Introduction

Nekeisha Rivera is an eight year old second grader from Boston, Massachusetts. Both her mother and father are from Puerto Rico. Nekeisha moved to Florida when she was four years old. Her first language is Spanish. Her mother speaks moderately fluent English, while her father speaks very little. At home they only speak Spanish. Spanish is the only language Nekeisha was exposed to until she reached kindergarten. Here she began to learn English. She says she began to feel comfortable with using Spanish by the first grade. Nekeisha has not been taught any other languages up to this point. Even though she is developing her English fluency at school, she does not receive any help with learning English at home unless it pertains to her homework. In those cases her mother assists her as best as she can. In class, Nekeisha's teacher allows her to sit next to another ESOL student. This allows them to help each other with any difficulties they face learning English. She is social student, therefore she benefits from having a peer to work alongside. Also, her teacher works with her in small groups so that she may receive more individual attention and assessment.

Nekeisha writes phonetically, or as she hears them. It is noticeable that she is influenced by the slang of her peers. She used terms such as "brotha" instead of "brother". Based on this I would infer that her social interactions make up the majority of her oral language development. Through her interview she acknowledges her social interactions as asisting her English development. Nekeisha is also having difficulties with spelling. Certain words are spelled as she would pronounce them, with an accent. She is surrounded by Spanish language and dialect which may be making it difficult for her to differentiate while learning English. Nekeisha speaks fluent Spanish, however, she cannot read Spanish. Her first exposure to reading was in English in kindergarten at the age of five. She has a higher level of reading in English than writing. Evidence of this is apparent through the following writing and reading samples, and further analysis.

Nekeisha's reading fluency is at a moderate-high level, based on her reading sample and miscue analysis. She made few hesitations and added two contractions to the ends of words. She did not stutter or switch word order. During her interview she was able to comprehend virtually all of my questions. Also, Nekeisha easily opened up and gave descriptive feedback to open-ended questions.

Discussion Questions

Nekeisha is a struggling student. Her spelling is way below level and as such many of her other subject areas are suffering. Her writing and reading are not up to level as to her speech. She has a grasp on the main idea of English but she is yet to develop and though patters. She is yet to develop her thoughts in to a comprehensible manner.
1.In which developmental stage of English acquisition is Nekeisha?
2.Has Nekeisha shown any progress related to her CALP as opposed to her BICS? If so, how?
3.Would Nekeisha’s situation benefit from increased parental and/or faculty involvement and encouragement?
4.What approach to English reading instruction would be most beneficial to Nekeisha?
5.If Nekeisha were to become close friends with a classmate, would her situation improve?
6.How does Nekeisha’s academic performance compare to that of other ESOL students at her level of English acquisition?

Solutions:
>Recommend to parents and student to label things around the house. This will help connect word sound to objects as well as develop vocabulary. Words should be written in Spanish and English. This would also help increase the father's language acquisition as well as benefit the relationship between father and child as they both learn a new language.

>In order to increase parent involvement, the teacher can send home newsletters, individual letters, and announcements in Spanish. This would provide parents with the opportunity to feel involved in Nekeisha's school life as well as open the doors for communication with the teacher.

>Literacy Task: Since Nekeisha struggles with spelling I would like to design a lesson which will focus on word families. A great way to approach this is through the onset and rhyme Easter egg lesson. This is where one half of the egg is labeled with the onset (for example: T, S, P, and C). The other half of the egg is labeled with the rhyme (following along with the previous example: "at"). Then the students can make them on their own with eggs and markers. These eggs become a manipulative tool that can be twisted around to form various words from the same word family. As the student develops an increased fluency we can change the rhyme to a more difficult level such as "each"..."Teach", "Reach", or "Beach" or "ight"..."Tight", "Right", or "Light".

Audio Samples

Nekeisha talked about where her family is from, when she moved to Florida, the language she uses at home and how much English is used. She talked about the obstacles she overcame when learning English. In this interview she also talked about whenever she works in small groups she is able to develop her BICS much more. One thing I found interesting is that she is not able to read in Spanish. She only learning reading once she became a student in Florida.

Interview with Nekeisha Rivera

T: teacher, Brittany Saylor

S: student, Nekeisha Rivera

T: Okay, go ahead and tell me your name.

S: Nekeisha

T: Nekeisha, Nekeshia how do you spell your name?

S: N-E-K-E-I-S-H-A

T: A, and what’s your last name?

S: Rivera, R-I-V-E-R-A

T: Awesome, and what grade are you in?

S: First…no, I’m in second.

T: You’re in second grade now. And were you born in Florida?

S: No

T: No, Where were you born at?

S: Boston.

T: In Boston. And what language did you learn first?

S: Spanish.

T: Spanish, Who taught you Spanish?

S: My mom and dad.

T: Your mom and dad. When did you start learning English?

S: When I moved, when I moved to Florida.

T: And how old were you when you moved to Florida?

S: About four years old.

T: You were about four. Um, and where are your mom and dad from?

S: Puerto Rico.

T: They’re both from Puerto Rico?

S: Yeah

T: Ok, um, Do your parents still speak Spanish at home?

S: Yes.

T: They still speak Spanish at home.

S: a lot.

T: A lot? Do they ever speak English with you?

S: yea, pretty much when I do my homework.

