Adult Interview of Ms. Marie
Ms. Marie is a 54 year old Hispanic woman. She lives in a trailer house next door to my boyfriend’s grandmother. Ms. Marie and I have known each other for several years, but this interview was the first time that I had an opportunity to hear the story of her life. Ms. Marie came to the United States from a small town in Mexico. She said that she did not think anyone she knew spoke English in her town. She attended a small school for a few years in Mexico. When she was 8 years old, her father got the opportunity to work with his cousin in the United States. The family moved first to Laredo, Texas. In Laredo, she started school and began to be taught to speak English. In this school, there were many children …show more content…
Marie’s language development may have been hindered by her affective filter. She moved frequently, so she must have felt out of place in the new settings. She probably felt anxiety in not knowing if she understood enough English to be successful in her new environment. The schools may have used a combination of audiolingual and natural approach methods to language acquisition. The audiolingual was used during the period of her early education and the natural approach method was being developed toward the end of her education. During Audiolingual methods, she would have been required to memorize dialogue and vocabulary. During the Natural Approach method, she would have been allowed to learn language naturally through communication. This method is criticized for its lack of focus, but it does help to lower the affective filter (Wright, 2015, p. 61). Ms. Marie talked about how, in Laredo, that she was pulled out of class to attend a class to learn English. In this method, a teacher that is trained will pull children out for regular ESL lessons. The idea of the pull-out is to quickly teach the children enough English to make the need for ESL no longer necessary. Problems with this method is that students miss class, teachers do not take responsibility for language instruction since it is someone else’s responsibility, students feels outside the group of other students, and learning is not coordinated with what is being taught in the classroom (Wright, 2015, p.
Ms. Marie is a 54 year old Hispanic woman. She lives in a trailer house next door to my boyfriend’s grandmother. Ms. Marie and I have known each other for several years, but this interview was the first time that I had an opportunity to hear the story of her life. Ms. Marie came to the United States from a small town in Mexico. She said that she did not think anyone she knew spoke English in her town. She attended a small school for a few years in Mexico. When she was 8 years old, her father got the opportunity to work with his cousin in the United States. The family moved first to Laredo, Texas. In Laredo, she started school and began to be taught to speak English. In this school, there were many children …show more content…
Marie’s language development may have been hindered by her affective filter. She moved frequently, so she must have felt out of place in the new settings. She probably felt anxiety in not knowing if she understood enough English to be successful in her new environment. The schools may have used a combination of audiolingual and natural approach methods to language acquisition. The audiolingual was used during the period of her early education and the natural approach method was being developed toward the end of her education. During Audiolingual methods, she would have been required to memorize dialogue and vocabulary. During the Natural Approach method, she would have been allowed to learn language naturally through communication. This method is criticized for its lack of focus, but it does help to lower the affective filter (Wright, 2015, p. 61). Ms. Marie talked about how, in Laredo, that she was pulled out of class to attend a class to learn English. In this method, a teacher that is trained will pull children out for regular ESL lessons. The idea of the pull-out is to quickly teach the children enough English to make the need for ESL no longer necessary. Problems with this method is that students miss class, teachers do not take responsibility for language instruction since it is someone else’s responsibility, students feels outside the group of other students, and learning is not coordinated with what is being taught in the classroom (Wright, 2015, p.