Case Study #4
Podcast Link: Interview Summary:
Jose is originally from Puerto Rico and has been in the United States for 6 years. He has four siblings which are all sisters and has one uncle that lives in the United States. He has received a formal education from Kindergarten to 12th grade. Jose began learning English in Puerto Rico. He does not like speaking in English and prefers to speak Spanish. Jose feels comfortable speaking English at work only. He watches TV in English and listens to music in English. However, it does not help his understand or speak English. Formal schooling is the best way to learn a language according to Jose. He thinks that reading books in English and watch TV would be a great to learn English, in addition with formal English classes. The English that is spoken in Puerto Rico was different that the United States. Jose said, “because here, talk fast” He gets confused while he speaks English.
Reading Sample:
"Chinese food includes crunchy, stir-fried vegetables, tender noodles, fried rice, seafood and flavourful meats. Many foods are flavoured with soya sauce, which tastes salty. Several dishes may be served at once, and the food is usually eaten with chopsticks and ceramic spoons. Canadians like to order Chinese food for takeout or delivery to their homes, as well as enjoying it in restaurants."
provided by : http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/f02/Level3/page2.htm
Reading Sample Analysis:
Chinese food includes crunchy, stir-fried vegetables, tender noodles, fried rice, seafood and flavourful meats. Many foods are flavoured with soya sauce, which tastes salty. Several dishes may be served at once, and the food is usually eaten with chopsticks and ceramic spoons. Canadians like to order Chinese food for takeout or delivery to their homes, as well as enjoying it in restaurants.
First of all, Jose has a heavy Spanish accent and it was extremely hard to understand him at first. He read the sample quietly to himself before he asked what he was supposed to do. His pronunciation was choppy. I believe this occurred because he did not know what he was reading and was not comfortable with the material. If we had Jose read something he has already read, then Jose pronunciation would have been more fluent. For example, he pronounced vegetables “veg-he-bles”. He has most likely seen the word vegetable before but not in the same context. It seems that he combined some consonants. Jose forms a small stutter when he is reading a word he is not for sure about. He stuttered on the word fried and Canadians. Jose said, “fri-fried” “can na, can na-ian”. In addition, Jose’s heavy accent makes it extremely hard to understand him. While Jose was reading, he was skipping parts of sentences. The last sentence in the reading sample for example, Jose skipped what is highlighted in red. “Canadians like to order Chinese food for takeout or delivery to their homes, as well as enjoying it in restaurants.” Since Jose skipped reading those words, the sentence did not flow and he sounded very choppy.
Writing Sample:
Transcribed:
1. My family is Rosanne and husband.
2.Today my family eat food together.
3. Sheila and Jose is family the Rosanne and husband
4. the food today is good.
5. thanks my family. today.
Brandi Roweles Editing
1. My family is (includes) Rosanne and (her) husband.
2. Today my family (will) eat food together.
3. Sheila and Jose is (are) family the (to) Rosanne and (her) husband
4. (T)the food today is (will be) good.
5. (I will)thanks (no ‘s’) my family. (no period) today.
Writing Analysis
Jose’s writing sample was very simple and did not go too much into detail. Good writers create mental images for their readers, and while he might not have thought to form an image with his writing, at some level, it does show us the writing ability. Some, but very few errors occurred within his writing sample. He did not seem to misspell anything, but he did leave out a lot of words either because he was thinking faster than he was writing or because he is limited to speaking English. Jose’s fluency with writing lacks very much due to the amount of writing he provided for us. I would place him in the intermediate level of writing due to the fact that he was able to write multiple sentences but had to list them instead of keeping it in a paragraph form. With the numbering list he created an outline style of organization which was somewhat sequenced helping us to still agree on the level of writing. I think the one place where Jose can use more help with is in his sentence variety. As we chose his level to be at the intermediate level, his sentence variety is below level. If Jose could practice strategies to help him generate a good variety of sentence patterns, his writing may drastically transform.
Problem: It appears that Jose is not comfortable speaking in English. Although he has been in the United States for 6 years, he language is very limited in speaking, writing, and reading. He lacks the self -confidence to speak it probably due to lack of practice. He did state that he learned English while living in Puerto Rico throughout his 12 years of schooling. However, his language ability appears to be of an individual who has had little exposure to English.
