ESL Teaching Reflection 11/13

While at my placement for TE 401, I had to take two students out of class to ask them some questions regarding the science material I will be teaching. At some point during our conversation, one of the students, Hannah, brought up that her mom was from Guatemala. I thought this was very interesting, so I asked her what language they spoke there, in which Hannah told me that they speak Spanish. Because Hannah speaks English very well, it never occurred to me that her family may speak a different language at home. When I asked her more questions about the Spanish language and its use at home, she was willing to tell me all about her parents and extended family. 

Hannah informed me that while her mother is from Guatemala, her father is from Costa Rica. Although she explained that her Spanish proficiency is still on the lower end, her parents have been working to teach her Spanish so she becomes more fluent. She told me that on their iPad, they downloaded an app where they could translate words into Spanish, which helped her gain more knowledge of the language. Because Hannah said she was not very proficient in Spanish, I asked her what language her parents speak at home. She informed me that when just her parents and siblings are around, they use English because the kids cannot understand Spanish. However, when her parents are with the larger extended family of aunts and uncles, they use Spanish to communicate with one another, while the kids still speak in English. Hannah even told me that sometimes when her parents, aunts, and uncles are talking to the kids in English, the kids jokingly respond in Spanish, explaining that they do not know English. 

While Hannah and myself were having this conversation, the other student I was working with, Landon, told me that he knows Japanese. He said a couple words in Japanese, such as hello, thank you, and no. When I asked him how he knew Japanese, he told me that every Friday he comes to a class near Michigan State where they teach him Japanese. I believe he told me that he's been going to the class for some time now. 

It was both eye opening and refreshing to me to know that students are interesting in learning other languages. While Emma's language is for the purpose of keeping her culture and being able to communicate with family members, she still implied that she wanted to learn the language, and that it was important to her parents to learn the language. As for Landon, I thought that learning Japanese was an impressive task to take on. It is something I would have never known if he had not told me. Although the school I am at does not offer any language classes, I feel that it would be a beneficial program to implement, especially since students seem to be interested in learning other languages.