It was when we started introducing
ourselves that I realized that the members present barely speak English. They
were able to say “Hi” and “Thank you,” but other than that, they spoke to us
and each other in their native language (which I did not know what it was; Kelly
seemed to also not know what their ethnicity was). After learning each other's
names, we started using the materials Kelly brought. We began with a children’s
alphabet book full of pictures of real objects and large-font words.
I pointed to individual pictures
in the book, first pausing and asking if they knew what the words were, and then
saying the words clearly so they could repeat after me. The mother and the son
were able to say the individual alphabet letters, which is a great skill to
have already developed because it is usually the first steps young native
English learners take in order to learn to spell and read/recognize words. Although
sometimes they would confuse b and d and u and v and other similar
letters, it was still pretty cool to see that they have knowledge of them. Kelly
even said that she has never seen any refugee family done that before – to spell
individual letters of a word even though they cannot say the word as a whole
without help.
After the alphabet book,
we moved onto flashcards that the family has. There were many words that I felt
were not as important as others, such as the words whale and shark, so I
ignored those and focused on helping the family learn the more common and
useful words, such as oven and door. I followed the same method I used
with the alphabet book where I point to the picture instead of the word because
I felt it would be easier for them to remember the words when they can
associate visual images with them. It was very intriguing when we came to a
flashcard that had a spider on it, and I pointed to it, thinking that they
would not know it, but they did! Together, the mother and son both loudly said “Spider!”,
surprising Kelly, my partner, and me. We went over the same many words again
and again to help strengthen their memories and reinforce their learning. I
also had them write down the words because it is more effective in helping them
recognize the words when they appear again.
The first day went by
slowly, but it was fun. I felt like we got off of a really good start, both relationship-
and learning-wise. Intercommunication was already difficult since we were not able
to communicate in English, so intercultural communication was also definitely lacking.
But we were still able to interact through nonverbal communication, which is a concept
that had shown up on the first day, and will continue to appear throughout my
time with them. Since nonverbal was so important, I made sure to watch my tone,
body language, and eye contact. Pointing was the easiest way to convey that I wanted
their attention on a specific word, but I also asked them “What is this word?”
or “Do you know what this is?” so they can get used to hearing it and associate
it with the meaning that I am asking them what the word is. Instead of
immediately saying what the words are, I try to give them hints by sounding the
first letters out or the phonemes and then blending them together (this is
where the concept of phonetics we have covered in class also appears). The second
method of sounding out the phonemes did not work out so well because the family
mistook a word’s combination of individual phonemes as its actual sound.
English is a difficult
language to learn, but the mother and son were very patient. When they made
mistakes, they laughed it off instead of getting frustrated. I really
appreciated their positive behaviors because they made me feel more positive
and at ease when communication struggles arose. