As I looked at the sticky note with my name, posted outside the SWAP door, I quickly scanned the few details about my student. The first thing that I noticed was that her native tongue was Spanish and that she was a 1A student. I wasn't sure what to think about my students English knowledge, I knew that 1A means that she is in the begining level, but other than that I was a bit anxious to see how everything would turn out.
As I met up with my student, I was able to learn that she knew a lot of English vocabulary. What perhaps prevented many people as seeing her as knowleadgable about English was the fact she is very shy. My student seems to gert a bit anxious about speaking in English, stating that she is very old (she is around 50) and started learning English very late in her life. Her trepidations about the English language were ones that I had heard before coming from my own relatives. It is very difficult for adults to have the role of learner, or ignorants as they sometimes view it, when speaking to a younger person. Their self esteem is injured, but that is something that they don't want to admit and so they cling to the idea that it may not be possible for them to learn perfect English.
Although I agree that adults are past the stage, because there is research that support this idea, of becoming 100% proficent in English, I always point out the fact that I have my own problems with English. I explained to my student that I understood her fears about speaking in English and looked down upon for her inproficent English, but that speaking it was still important. I continued to explain that she should feel comfortable speaking English with me, because it is a learning environment. A learning environment where mistakes will happen, but they will lead to further knowledge. After explaining all of this to her we proceded to go over the first lesson in the learning book about greetings.
As we began to cover the first lesson, I was able to see that she already knew this information. Here again I realized that her shyness and trepidation about speaking English with others, had made others believe that her English skills were lower than expected. So with this realization, I modified the lesson to include types of translations. I would give her examples of situations in Spanish and tell her the words, but then would ask her how that would translate into English. She did very well in this exercise and even admitted that she was glad that I am bilingual. This ability to communicate in Spanish, when her English skills failed, allowed her to gain more background information than would be possible if I only spoke in English.
Overall, I am very excited for the rest of semester. I am sure that she will continue to progress in her English vocabulary and hope that she will gain more confidence about speaking in English.
