Artifact #3: How Fluent is Fluent?

A Narrative Sketch (TE 845)

Goals: 1
Standards: 1, 5
This artifact is a narrative sketch I wrote for TE 845 that
investigates the term Fluency, and what exactly that means to second
language communicators, particularly the learners. Throughout this
piece, I consider the idea of fluency through my own perspective as a
French learner, as well as through the perspective of my varying
degree of English learning students. I consider the importance of
linguistic knowledge from basic communication to standardized tests,
and share personal anecdotes of wavering degrees of fluency. My
culminating thought from this artifact is that a strong knowledge of
academic language is important for learners to show grade-level
success, but that everyones knowledge of a given language is as
living and changing as the language itself (p. 3). Therefore, I dont
think one needs to know all the words in a language to be considered
fluent, but that comfortable and confident communication is the key to
fluency.
I chose this artifact for a couple of reasons. Without being able to
foresee the trajectory of my career pathway at the time, I had no idea
that I would continue down such a linguistically influenced direction.
And now, I teach at my desired grade level (fourth) in a building that is
absolutely filled with languages and cultures. Thanks to this fact,
fluency is a huge topic of discussion, even with such young students.
My very classroom has seven different languages to celebrate
(Standard 1). As a learner, I have always been a perfectionist and I
wanted more than anything to be fluent in French. Living and teaching
abroad solidified this most for me, but even then I learned I didnt
know all of the words (p. 2-3). Beyond doing research on this topic,
time and many experiences with students and families have shown
made it clear that effective communication is what fluency is all about
(Goal 1). Finally, I want to continue educating my students and helping
them to understand necessary tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary words, as
well as basic English grammar skills in order to best prepare them for
the reading and writing tasks in English that they will face this year
and the years to come (Standard 5).