Week 3

This week’s blog post has my own experience as an English Language Learner.  I could relate to the article, Effective Strategies for Developing Academic English: Professional Development and Teacher Practices, Erica Bowers; Shanan Fitts; Mathew Quirk; Woo Jung, California State University, Appalachian State University, University of California, Online publication date: 27 April 2010.

I got my basic education in India.  My schooling up to grade ten was at a private school and the medium of instruction was my native language.  There are many different languages in India - 22 official languages and several hundred dialects.  So while growing up in India, I would come across students learning in other languages.  I knew that I might have problems in college and if I chose to pursue higher education.  Since India was a British colony till 1947 the medium of education in most of the institutions of higher education is English. In any case, once I finished tenth grade I started junior college (equivalent to 11^th and 12^th grade here in US).  In junior college everything was in English.  I still remember the first day of junior college.  There were some students like me that went to a vernacular medium school (schools that operated in native language were called vernacular medium schools). However, I felt that everyone around me was proficient in English and that I would not do well academically.  Even though both of my parents spoke English and I considered myself pretty good in English I was extremely disheartened to the extent that I came home and cried for a long time. Later that year, I made friends and overall my junior college years were lot of fun. But I will never forget that first day of junior college when I felt so helpless. 

Now to relate to this article, I must mention one wonderful teacher.  She was our teacher for English tutorials.  This tutorial class met once in two weeks.  There were no exams or grades attached to it.  The day I met the teacher, I fell in love with her - she so boosted my confidence.  She frequently mentioned that it was alright to be a vernacular medium student and there is no way you should feel less about yourself.  She corrected our verbal English and gave tips on written English.  Unfortunately, this was not a full fledged course so some of my fellow classmates didn’t take it seriously.  I thoroughly admired the teacher.  She was a confident person and willing to help us.  Many years later, when I visited my junior college after finishing my Bachelor’s degree in science, I met her.  I thanked her for all her help during those junior college years.  She had almost forgotten me but her eyes did light up upon hearing me confidently speak in English.

The other comment I have for this week is on Paul Chavez’s interview in Chapter 7: Toward an Understanding of School Achievement of the book Affirming Diversity by Sonia Nieto.  I was saddened to learn about the circumstances that Paul Chavez went through in his early adolescent years.  It was interesting to learn about his feelings towards the school and the teachers in his life.  In spite of some teachers that were racist in their behavior he truly liked one teacher.   Paul went through a rough childhood and yet he was optimistic about his future.  He had faith in himself.  He felt confident that one day he would be out of the gang and he would have a better future.  He was aware that the path he had chosen in his earlier life was not leading anywhere.  He understood the concept of religion, faith and education.  His father was an alcoholic and yet, his father indicated the significance of education.  I was very touched when Paul expressed his love for his mother while being candid enough to share that he couldn’t explicitly show his affection to his mother.