Finishing SWAP!

Being able to participate with SWAP has allowed me to remember how difficult it is to learn English as a second language at an older age. Unlike my SWAP person, I was able to learn English in school and that has made all the difference in my life.

Learning English at a much older age becomes very difficult. Not only are the English vowels difficult to pronounce, but the alphabet of the native tongue may also be very different. For example, when going through the English alphabet with my SWAP person, I noticed how the Spanish alphabet has more letters in the alphabet and how confusing the 'e' and 'i' differentiation (into English from Spanish) is. When certain letters are also put together, the pronunciation of many letters differ: something that was very difficult to explain without confusing my person even more.

Aside from the difficult process of shaping one's mouth into the English form, I more importantly realized the linguistic insecurities that are more common in older people who are non-native English speakers. As a non-native English speaker myself, but having learned English at an earlier stage, I have had certain insecurities with my language control, but the one that my person showed was higher than my own. My SWAP person, who is a female, showed me how linguistic insecurities may prevent many people from fully learning English. Although she knew a lot of English, her linguistic insecurity seemed to prevent her from speaking English to others or offering her answers, in English, too quickly. She showed 'shyness' in using English. She did not volunteer to speak in it, she had to be asked to. This of course did not mean that she was unwilling to have a conversation in English, but that she felt very uncomfortable having a conversation in English.

What I do regret from the program, was not being able to find a way to show my student that she should not be ashamed of her English and that if she continues to practice she will become more comfortable in the language. I attempted to show her that she knew a great amount of English, but there was always that insecurity with her language that many times prevented her from celebrating her capabilities in English.

SWAP: Moving Away from the Book Nov 9, 2012 3:55 PM

As part of SWAP, each person was handed a teacher's handbook and student's workbook. On about the second week my student accidently misplaced her workbook. Faced with this ordeal and having the teacher's handbook differ from the student's workbook, I made the decision to 'wing it' without the book.

My lessons changed from simply 'filling in' the necessary information to more code-switching style. I was already aware that my student knows a lot of English words so I decided to have a type of oral quiz with her. I asked her questions about the days of the week, months in the years, numbers 1-100, and important holidays that are celebrated in the US. As we went through this orally, I realized that although she knew many words, she was mixing up a few or relying on me to supply her with an answer when she did not know. Unsure of how to enrich her experience, and not just feed her the information, I asked my personal friends after having an unproductive day with her. The advice that I received from the majority of my friends was to have her write down the information and that supplying it is sometimes necessary--it's important to not expect her to know every English word that I ask her about.

With this in mind, the next teach day I went in with a pen and notebook. I once again quized her orally to see what words she was able to retain and which ones she still needed help with. As I was going through the quiz I noticed that there were still a few words that she was struggling with. I decided that perhaps seeing the words written down would help her visualize them better. Once I did this she asked me if I would go through the alphabet with her, because she had a few anxieties about her English writing. I went through the English alphabet with her and was stuck with the "e" 'i" differentiation. The English "e" sounds like the Spanish "i" This differentiation had come easily to me, because I had learned English as a 5 year old, but it was a very difficult concept for her. I stumbled my way through different explanations why the phonology of the letters was different and provided word examples, but she still seem confused. This was a bit frustrating for me...but I was able to calm myself down and remind myself that she had not grown up surrounded by these distinctions.

As I was reminded of this, I took a deep breath and apologized for expecting her to understand this information right of way and attempted to expalin it once again at a slower rate and explain the different positions that the tongue takes with the vowel distinctions and common words that have an "e" or an "i." I am not sure how much she understood the second time around, but I decided to move on. I explained to her that I needed to think of a different way to illustrate the differences between the vowels, because she had been unable to understand my different examples, and that we would get back to it at a different time.

These lessons allowed me to understand that having Spanish as my native tongue and then learning English at age 5 was difficult for me, but evenmore so for adults who are past the critical age of learning a different language.

First sessions with SWAP!

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.