Hannah Eudy

T/L 333

ESL/ELL Interviews

A) Demographics
Nawal Sheck is a young woman who came from Somalia as a child. Her first language is Somali,
and is a senior attending Washington State University.
B)
1. What is a Language?
A language is another skill, a form of communication, and culture.

2. What components form a language?

The sounds, spelling, and sentence structure such as syntax.

3. What is teaching a language and how would you teach it?

Teaching a language is teaching people how to communicate with people from different parts of
the world who are apart of different ethnic groups. She would start off by teaching the alphabet,
then teach basic sounds built off the alphabet. Later on she would teach basic words such as “hi,
hello” and “yes or no”, building off that she would go more in depth and teach sentence format, so
that the basic words turn into sentences as she had learned. She emphasized teaching the
culture and the history of the language and its origins so the students would have a better
understanding, because many languages are paired with different dialects. For example, people
speak and use different slang on the west side of the country as opposed to the east side of the
country.

4. What does it mean to know and use a language?

It means that the individual has another skill. She talked about how it was good so that the person
is more aware of the ethnic groups other than their own.

5. Do your parents speak English, and did you teach them?

Her parents both speak English, however her and her parents learned English around the same
time, so they were all struggling together and supported each other. Her Dad did not go to school
for English, but her Mom took night classes in Seattle soon after they arrived in America.

6. Were your parents and teachers supportive?

Since her parents and her were learning English at the same time it was harder for them to know
exactly how to help all the time, but they did their best because they were learning at the same
time. Her teachers were very supportive and to this day seems grateful for them, which as a
future teacher is what I strive to do for kids.

7. When did you learn English?

She learned English at the age of five after she arrived in America. She had no experience in
English, so she was a kid who moved to America and entered the classroom having no previous
knowledge of the language.

8. What so you remember about the experiences of learning English?

 She remembers that she had reading difficulties for a while but the classroom read a longs
always helped her. She was very fond of what ESL did for her and how much it helped her learn
English, because she received much of her support through ESL and had good one on one
interactions. She still believes that she has bad grammar in her writing abilities.

9. Do you code-switch, or switch from your native language to English and the other way
around?
She exclaimed that she does this all the time and that it is a huge habit. She talked about when
she talks and explains certain things with her parents, she has to switch to English because the
word does not directly translate to Somali, so having both languages to choose from helps her
explain because her parents also know both languages.

10. Do you feel more culturally aware knowing more than one language?
She said absolutely, and it just makes her more curious to learn another language and travel
more, and meet more people. It was absolutely inspiring!

11. How long did it take for you to learn parts of speech such as sarcasm?
She recalls that in elementary school she generally did not use sarcasm, in her Native language
or English. She said that in 7th grade is when she was able to start using sarcasm, a more
rebellious time when kids become teenagers.

12. How long did it take for you to really feel as if you grasped English?
After two years of starting from zero English; so in 2nd grade she felt pretty confident. In 3rd grade
she felt as if she grasped it academically. She never really felt behind because she had really
good support.

13. How many languages do you know total?

She knows two languages total, but really wants to know more. She believes the best way to
learn a language is to be in the country where the language is spoken, just as she had done.

C. Reflection

Second language teaching is teaching a person who is learning the language the teacher is
speaking in. How I will teach students, is give them proper support by starting with the basics and build off
that aspect. Students can come into the school system at any given time and being prepared and patient
is the most vital part of teaching ELLs. I would want to make sure I understand phonology, morphology,
semantics, pragmatics, lexicon, and spelling (Wright, 2015), so that I can properly teach them if they have
any questions of the structure of English (Wright, 2015). This means I have to have the language
mastered according to the textbook. While teaching ELLs, I want to have an open mind, and make sure I
make no assumptions about what they do or not know, and make sure I stress the basics so they have a
strong foundation.
 Works Cited

Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory,

Policy, and Practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, Pa.: Caslon.