Memo 5: Taking Stock and Making Sense!

With just a week left, I am nearing the end of my research. I’d have to say that this journey was a lot more intimidating from the start as opposed to the finish. At first,  I threw this assignment into the “stress and no gain” pile of schoolwork. Simply, it’s the pile that I would complete just to hand it in on time and get the grade… (too honest?) However, I prejudged too easily. During this journey, I was fearful of being able to get in contact with any primary sources but with the help of Professor Collins and willing participants at CCRI, be it professors or students, I really think I have more than enough to “sum up” my own insight of my research. Not only did I learn a lot about ELL’s- I also learned about ESL students. I haven’t just learned about ELL students as a whole, but I feel the need to mention that this journey shattered own biases because I’ve learned that each culture and native language comes with it its own unique difficulties and challenges when it comes to writing in English. Before this research, I never realized that I assumed that one ELL’s struggle is identical to the next ELL student. Each language outside of English has its own rules. To name a few, there are a variety of difficulties in which  Chinese speaking, Spanish speaking, and Portuguese speaking approach the English language and each language offers different challenges. I learned that English Language Learners of the Asian culture have trouble with articles because it doesn’t exist in their own language where as Spanish-speaking students are inclined to have trouble with prepositions,  yet this is only the surface of what I have discovered. I’m not so much frustrated as I am curious and passionate to learn more about ELL students.  Although my secondary sources touch on the cognitive processes of the ELL when faced with an English writing prompt, it is through my primary sources that I actually have had the chance to gain an insight on understanding the student. Primary research is more personal and it is what has driven my curiosity to understand the English Language Learner as opposed to solely researching and learning through academic journals. Yes, secondary sources provide a great foundation but the part of the project that I felt most nervous about ended up becoming the most enjoyable and fulfilling. Although this is just the memo of making sense of my research, I can see that I am able to just naturally express all that I’ve learned without having to flip through notes or strain to remember certain information. I am confident about all that I’ve learned but I don’t necessarily think I have a specific “answer” to my journey, there really isn’t a “the end”. Maybe I’ll discover that when I’m intertwining my secondary and primary sources, but instead of a single “strategy” in guiding the English Language Learner, my main focus was to learn about them and hope to understand them. I still believe that I have much more to learn as a future teacher but the insight I’ve gained only makes me more excited to teach my future ELL students.