Incidents When I Have Experienced Language Barrier Essay

Introduction

One of the incidents that I have experienced language barrier or communication breakdown in my life is when I tried interacting with Non-English speaking parents of my ELL students. Last year I had a schoolgirl from Suriname, and neither the schoolgirl nor her mother could speak fluent English. Therefore, to understand each other, I communicated with her parent by introducing another student-who could express herself in English smoothly- to listen to the Surinamese parent and translate for me in English. Regrettably, my translator understood Dutch but could not speak it fluently, so he could not respond adequately to the Surinamese parent in Dutch. At the same time the student would demonstrate using her body language or gestures to ensure that they are in tandem with Mrs. Priya. However, still having one-way communication helped reduced some of the frustration I experienced due to language breakdown between me and Mrs. Priya.

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Dialogue between Me, Translator and Parent

Mrs.Priya (Parent): Hoe gaat het met je

Me: Tell her I do not understand what she is saying.

Translator (Student): Vertel haar dat ik niet begrijp wat ze zegt.

Mrs. Priya: het spijt me, Hoe presteert Shivani mijn dochter op academisch niveau?

Translator: She is asking how is Shivani her daughter performing in Class?

Me: She is doing well, and I am really proud of her

Translator: Het gaat goed met haar, en ik ben echt trots op haar

Mrs. Priya: Dat is heel goed, ik wil dat ze het goed doet in haar klassenwerk en altijd een goede student blijft. Ik ben trots op wat je aan het doen bent, mevrouw.

Translator: That is very good; I want her to do well in her classwork and always to remain a good student. I am proud of what you are doing Madam.

Me: Thank you, Mrs.Priya and once again feel welcome in our school anytime. We need parents like you who commit to monitor how their sons and daughters perform in school

Translator: Bedankt, mevrouw Priya en nogmaals welkom op onze school. We hebben ouders zoals u nodig die zich ertoe verbinden om te controleren hoe hun zonen en dochters op school presteren

Mrs. Priya: Ik ben ook trots op je, mevrouw, en ga verder met je goede werk. Bedankt en een gezegende middag.

Translator: I am proud of you too, Madam and continue with your excellent work. Thank you and have a blessed afternoon.

(We shake hands as I bid her farewell!)

The Spanish 10th-grade class is an essential program for students; as teachers, we want to assist these students with their transitions. It is because of this reason that our particular situation at New Explorers High School, a school in the inner city of NYC (Bronx) perhaps is unique, but the challenge of coaching non-native English speakers is one experience that most tutors can relate to every day. On the other hand, the non-English talking parents of our learners have the same wants as the intrinsic English speakers to discern how exactly their children are progressing intellectually, socially and emotionally. Remarkably, I have experienced how direct translation between languages can reduce communication breakdown with the parent of my Surinamese student. The parent was worried that her daughter would have difficulties adjusting to the school environment and programs, but I helped put Mrs. Priya mind at ease when we could exchange pleasantries courtesy of one of my student who assisted in translation from Dutch to English. Loved this incident! It was an excellent opportunity for allowing me to provoke a new way of thinking towards this subject and also to provide real-world issues and solutions surrounding it.

The school that I am observing is New Explorers High School, a school in the inner city of NYC (Bronx), Low Socioeconomic status neighborhood. I am observing a Spanish 10th-grade class with 32 students, mostly black and Latino young men. The students are long-term ELLs. They are students whose first language is not English and who are in the course of learning English. Furthermore, one of the observation is with ELLs is that they are often quiet during classroom discussions, despite their desire to learn and improve their English language proficiency. The students are Latino Americans and of Spanish origin. Catalan, Basque and Galician is notably some of the ethnic and language backgrounds of the Spaniards. However, the Spanish language is one of the primary official languages spoken in Spain. Further, most of the people living in Spain are ethically Spanish, but that ethnicity is preferably a combination of various ethnic groups. The French, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons are related to the existing Spanish ethnicity. Although the Latin language is closely related to Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian, it is mostly derived from Romans.

Parents and students often benefit more when teachers continuously engage both the students and parents. It is for this reason that teachers need to adjust their communication approach and styles when they are both involved with the students and parents to remain relevant to the modern student and their parents. On the other hand, there are several reasons why Ells often find it difficult to respond appropriately to teachers' questions and prompts. It is because ELL's students openly do not understand all teachers' questions. Therefore, to enable students to understand questions posed to them, teachers should ensure that they clarify or rephrase questions to facilitate ELL's student comprehension.

The primary difference between the two experiences is that while second-language learning often needs more external influence, the first-language learning is primarily driven by a youngster's inherent need to hang out. Further, unlike the first language, a model of ELL identifies three motivational gears that add to student development which include an environment that supports relationships between proficient speakers and learners, interest from the beginners and skillful speakers who interact and encourage beginners. However, a similarity between the two experiences is that either students or people, who are shy and unenthusiastic for any specific reason, always do not take part readily in day-to-day communication or class discussions and thus often take up a more inactive role in both the classroom and daily life communications. Furthermore, from both the experiences it is evident that language learners often face an initial noiseless period when trying to internalize or receive the language as an idea before increasing linguistic-production abilities. One of the lessons learned is that working with ELLs Spanish 10th students, most of these models do not work as learners are at the initial stages of learning and embracing a foreign language in immediate surroundings where very little or no English is spoken or learned.