(As I stated in my previous blog, Solin is a Kindergarten student at the One-way Immersion school I work at.)
The way Solin interacts with language shows me that he is a simultaneous bilingual. He has been exposed to English and Spanish since he was born and uses both. He does have a tendency to be more expressive and comfortable using English. However, he is very proud to be able to use both languages, and continuously is trying to increase his Spanish fluency. After analyzing his speaking in English and Spanish the results suggest that he has more fluency in English. This is in part due to the fact that his mother and grandparents (the main caregivers of the child) speak English.
Solin has a tendency to use English to communicate socially with his peers. He is very a very kind individual. When classmates are frustrated with the instructions to perform a task, he will whisper an English translation of what I said to his classmate. He however tries to speak in Spanish as much as he can with me and my assistant. I am very proud to see that he pushes himself to try to think through and find the right words to say under any given context. Since this is Solin’s first year in school, he has only been exposed to reading, writing and speaking in Spanish for 90% of the day (the school uses a 90/10 model, and music and library time are the only times in the day where Solin receives English instruction).
In Solin’s English speaking sample, I find that has high fluency skills in this language. Looking at the WIDA Speaking rubric, Solin’s linguistic complexity resembles a level 5 Bridging. He has a variety of sentences with different linguistic complexity. He uses technical language related to the content area. When he spoke to me about his love for Pokemon games, he used technical language and used vocabulary with ease to describe the powers of each Pokemon as well as his favorite Pokemon. Solin’s language control level I would say is a 4 Expanding. I was able to understand everything he was trying to communicate to me with ease since his sentence structure and speaking fluency was optimal. When we spoke about how he likes to go to the lake, he said, “Me and mom found this beach, and the first thing we are going to do is go there and start swimming with the goggles.” He had some semantic errors but it did not impede the overall meaning of what he was trying to say.
While speaking with Solin in Spanish, I needed to give him more promps to get him to talk than I did with English. Here is a small sample of what we discussed during his interview:
Paola:¿Qué es algo que te gusta hacer?
Solin: Jugar en el parque.
Paola: ¿Y qué te gusta hacer en el parque?
Solin: Jugar donde esta tu.
Paola: ¿Y con quién juegas?
Solin: Mi amigo…mi amigos y mi hermano. Isaac y Edward y un niño que se llama Christopher.
Paola: ¿Y qué hacen?
Solin: Pues, nos escondamos y alguien trae contrarnos.
Based on Solin’s Spanish sample, I find that his linguistic complexity is a level 2 Beginning. He showed that he has control over phrases and short oral sentences. Looking that the sample I also see that Solin’s vocabulary usage is at a level 2 Beginning as well. He seems to be familiar with every day language but beyond that he seems to struggle. He takes risks and tries to convey his ideas. He seems to try to phonetically sound out words that he has previously heard, even if they don’t come out right, he generally can communicate his thought process. He also gets singular/plural agreements mixed up. (Mi amigo vs. mis amigos).
Hi Paola,
ReplyDeleteVery interesting little guy you have there! Who did he grow up with that speaks Spanish? It seems like he is excited about learning and using his Spanish skills. Other people in my wiki group commented that by 4th-5th grade they have students who are no longer very interested in speaking and using their Spanish. Any thoughts on how to keep the spark going? I have found that my 2nd graders are very excited about learning to read and write in Spanish, but that is because it is the first year that they have ever gotten formal instruction in Spanish. I also try very hard to create an environment that is very open and excited about learning other languages. But again, that is 2nd grade. I don't know if I did the same thing in 4th or 5th if the students would be as enthusiastic or not......
Cheers,
Julie
3/21/11
ReplyDeleteHi Paola-
Thanks for sharing about your student. It always amazes me why and when children choose to use one language or another depending on the context and with whom they’re speaking. Given that he really “pushes himself” to find words so he can speak Spanish with you tells me that you are having a very powerful and positive influence on his language development. Especially interesting was the technical language and descriptions of Pokemon that you report. It reminds me of Jim Gee’s work on literacy around the same topic. Do you think this student will continue to push himself in Spanish when his social and home environments have such a high premium on using English?
~Terry
Hi Paola,
ReplyDeleteSolin sounds like a fun little guy and your analysis of his oral language development is very clear. It sounds like he takes pride in being bilingual and wants to build on the Spanish base that he already has. What is most impressive is that he speaks to you in Spanish even though he’s most comfortable in English. He’s already pushing himself and he’s in kindergarten! Wow, his middle school teachers will be thanking you. One thing that you hit on that I found very interesting is that even at his young age Solin has “every day language” in Spanish, but lacks technical/academic vocabulary. I find that at the middle school level students with learning gaps in either language when it comes to academic vocabulary are the ones who struggle the most no matter what their ELPs. When students are confident and advocate for themselves by clarifying, asking questions and taking risks is when I see the most progress. It is great that Solin is already so motivated to improve his skills.
After speaking with Solin's mother, I found out that Solin's parents spoke to him only in Spanish since he was born. In the last year they have recently divorced, and the regimen which they worked with to speak to him only in Spanish has collapsed due to change of home life situations. However, they like I have found that going to school at Park Spanish Immersion has helped him improve in his Spanish proficiency and interest in improving his Spanish.
ReplyDeleteI was recently speaking with other teachers in a K-2 Proffessional Development meeting, and I heard a teacher bring up the same question as Julie Colmar did: How do we keep the students interest in literacy as high as it is in Kindergarten and 1st grade? I think that this is a mystery we are still trying to solve. Mostly I think we need to continously make the curriculum culturally relevant for our students to help keep them motivated in school.
In regard's to Terry's comment, I have been having an ongoing conversation with parents and teacher's about this very topic. We were talking about how people develop certain language assossiations with individuals. For example, my colleage from Spain, who speaks Spanish, Catalan and English, refuses to get used to speaking in Catalan with Spaniards at work who know the language. She says that if she gets into the habit of speaking to them in Catalan, she will continuously do so. That made me wonder about my own experience with language, and yes, I do associate certain people with certain languages. I continously speak to my father in English, because when I was younger I spoke in English with him. I always speak to my mom in Spanish,since that is the only language she has spoken to me. And certain Spanish speaking friends of mine I still speak to in English since we were in an environment in High School where we had to speak in English so our non-Spanish speaking friends would not feel left out. So regarding Terry's comment, I do believe that this is a root cause for the students' choice of language use: Which language are they associating us with? Which language are we giving them the options for using? I think that many of my students are speaking Spanish to me more than they are speaking in Spanish to their parents because they have associated that language with me, and they have no other option from me. (I only will speak to them in Spanish, and certain frases are expected of them to be said in Spanish if they would like to have an end result. i.e. Can I go to the bathroom?)
And lastly, regarding Julie Schultz comment, yes, we need to make sure to start building a solid foundation for Solin to continue improving his Spanish proficiency and add to his vocabulary. I think that working in a Spanish Immersion model, he will be able to easily accomplish this feat. I think do to his family's background, he will be able to keep himself motivated to continue his Spanish language development.