Language Analysis Project

Language Analysis Project

I work at Hamlet Elementary in the 21st Century After School Program and I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my students. Her name is Sandy, she is a 9 year old Congolese from Congo, Africa. Sandy and her family lived in Africa until she was 6 years old and due to certain events of the Second Congo War, she and her family relocated to Maine in the United States through a refugee program. Interviewing Sandy allowed me to assess how well she listens, speaks, and writes as a Second Language Learner.

As I was interviewing Sandy, I noticed several clues that helped me determine her listening level as a Second Language Learner. When I asked Sandy why the refugee program decided to send them Maine, she told me the refugee program required them to move to the nearest living relative in the United States; “My Uncle lived in Main, so that is where they sent us.” Upon arrival, Sandy’s uncle was not found, so Sandy and her family lived in Maine until her father found a job in Amarillo, Texas. Sandy has been learning English for 3 years, so I asked Sandy how many languages she speaks. She replied, “I can speak three different languages; English, Swahili, and Kinyarwanda.” I then asked Sandy, which of the three languages do you use the most? Sandy replied, “I use English the most; I speak English to both of my parents, my mom understands English but cannot speak it, dad understands and speaks a little of it; my parents speak 20 different languages.” I feel that Sandy is at the median level between the end of advanced and the beginning of advanced high level of listening, because she is able to comprehend our targeted conversation and requires little time to develop a well thought out response. During our conversation, I rarely had to repeat myself or use hand gestures to communicate the message. The reason she is between advance and advanced high is because, on several occasions I had to clarify and alter certain questions during the interview, for example; when I asked her what her least favorite subject at school was, she replied; “I don’t hate them.” So I asked her to elaborate and she responded, “Math is easy, reading is easy and writing is easy for me, because the teacher can help me spell words.”

While I was interviewing Sandy, I noticed her remarkable ability to speak in English using appropriate vocabulary with limited second language acquisition support in a social setting. I didn’t have to help Sandy clarify meaning in our conversation and she correctly used present and past tenses. For example, Sandy told me two things about herself; “When I was in Maine; I was in dancing club. I used to go to the boys and girls club and we use to play games.” With her response, she appropriately used the word “use and when” in the past tense. Sandy made some minor mistakes with plural and singular verbs and had some mistakes conjugating verbs such as “dancing.” I feel that Sandy is at the advanced level of speaking because she could follow our conversation with little support and she had a grasp of basic grammar features through her use of past and present tenses, but made mistakes with conjugating some verbs. As far as her ability to use long sentences and complex grammar features depended upon whether my questions where open ended or closed ended. If I used closed ended questions, Sandy would respond with short simple answers such as, “I use English the most” and if I asked Sandy open ended questions, I would get longer more complex sentences with minor mistakes in grammar.

At the conclusion of my interview, I asked Sandy to write me one paragraph telling me about her favorite birthday to which she replied; “I have never had a birthday.” Even after I rephrased my question to make sure she understood what I was asking she was adamant that she has never had a birthday celebration. This was heart breaking and I truly felt sorry for Sandy, every child should have at least one good memory of their favorite birthday. I had to modify the question to something I knew she enjoyed so I asked her to write a paragraph telling me about her life in Maine. Based on her paragraph, I would say that she is at a low intermediate level of writing because she constantly repeats descriptive verbs such as, “I was.” Sandy also uses very short high memory phrases and lack of fluency, for example; “pelpe were mene to me so I was mene to I was so mene that I got in the offes if, pepol be mene to me Ill be back.” Her sentences also did not have consistent syntax and lacked structure, for example; “I was not happy becaue in maine I had fun in was my frist time to go to school pelpe were mene to me so I was mene to.” This really surprised me, because when I was interviewing Sandy I was impressed with her level of comprehension and the quality of responses she was giving me in her listening and speaking abilities.

In conclusion, I have determined that Sandy is at a high level of advanced to low level of advanced high in listening because she can comprehend our conversation, requires little time to develop a well thought out response, and rarely needed the questions repeated or rephrased. Sandy is at a low advanced level of speaking because of her ability to follow our conversation with little support, her understanding of basic past and present tenses, and her occasional mistakes with conjugating verbs. I feel that she is at a low intermediate level of writing through her use of very short high memory phrases, lack of fluency, inconsistent use of syntax and sentence structure. I enjoyed interviewing sandy, it is something that I will not forget and the first chance I get I will surprise her with a birthday party.