Learning English

Liang enrolled in her first English class in January 2002, fifteen years after her arrival in the US. She was 65 years old and had not been in a classroom since her early teens.

While outside of the classroom, Liang felt inhibited and self-conscious about using English with the family, inside the classroom, she offered help to others and was seen as a helper.

Progress

At time of entry, Liang's listening and speaking proficiencies were very low as her CASAS score from that time shows. Proficiency in writing was assessed by asking students to write about a picture. For students with low proficiency in English and English literacy specifically, writing without any written support (key vocabulary items given) is a very challenging task. A first assessment of Liang's writing was collected on the day Liang enrolled in her class at PCC (early January 14, 2002). The sample shows her lack of proficiency in writing as it was blank except for her name and address which she copied from the enrollment form. That sample is not shown because of confidentiality issues. Writing sample B comes from eleven months (November, 2002) and although it illustrates Liang's low proficiency in writing, progress can be seen in her attempts to write without support.

It is interesting to see how the task for the writing assessment affected Liang's performance. On the same day that the assessment shown in sample B was given, in class, students completed another writing exercise that included much more language support (sample C). Comparing sample B with sample C shows how Liang explored and expanded her writing abilities with the use of speaking and listening - supports which she couldn't use for the writing done for sample B.

Learning strategies

While Liang's proficiencies in different skills in English were quite low, she talked about a strategy she had for using Chinese literacy to help her with English literacy. The following excerpt from an interview in early 2006 shows her discussing that strategy.

Liang:	Because, I asked him what "because" is. He said: "because" (in Chinese), "because I want to do this, do that". He often says "because" "because", now you say I know, I told you I would forget and don't know what it is. I also write the Chinese definition and its sounds in Chinese in my book. Then I know the word. I use Chinese words to represent the sound.
I:	So you use Chinese characters to symbolize the pronunciation?
Liang:	Yes.
I:	It's faster.
Liang:	Yes, faster.
I:	Like in "because", the ‘be' sound uses Chinese character /Bi/ (points) to represent the sound.
Liang:	Yes ‘be' ‘cau' ‘s' is ‘because'. This way I can remember better this is "because" right away. If I don't use it this way, it is hard to understand. The two brothers, when they come home, one in 3rd grade one in 4th grade they speak English. They speak English I don't understand.

The use of Chinese literacy as a resource was also displayed in the classroom when, after exchanging information about one another (including names), Liang's classmate, Inez, asks Liang to write her (Inez's) name in Chinese characters (Click to View) (Requires Internet Explorer).