For this blog post, I interviewed Mrs. Carolina
Brown. She is a bilingual teacher who grew up in the town of Seguin, Texas.
Mrs. Brown learned to speak her second language of Spanish as a young child,
but always felt that she was more proficient in her first language of English
since it was the dominant language that was spoken at home. During our
interview, I asked questions in regard to the methods she would use to help her
students in the adaptation process, her views about bilingualism, and the
advantages she feels students with bilingual backgrounds could attain. In the
school district she used to work for, Mrs. Brown was fortunate enough to be
able to pull kids from non core classes like specials and P.E, this allowed her
to work with kids one on one to help them reach a high proficiently level in
the English language. Wright states that "linguistic environments,
particularly in naturalistic settings . . . but also in today's communicative
classrooms, comes to learners in the midst of oral interaction with one or more
interlocutors, rather than as exposure to monologic spoken or written discourse
(Wright, 2015). This explains that the most important influence in regards to
language learning will take place in the classroom and teachers like Mrs. Brown
will account for being the mediators that allow this kind of learning to take
place. Wright also states, “knowing the students’ home language or
languages allows the teacher to provide primary language support that can
accelerate the student’s acquisition of English and comprehension of academic
instruction” (Wright, p.17). This defends the point of students being able to
become fully proficient in a language when given the right resources, guidance,
and environment in which they are able to excel in. The following interview
will depict Mrs. Brown's experiences with bilingual teachings: >>CLICK HERE<<