Solution: Although Jose has shared that he knows English and has a history of learning English as a student in Puerto Rico, he could benefit from taking English classes through the Adult Education Program. He may also want to practice English in casual settings with friends and family. He stated that he watches television in English, however it is probably not enough to help him comprehend what is going on. He should continue watching TV and listening to the radio in English and possibly pick up reading to enhance his comprehension in English. In addition, we believe that if Jose uses his work experience to help him with his writing challenges he may see many positive changes. We thought of some ideas that he could do instead of ‘just taking writing classes at school’.
a. Jose mentions that it is easier to speak English with his peers we think that if he could get a group together that could meet once or twice a week to get together and learn new strategies for learning, speaking, and writing English he may possibly learn a lot of different ideas and perspectives on new things.
b. Jose brings up the helpfulness of watching TV in English and how it helped him. We reflect that if he continues to watch that it will help with his fluency but will alter his grammar or pronunciation due to the TV shows fast speaking, slurs, and slang.
c. Jose also points out the effectiveness of reading books in English. We believe that the more English text Jose reads will help with his vocabulary and possibly comprehension skills. We also think that by seeing the correct form of grammar will help him produce better grammar in reading and writing.
Pictures considered to be American Culture:
Jose’s Thoughts:
The three pictures he picked were the American Flag, Bald Eagle, and Antique Car. The American Flag represents the country as a whole. The Bald Eagle reminds him of America since he sees many pictures of it during school. We feel that it brings him comfort seeing the Bald Eagle. The antique car “old cars” is American because it reminds him of “Chrysler-Ford”. Ford Cars is an American brand.
SOLOM Anyalsis:
According to the SOLOM Matrix, Jose’s total score is 12. Jose’s comprehension is average. He seemed to comprehend everything that Roxanne was saying but at a slower rate than average during the interview. A couple of times, he had Roxanne repeat the question. Jose’s fluency was if he was at the speech emergent stage. He was saying very few words and when he did, they were short words or even utterances. Jose had simple vocabulary that a middle school student would say. Jose pronunciation while he spoke and read was very choppy. His grammar while he spoke was not fluent also. Overall, while Jose spoke or read, it was choppy and hard to understand him.
| Student’s Name: Jose | |||||
| Language Rated: | Grade: n/a | Date(s): Spring 2011 | |||
| School: n/a | Teacher: n/a | Total Score(s): 12 | |||
| | A. Comprehension | B. Fluency | C. Vocabulary | D. Pronunciation | E. Grammar |
| 1 | Cannot be said to understand even simple conversation. | Speech is so halting and fragmentary as to make conversation virtually impossible. | Vocabulary limitations so extreme as to make conversation virtually impossible. | Pronunciation problems so severe as to make speech virtually impossible. | Errors in grammar and word order so severe as to make speech virtually unintelligible. |
| 2 | Has great difficulty following what is said. Can comprehend only “social conversation” spoken slowly and with frequent repetitions. | Usually hesitant; often forced into silence by language limitations. | Misuse of words and very limited vocabulary make comprehension quite difficult. | Very hard to understand because of pronunciation problems. Must frequently repeat in order to make himself/herself understood. | Grammar and word order errors make comprehending difficult. Must often rephrase and/or restrict himself/herself to basic patterns. |
| 3 | Understands most of what is said at slower-than normal speed with repetitions. | Speech in everyday conversation and classroom discussion is frequently disrupted by the student’s search for the correct manner of expression. | Frequently uses the wrong words; conversation somewhat limited because of inadequate vocabulary. | Pronunciation problems necessitate concentration on the part of the listener and occasionally lead to misunderstanding. | Makes frequent errors of grammar and word order, which occasionally obscure meaning. |
| 4 | Understands nearly everything at normal speech, although occasional repetition may be necessary. | Speech in conversation and classroom discussions is generally fluent, with occasional lapses while the student searches for the correct manner of expression. | Occasionally uses inappropriate terms and/or must rephrase ideas because of lexical inadequacies. | Always intelligible, though one is conscious of a definite accent and occasional inappropriate patterns. | Occasionally makes grammatical and/or word-order errors which do not obscure meaning. |
| 5 | Understands everyday conversation and normal classroom discussions without difficulty. | Speech in everyday conversation and classroom discussions is approximating that of a native speaker. | Use of vocabulary and idioms approximates that of a native speaker. | Pronunciation and intonation approximates that of a native speaker. | Grammatical usage and word order approximates that of a native speaker. |
| Score | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
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