For my interview video blog, I chose to interview Professor Carlson, a professor of Adult Education ESL at Houston Community College. Prof. Carlson has been teaching ESL for over ten years and enjoys what he does. I started the interview by asking Prof. Carlson what type of ESL students he has in the classroom. He stated that many of his students are at the beginning or intermediate stage of English proficiency. With Mr. Carlson also being an ELL himself, he states that he can relate to the challenges that many of his own ELL students face while trying to acquire the English Language. In order for him to reach his students effectively, Carlson believes that pairing ELL students who are at various levels such as students at higher proficiency level and lower proficiency level allow for students to relate to their peers and how they learn. As I continue my interview, Prof. Carlson says that as an educator teaching ELL, the hardest part is communication. He says that many of his exper...
For this entry, I had the pleasure of interviewing a good friend of mines named Eren Hernandez. As I conducted my interview with Eren, she told me that she was born and raised in the United States. She also stated that her parents were originally from Mexico. Her mom was from San Luis Potoris and her dad was from Mexico City. They moved to the United States years later. Eren remebers learning the English language around the age of 7 or 8. During her early years of education, she recalls being placed in general education classrooms with both English and non-English speaking peers. According to Wright, “students learn to read and write in both languages, either simultaneously or first in one language and later on the other”(2015, pg. 100). As we continued the interview, Eren explained that she only was exposed to Spanish at home. Her mom and dad only spoke Spanish, although her dad occasionally used English for his work. This made it very difficult for her ...