Conversations

I had a great time talking with your students last Tuesday. It was interesting to see the different levels of comprehension they had. The young Korean girl (Claire?) was very competent in speaking, even though she had been in San Diego for a shorter period of time. I think a lot of it has to do with the sociocultural and strategic competences we learned about in one of our other classes. Because she has traveled around, she had to learn to communicate quickly. Some of the other students who have not traveled or who are bit more reserved, are having a much harder time developing their oral skills, although their listening skills might be better.

Also it might depend on their living situations. If you are living with someone who speaks your native language, you are probably less likely to practice English in your home. And the one Korean man didn't seem to interact much with his host family at all, except for meals, whereas Claire did a lot with her host family.

It was also interesting to watch the students from our class interact with your ESL students. Some tried to keep the conversations light, others tried to focus on a more academic level, and others talked on political topics, which in my opinion, were a bit too personal for the students. I think that is where you have to be cognizant of the cultural boundaries of your fellow speaker.

All in all, I thought it was a valuable experience and I enjoyed getting to know some of your ESL students. I think it was probably good for them to practice their conversational skills and meet with some Americans in a different setting, where there was a lot less stress than trying to negotiate a sale or bus route.

I lived abroad for two years and when I got back to the US, people would ask me where I was from because I had changed my way of speaking English to reflect the patterns of the speakers where I was living. This was necessary to be understood. I wonder does that happen with teachers here, who are teaching ESL?