Jamierin Walters

TnL 333
Interview write up

The person that I interviewed is Mercedes Enciso, she is currently from Quincy,

Washington, her first language is Spanish. She is currently a 5th year at Washington State

University studying elementary education with an endorsement in English Language Learners

(ELL). I actually knew her before I interviewed her because she is currently in my sisterhood and

she is my prophyte.

At around age five, Mercedes started learning English in Fresno, California. Learning

English was difficult for her because her parents had little to no English speaking ability but to

be more specific, her father speaks a heavily accented English. Although she had the support

from her elementary school friends who were fluent in English to help her with translating things

she couldn’t say or understand. However, over time she believes that she is becoming even more

fluent in English than in Spanish and is always learning new vocabulary words that she didn’t

know before because learning a new language never ends, you keep learning more and more

things surrounding the language. By the time she reached the second grade, she believes that she

was fluent in English because of the continual help and support from her elementary school

friends. Learning English was difficult for Mercedes because she is the oldest child in her family

so she didn’t receive that much assistance than her younger siblings. She believes that she also

sees the downside to speaking English with her youngest brother because of the constant

communication in English, he was not able to pick up Spanish at the same rate his older siblings

were able to.

By learning a second language, Mercedes believes that it has changed her for the better

because it does make her more qualified for the field she wants to go into. However, the
downside of this is that she is starting to sometimes forget certain words in Spanish and that her

accent is becoming even more heavier whenever she speaks Spanish with her family. She

believes that she has gained benefits from learning English because she is able to communicate

with more people who speak English and many places hire people who are bilingual since it is

truly a favorable aspect someone could have. Even though she is not completely fluent in

English, she would still like to learn a third language because it makes her even more

marketable. The summer of 2014, she started to learn Portuguese but she only picked up a few

words and she cannot pronounce the words properly. Although, she does hope to be fluent in

Portuguese one day.

Mercedes believes that a language is something that is just not verbal communication but

also the cultures, history, traditions, and religion that surrounds language and where it originates

from. She believes that a language is made up of verbs, adjectives, nouns, pronouns, and their

own way of arranging them. In order to be able to know a language is to be fluent in the

language or to be able to communicate in a different way like writing it down somewhere. To be

able to speak a language is through any form of communication regarding the language. Since

Mercedes is also an elementary education major, she believes that teaching a second language, or

a language in general, means to be able to help ELL students understand not only words in

different languages bet also the cultures and traditions behind it. She would teach a language by

not only the language itself but also immersing the students in the different traditions and

histories of the countries that the languages come from.

My beliefs on teaching a language is consistent with Mercedes’ beliefs because it isn’t

solely based on just the language but whatever else that surrounds it. There is always more to a

language than its conjugations, verbs, syntax, and vocabulary. Teaching a second language and
learning a second language is beneficial because so many new opportunities become available to

someone who is bilingual. Whether it be being able to communicate with peers and family

members or being even more qualified for the job someone is applying for. Being able to teach a

language is more difficult because there are a number of components that make up a language

and different ways to teach it. However if I were to teach a language, I would base the lessons on

how the students learn and how fast they learn. Students learn in different ways like what is

mentioned in the Multiple Intelligences section because there are eight specific ways children are

able to learn (Wright, 2015). The multiple intelligences consist of linguistic, logical, spatial,

musical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic (Wright, 2015). By being able

to adapt each lesson to how students learn, they will be able to learn more efficiently and be able

to understand it more.
 References

Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory,
Policy, and Practice (Second). Philadelphia, PA: Calson, Inc.
Interview Questions:

Question 1: What is a language in your opinion?

Question 2: What makes up a language?

Question 3: What does it mean to be able to know and speak a language?

Question 4: What was your experience with the transition between learning English and coming
from Hispanic background?

Question 5: Has learning a second language changed you in a way?

Question 6: what are some benefits you gained from learning a second language?

Question 7: What age did you start to learn English?

Question 8: Compared to when you started to learn English to now, has it gotten easier with
speaking English?

Question 9: Since you are also an education major, in your opinion what is teaching a language
and how would you teach your students?

Question 10: Do you want to learn a third language? If so which language and why?

Question 11: When you were younger, were you able to get help from your parents with
speaking English or did you have to rely on other people to gain the experience speaking
English?