having to commu-

nicate with their peers. The reasoner this is so they do not ever feel left out, and can be exposed

to the way we communicate. I also want my ELL students to always feel comfortable with their

culture and their background. In order for this to happen, I need to do my best by being culturally

aware through my teaching strategies and communication. Cultural adjustment issues are very

common for ELL’s, and my interviewee Traci, experienced this as well. According to Wright,

ELL students are at a big disadvantage because often schools do not recognize the value in their

culture and do not incorporate cultural differences in their curriculum or in their classroom

(Wright, W.E, 2017, p. 19). Students should not feel like they have to fit into the “melting pot”

ideology and give up their culture identity as well as abandon their first language. Us as teachers,

should support their learning English but celebrate their culture and first language as well.
ELL Student Interview Paper

References:

Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory,
and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Caslon.

Pak, T. (2017, September 25). ELL Student Interview [Personal interview]

ELL Student Interview Paper

Appendix

Interview questions: Traci Pak

1. What components form a language?

“The components that form a language are the emotional and literary components.”

2. What is teaching a language and how would you teach it?

“Teaching a language is making the student to develop in the language itself with practice and

usage. I would teach a language by making the student keep practicing and only responding in

that language for them to learn the hard, but most efficient way.”

3. What does it mean to know and use a language?

“To know and use a language is an absolute privilege, for not everyone is able to obtain the skill

of bilingualism. To know a language is to understand the culture behind it, and why the language

is the way that it is.”

4. What age did you start to learn a second language? Who taught you?

“I started to learn English when I went to preschool, and my peers, teacher, and my parents

taught me English.”

5. Was culture also integrated into the language learning process? Why or why not?

“Yes, culture was also integrated into the language learning process because a lot of terms/ex-

pressions that come with the English language have correlation to the American culture.”

6. Did you feel different from the rest of the students in your class(es) since English was not

your native language? Why or why not?

ELL Student Interview Paper

“I did feel different from the rest of the students in my classes because they would not under-

stand why some parts of learning English would be hard for me and would give me a hard time

about it.”

7. What aspect on learning a new language was easier or harder for you, reading or writ-

ing?

“Writing was definitely more difficult because of the extra work you have to put in for writing,

while reading is a basic skill.”

8. How did your parent(s) support your ELL experience throughout school?

“My parents supported any program that allowed me to excel in English.”

9. How would you define language?

“Language is a form of communication, spoken through words or through body language.”

10. In your opinion, what is the best way to learn a new language?

“The best way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself into the culture/environment itself

so that you are forced to really listen and try to communicate with others.”

11. What was your biggest culture shock experience?

“My biggest culture shock was learning that other kids didn’t eat the same food as I did. When I

would go to school with my lunch, I didn’t realize that eating rice every day for dinner was weird

and I didn’t realize that my food smelled weird to other people.”

12. Explain a time where you felt like you were struggling the most with learning English

and why.
ELL Student Interview Paper

“A time where I felt like I was struggling the most with learning English was through expres-

sions. Because expressions in Korean are so specific and differently tailored, it was difficult

learning other expressions that did not follow the same format as Korean expressions.”

13. What different stereotypes have you experienced being an ELL?

“Although I was born in America, Korean is still my first language. People would automatically

assume that because English wasn’t my first language that I wasn’t able to learn and become as

fluent as they were. A statement I always heard growing up was “Where did you learn your Eng-

lish? You’re so good at it!” even though I am an American citizen.”

14. What have your past teachers done to make learning English better for you?

“My past teachers have always pushed me to read many books, which not only expanded my vo-

cabulary but also allowed me to learn more about American literature and expressions.”

15. If you could go back and learn English again, what would you change and why?

“If I could go back and learn English again, I would try to learn more advanced vocabulary not

only to benefit myself but to also benefit my growth in grammar and other aspects of the lan-

guage itself.”