ENTRY 2: INTERVIEW WITH JASON PHAM

Blog Entry 

Watch my interview here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PADTLtFN_EUKw5dxUDoNLxAxFqzAto6w/view?usp=sharing

Jason is my friend for about 6 years already. We first meet at Vietnamese Community Sunday Church. We are both sharing the same native language, Vietnamese, so most of the time we are communicate in Vietnamese. “Nationwide, ELLs make up about 10% of the total population, and the number of ELLs is growing rapidly throughout the country” (Wright, 2015, p. 24) and Jason is one of them.

Jason enrolled in ESL classes and star learning English at 16, 9^th grader. Although it was not mentioned in the interview, I know that Jason supposed to enroll in 11^th grade since he finished 10^th grade in Viet Nam. His parents were the one makes decision because they think he don’t have enough ability and know enough English to be able to follow with the curriculum. According to Wright (2015), “Young school-age children often have greater motivation, pressure, needs, and opportunities to develop second language proficiency than adults” (p. 50). He agrees with me that learning a second language at young ages is better and easier than older age.

Jason left the ESL program after one year. I was so happy to know that his teacher was patient with him and explain to him the benefits of move to regular classroom is better for him after one year in ESL. According to Wright (2015), teacher should encourage ELLs to maintain and develop their home languages while they develop proficiency in English” (p. 23). It’s great for Jason to using two languages and fluent in his native language while learning English as a second language.

My last connection is about Jason’s struggles. According to Wright (2015), knowing a language means being able to use it to communicate effectively and appropriately with other speakers of the language” (p.36). He got a hard time to understand the teachers and communicate with other students to make friends. It’s very important and necessary for teacher to have a strong understanding about student’s struggles and able to help them learning their second language.

Reference

Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: research, theory, policy, and practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.