T: Just when you’re doing your homework. Do your parents know English pretty well?

S: My mom but not my dad.

T: Ok...alright, can you read well in Spanish?

S: No

T: No, you can’t read so well in Spanish?

S: No, I only know how to talk in Spanish, not read or write.

T: Can you read fairly well in English

S: Yes.

T: Alright, whenever you learn English is it ever hard for you? Like, what is it like for you to learn English?

S: Hard.

T: It’s hard?

S: Yes.

T: Why is it hard?

S: Because I usually speak a lot of Spanish at home. And I really speak Spanish with my mom and dad a lot.

T: And what about the rest of your family and friends. Do you speak a lot of Spanish with them too?

S: Well sometimes when my family speak English or Spanish if they like normally don’t speak Spanish. But with my friends English.

T: Your friends are English?

S: Yea.

T: What’s the hardest part about learning Spanish? You said it was because you always are speaking Spanish?

S: Yea, pretty much because I learned it when I was about two.

T: So when you were little. What about when you learn English at school? Are there any parts that make it hard?

S: Well when I first started school, actually I didn’t know that much English. I just tried my best.

T: Yea. And what about now? If you are learning English in class, you’re learning about things like nouns and verbs, are any of those kinds of things hard? Or do they just kind of come from learning English?

S: Um..come with.

T: Just come with learning English?

S: Yea.

T: What is fun about learning English?

S: Well, I get to speak a different language.

T: That’s pretty cool. Cause you’re, how old are you?

S: eight.

T: Eight. And you already know two languages! Do you know any other languages?

S: No.

T: Two is pretty cool, I can’t even speak two languages real well so that’s so cool. And how long have you been learning English?

S: About…three years.

T: Three years…so whenever you started kindergarten?

S: Yea.

T: Ok, How did you learn how to read in English?

S: Pretty much when I started school, um, I had to do reading stuff. I started learning to read in English. When the teacher started teaching me about like how to read, that’s when I started to read.

T: Got ya, What did you find easy about learning how to read in English?

S: Um…When…

T: Or maybe about learning how to speak English? Just English in general, was there anything that was pretty easy about it?

S: Like the easy words I know how to spell, those are the easy words. Like at, is…in.

T: What do you find hard? What did really hard?

S: The words that are really long and confusing.

T: Do you ever have words that they look one way but they sound like another? Like “th” with “the”.

S: Yea!

T: Yea, that’s kind of weird. What do your teachers do that help you learn how to read?

S: Um…we have garden reading. We go to the back table and our teacher she gives us books to read. And we read to her. And she tells us what the word is, and to sound it out, and all that stuf.

T: Ok, Do you feel like you are getting better at learning it?

S: Yea.

T: Yea. When did you start to feel like you were getting real comfortable with English?

S: first grade

T: first grade. Do your teachers do anything special for you since you didn’t start out speaking English?

S: I have a friend that speaks Spanish with me. And then she would tell what I was saying. ‘Cause she speaks Spanish and English.

T: And do you help her, or she helps you, or do you help each other?

S: We help each other.

T: You help each other learn English?

S: Yea.

T: Do you sit next to each other in class?

S: Yea.

T: Yea, are your desks squished together like a group? Or are they further apart?

S: Like a group.

T: Like a group, that’s really cool. What kind of books do you like to read? Or they don’t even have to be books; they could be stories or poems? What kind of things do you like to read?

S: Stories

T: About what?

S: About animals

T: What’s your favorite animal?

S: Cheetah.

T: ooo…al the spots!

S: and about birds…

T: and birds

S: and insects and um…dancing.

T: Ooo! You like to dance?! I love to dance. Do you know any Spanish dances? Any salsa or…

S: salsa, and (Cannot spell the name of the dance)

T: what is that?

S: It’s like break dancing

T: Oh I saw that on your video! Is there anything you’d do differently about learning English? About how learn, is there anything that would make easier for you?

S: Pretty much, no…

T: Your teachers do a pretty good job?

S: Yea.

T: Good. (Then we went into the reading…)

Miscue Analysis

SOLOM

Nekeisha is basically a 4 -
Under Comprehension she understand nearly everything at normal speech, although occasional repetition may be necessary.
For Fluency her speech in everyday conversations and classroom discussions is general fluent, with occasional lapses while the student searches for the correct manner of expression.
Under Vocabulary Nekeisha occasionally uses inappropriate terms and must rephrase ideas because of lexical inadequacies.
For her Pronunciation is always intelligible though one is conscious of a definite accent and occasional inappropriate patterns.
Nekeisha's Grammar has occasionally making grammatical and or word order errors which do not obscure meaning.

Writing Samples

Nekeisha Rivera was asked to write freely about friends, family or school. She choose to write about her family, for example where they are from and languages they use. I'm sure this was influenced by the fact we had just finished our interview and went over the questions and answers. I'm glad she felt comfortable to express to me her background and family life. Nekeisha's writing is very easy comprehensible though her spelling is off and puncuation is off as well you can still understand the main idea of her writing. she does use slang as in brotha for brother. several words were mispelled including dise for does, boston as bostin. She didn't know how to spell Puerto Rico so she wrote PR. It was intresting that she used whens for ones. She definately uses the phonetic spelling of the words. She hears what she wants to say in her head and it comes out exactly like that in her writing.