Entry 2: Interview - Adult who learned English as a second langage in
Hello y’all, welcome to my entry 2 for an interview with an adult who learned English as a second language in the US public school system. My interview video and reflection will below, thank you for reading.
Click here for my interview video.
The interviewee Hung Phan is a close friend who came to the United States from Vietnam around the age of 11. Hung had no prior learning of English before entering the US public school system. He was enrolled into a New Arrival Center (NAC) program to support his integration into English and the American culture.
From Hung’s responses, he seems to have done well learning English in the public school system. The NAC program created a supportive environment for ELLs like Hung to comfortably transition into the culture. Teachers incorporated US culture into the lessons like when Hung recalls learning the history and how to celebrate US holidays. These practices reflect school program for ELLs goals noted by Wright, “that is, they should help ELLs create new, positive sociocultural identities that can help them negotiate the dynamic new world in which they are living” (2010, p. 17). Hung’s experience is an example of these goals properly executed to positively affect his learning of English and the new culture.
The NAC environment had a variety of other peer ELLs which helped create a more safe and comfortable environment to learn. Hung would be able to practice English through interactions with other ELLs with similar levels of acquisition. The support provided from NAC seem to adopt some sociocultural perspectives from Vygotsky. These perspectives were beneficial for Hung because “the focus is on the conversations themselves, with learning occurring through the social interaction” (Wright, 2010, p. 43). Though this was helpful he still felt like he could have used more meaningful interaction outside of the classroom, since he only spoke the native language at home.
Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
The interviewee Hung Phan is a close friend who came to the United States from Vietnam around the age of 11. Hung had no prior learning of English before entering the US public school system. He was enrolled into a New Arrival Center (NAC) program to support his integration into English and the American culture.
From Hung’s responses, he seems to have done well learning English in the public school system. The NAC program created a supportive environment for ELLs like Hung to comfortably transition into the culture. Teachers incorporated US culture into the lessons like when Hung recalls learning the history and how to celebrate US holidays. These practices reflect school program for ELLs goals noted by Wright, “that is, they should help ELLs create new, positive sociocultural identities that can help them negotiate the dynamic new world in which they are living” (2010, p. 17). Hung’s experience is an example of these goals properly executed to positively affect his learning of English and the new culture.
The NAC environment had a variety of other peer ELLs which helped create a more safe and comfortable environment to learn. Hung would be able to practice English through interactions with other ELLs with similar levels of acquisition. The support provided from NAC seem to adopt some sociocultural perspectives from Vygotsky. These perspectives were beneficial for Hung because “the focus is on the conversations themselves, with learning occurring through the social interaction” (Wright, 2010, p. 43). Though this was helpful he still felt like he could have used more meaningful interaction outside of the classroom, since he only spoke the native language at home.
Wright, W. E. (2010). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
Hi Franklin, reading about Hung’s experience as an ELL and how the New Arrival Center helped him during his English learning journey was very interesting. You mentioned that this program helped him comfortably transition into the United States culture when teachers incorporated culture into lessons. When I read this on your entry I realized that it is similar to the newcomer programs we read about. Wright said that one of the main goals of this program is guiding students’ acculturation to the school system in the United States (Wright, 2015, pg. 110). It’s important for these types of programs to have this because ELLs need support so that they learn what they have to for school, but at the same time can learn about the culture that they’re transitioning to.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hey Janet, you are right, the New Arrival Center is a newcomer program. It was cool to see a friend experience something we read about. My friend was even asked to return, due to his success, to the NAC program to do a speech for their students. The growth Hung had through this newcomer program really shows the benefits despite the criticism of segregating ELLs and being too expensive to operate (Wright, 2010, p.103). I can see why these programs would find more success in cities like Houston where there are the resources and adequate need for them.
DeleteHello, Franklin.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to hear about Hung Phan’s experience. As Janet said in her comment, the program he attended in middle school sounds similar to the newcomer program. There are some newcomer programs that are in the school, but there are some districts to choose to have a separate school where the students attend for part of the day or all day (Wright, 2015). It sounds like his program was very useful for him and that everyone there helped learn English. Your friend seems very grateful for his experience in this program. He mentions that while there were some difficulties with the program such as riding two buses- one for his zoned school and one for the program,- it seems he used it all as motivation to learn as effective and quick as possible in order to return to an all-day mainstream classroom rather than travel between schools.
Hey, Erika.
DeleteSince you mentioned some newcomer programs being in school and some being another campus, I wonder how the experiences differ for students. I know the newcomer program gets criticism for separating ELLs, but does having an in school newcomer program benefit students more than the latter? I also wonder how they differ in approaching the challenges of high stakes testing (Wright, 2010, p. 104), since these students are not ready for that level of testing. Hung did feel like he struggled on the reading TAKS test, reflecting Wright’s observations.
Hello Franklin I really enjoyed watching your video especially since it allowed me to learn about this new NAC program, I will probably be doing a little more research about it when I have time. The program Hung went to was very interesting and it seemed to be a form of the “newcomer program” stated on the book. According to Wright (2015), the newcomer program may sometimes be the best approach in serving newcomer ELL students since they are meant to provide sheltered instruction, and focus on providing ESL instruction, but they have been criticized for segregating ELLs (p. 110-111). Going by Wrights description and Hung’s experience with the Newcomer program I believe it is beneficial, since it seems that Hung did become pretty fluent in English, but I do believe there should be something done about being split from the school since it also seemed to be a bother for Hung as well.
ReplyDeleteWright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Hello Yesenia, I felt like the newcomer program for Hung was beneficial as well, but I also feel conflicted about it being a separate campus. It is time in a school day that is wasted to transport students from campuses, but it also seems like the practical solution. Wright notes that newcomers do not have enough English proficiency for Sheltered English Immersion (Wright, 2010, p. 102), and there probably was not enough resources for a Vietnamese bilingual class to support his English acquisition. The newcomer program would be the practical solution, and having a separate campus may have been better to keep the newcomers in a safe environment for learning. This way all the resources for the ELLs can be focused in that location as well.
Delete