Bilingual Emergent Literacy Blog #2
Reading chapter five, and six really hit home. I began to have many flashback as I read because I was relating. What really interested me hat the United States is the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, 55.6 million people can speak Spanish (woolfolk, p.1890). Growing in a Spanish-speaking household, I can relate to Emergent Literacy and Language Diversity.
My parents came to the United States before I was even born. They both came from Mexico City following the dream of success.Years later, I was born into a family of five. I had three sisters and years after my youngest brother was born. One house rule my dad emphasized was speak only Spanish inside the house. During my early years, I was exposed to Spanish only. I was developing my metalinguistic awareness but in my heritage language.
After entering school, I was put in a bilingual class. By this time, I had master my native language. Putting my 1,000 words in Spanish sentences. I continue through six years of Syntax, pragmatic, Inside-out skills, and Outside-in skills and many more language development. I recall all the way to my fifth grade years, all my teachers speaking to me in Spanish. When it came time to take the IOWA test, I felt like I had every disability in the book. I guessed on most of my reading answers. The results I had to stay another year in sixth-grade.
In sixth-grade, I was in a Monolingual class. I had to learn the language quickly. I am not going to say I didn’t know one word of English because I did understand it. This was due to me watching and listening to English Music. Definitely English was not an easy language to learn. I was mixing the vocabularies of the two languages when speaking. After repeating the year, I had an amazing teacher, who knew my profile as Balance Bilingual. With this teacher I felt comfortable speaking in English. I remember that I would use the word “the thing” it was difficult for me to put the name wit the object together in a sentence. I have to say that is was a critical period for learning the language but I was able to accomplish it with my teachers dedication and extracurricular. Woolfolk states, that after adolescence it is almost impossible to learn a new language without speaking with an accent, and I am a proof status of this statement.
Being an example additive bilingualism, and never losing my heritage language, I became what they call balance bilingualism. Being a bilingual child might have had some developing cognitive development issue regarding to the vocabulary,response times and articulation. These were minors setback considering the multiple advantage when being educated on both language as a child.
Violeta!!! I loved and enjoyed reading your post! i am actually jealous that you know two different languages fluently! I am fluent in English, but only moderate in Spanish. i can speak and read it well, however, i can't write it as much as i speak it. I did not have that rule in my house about speaking Spanish, though i wish i would because it would have been easier for me to communicate with my extended family. I think repeating the 6th grade is the best thing that happened for you because you got to have an amazing teacher who actually helped up instead of ignoring your situation. Both of these chapters did do a good job explaining the battle between ELL learners, but reading your post is a great example of how much of these programs we have now have evolved.
ReplyDeleteVioleta,
ReplyDeleteWe really have a big number of our population speaking Spanish!!! My parents also immigrated to Chicago Before my siblings and I were born. I also grew up in a home in which we were only allowed to speak Spanish at home. I truly believe that helped me keep my Spanish fluency. I had a very similar experience as to yours, i was also placed in a bilingual classroom until 6th grade. I was lucky to have a wonderful 5th grade teacher who greatly boosted my learning. I remember asking many times when i was little, why was i not only taught in English, because it was a true challenge to master two languages. Now that i am an adult I am thankful for being bilingual.
Violeta,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you found a teacher that helped you through class. So many students suffer from not being comfortable with their own teachers when they have difficulty with their language barriers. This is the reason that you will be a successful teacher because you'll relate to the students because you also dealt with this. You will make connections with the students. You will do great things!
Violeta,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your family history! my parents also arrived to Chicago before having kids. my sister Esmeralda was the only one to attend a ESL class to learn the English language. me and my other sibilings did not, we grasped English quickly. which is unfortaunate because i do not speak fluently in spanish and Esmeralda does, just like you! I am really excited to become an ESL teacher to help students like yourself to grasp the english langauge and develop academic and social success.