This week I went to lunch with
Erica and decided to ask her the questions that I wrote about in a blog post
previously. Some of the answers that I
received were interesting. She mentioned
that during high school there were many students in her class sometimes 30+ at
a time. Although this is normal in
regular high school classes she mentioned that in an ESL class it really should
not be that way. It was easy for her to
get distracted in her high school classes and it is especially hard to pay
attention to every students needs if there are a bunch of confused students in
one class. I was astounded when she said
that although high school helped her with basic parts of writing she felt as if
there was not an emphasis on getting students to college level or “real world”
writing. She said that in high school
“nothing was easy” many times she would stay up late trying to piece together
homework and it was very hard to comprehend reading material.
She understood that something had
to be done and she decided to join Upward bound along with two afterschool
English classes at Providence Academy of International Studies (PAIS for
short). Erica felt relieved after
starting these extra curricular activities because she said she now had help and
more work that was tailored to her needs.
In these programs she really figured out how to express her ideas in
writing, how to not be repetitive and expand her vocabulary. Erica said if it was not for those programs
she thinks she would not be able to speak English or write as well as she does
today.
My two other resources which will be a second ESL friend and 2 teachers from my ex-highschool Central Falls. I have not had a chance to see them yet but once I do I am going to ask the same questions. My aim is to see whether there is any type of connection between all 4 people and their answers.
I was already surprised at my friend Erica who seemed to know what was hindering her learning. I thought she would be giving me more "cloudy" answers where I would have to decipher what was hurting her writing. Interestingly enough she knew exactly what was going wrong. She also stressed the fact that since she did not know the language it was very hard to have a voice in her learning.
Reading this post about your friend's struggle was heartbreaking. It is so upsetting to hear a first-hand account of how schools are not doing everything necessary to ensure the success of their ESL students. I understand that much of it has to do with lack of funding and under-staffing, but it does not make it right. In an ideal world, the things your friend struggled with would not be an issue. However, we live in the real world where these struggles are not just evident, but commonplace. I would love to see a change. I look forward to reading more of your research.
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