Vlog III Interview Reflection
For my Vlog III, I interviewed
my mentor teacher Mr. Tran at Stevenson Middle School. He has been teaching for
eleven years, and he started teaching after graduating from the University of
Houston. Mr. Tran did mention that reading and writing were more difficult for
students who learn(ed) English as a second language, however, speaking is still
a difficult aspect for students. Even though they hear English throughout the
day, you cannot assess whether they are understanding or not. When they write
or read, there may be a harder time putting words together as compared to
speaking, because with reading and writing, you have spelling and grammar;
especially if there is an essay prompt or an assignment that requires them to
utilize reading and writing skills, there is a significant amount of difficulty
for those students. Mr. Tran also claimed that students that are bilingual do
use a higher level of cognitive demand as compared to monolinguals. The
bilingual students have a more diverse/wide vocabulary bank compared to
monolinguals, because they have to speak more than one language. Both
monolingual and bilingual students are similar because they understand the
language they are fluent in, however, bilingual students have more of a choice
(as far as vocabulary, or language type) when communicating with others, and
monolingual students do not really have a choice when it comes to language
type, other than their fluent language or L1.
Motivation does play a huge factor in
monolingual/bilingual students’ success. Mr. Tran stated that he has
experienced intrinsic/extrinsic motivators being used with English Language
Learners (ELL), but he has seen self-motivation more frequently within students
and their respective friend groups/peers; friends play a crucial role when
trying to learn a new language -- they know how to relate or explain things
better to their friends than maybe a teacher could to a student. Most of the
students come from households that only speak Spanish, or Vietnamese, or
another language other than English, which does affect how a student learns to
speak English. Difficulties arise for students who are learning English when
their parents have little to no educational background, they only speak
languages other than English at home, and students have no guidance outside of
school to help learn English. ELL students have to adapt when it comes to their
education because English is the primary language used. As with any skill or
trait, learning something new requires practice, repetition, and more practice
in order to become sufficient in something. Mr. Tran concluded the interview
with some advice to new English language learners; practice reading, writing,
and speaking English as much as possible, persevere through the difficult
times, and do not give up. The only way to achieve a native level of speaking
is to practice and become more and more fluent with that language. Ortega
explained, “the more individuals wish to learn a language because it is
interesting and enjoyable, and because the activity has value to them
personally, the more they are likely to learn the language because they wish to
have interactions with members’ of the L2 community” (p. 177-178).
