Gale_CP#1

Gale Workman

CP#1

Aug. 29, 2014/2-3 p.m.

Vocational school

I talked with Paola Diaz, a student from Puerto Rico. She attends school Thursday through Saturday at the Aveda Institute in Tallahassee. She will graduate in November and return full-time to Lynn Haven, Florida, where she lives with her parents.

Only Spanish is spoken at Paola’s home. Her mother speaks only Spanish, and her father speaks Spanish and English. He learned English as an adult after the family moved to Florida to live near other family members.

Paola said her mother can speak a bit of English, but her mom lacks confidence in her skills and is reluctant to speak English. Mom’s affective filter is strong. When mom and Paola go out together, Mom relies on Paola to translate.

Paola grew up in Puerto Rico. She and her family spoke only Spanish at home, and Paola spoke Spanish at school. She said her school taught English beginning in the fourth grade, so she was exposed to English grammar, reading and speaking – a lot of recitation and repetition.

She said she taught herself a lot of English by watching to Disney movies. Paola’s family moved to Lynn Haven when she was about 13 years old. She said the school administered ESOL tests. She learned to speak English to survive high school.

She said, however, that she still struggles with writing. Spelling and grammar are challenging. During our conversation, she made a few “beautiful mistakes” with verb tenses. She said she struggles with vocabulary, but I noticed only one time during our conversation that she had word confusion.

Paola seeks to improve her English because she would like to write a novel. She said she loves to read novels – particularly young adult literature (I told her what the genre is called). We talked a lot about books and movies -- conversation was lively.

I learned from my conversation with Paola that English Language Learning is a life-long process. I was surprised to learn that although Paola sounds like she’s been speaking English for more than five years, she is still intrinsically motivated to improve her English-language skills.