As regards Ling, she also struggled to tell a personally significant story facing her ESL class.

Although she had lots of trouble to express herself in English,

her classmates helped her, as they were not only interested in her story, but also felt
identified with and moved by it.
This led her to feel relaxed, comfortable, understood and respected, making her experience
not traumatic at all.

One day in her ESL class, Ling, who was known as the ‘Quiet One’, asked to speak in front
of the class, with certain urgency. She wanted to tell a story that ended up being
distressing. Even though they were all sharing their summer plans, she started to tell a
story from her homeland. It had taken place back in China, when Ling was a little girl. Ling
made a terrible effort to put her thoughts into words, but her English was too slow and she
found it extremely difficult to express her ideas; she had serious problems as regards
grammar and pronunciation. As Ling strained to tell the events that took place in her story,
all her classmates helped her with the vocabulary and verb tenses. For example, when Ling
could not find the correct word to describe her Chinese teacher, Charlene, one of her
classmates, cooperated by saying the word “handsome”. Moreover, Maria corrected a
grammar mistake when Ling said ‘He have a sister go to Hong Kong who have many many
money’. As opposed to the audience that Maria had to confront, Ling’s classmates and
teacher hardly interrupted her or forced her to speak. They only spoke when they noticed
that Ling could not find the exact words or she seemed to be confused with the language.
Cheryl, her teacher, only talked when Ling mispronounced the word “hit”. In the context of
this constructive atmosphere, Ling felt free to speak and slowly told her story, with the
help and support of her classmates who were listening to her very carefully. These
contributions that Ling´s classmates made must have helped her to continue telling her
story, despite the fact that she had many problems with English.
Furthermore, Ling’s classmates were truly interested in what she had to say. They were
constantly contributing to her story and asking questions. When Ling told her class about
her government’s attitude towards rich people at the time the story toke place, Carlos,
another classmate, said that the government in his country was ‘bad to you if you got small
house, no money”. The fact that the classmates related the story to their own experiences
showed that they were not just listening to her politely; they were really involved in Ling´s
story. Ling’s classmates felt profoundly moved with her story too. When she told her class
with tears in her eyes that her Chinese teacher had been ruthlessly killed, all her
classmates cried silently in unison. They must have known how she felt and thus they
showed to be really touched by her pitiful story .Thanks to her classmates’ valuable
support, Ling could tell her traumatic story in a friendly and caring environment.

Because of the audience’s response, Ling could open up and tell her story. Although she
was shy, she gained more and more confidence as she went further in her story. She must
have felt supported, understood and respected; not at all as María, who felt completely
disheartened after she had told her own anecdote.
Ling stained to tell her story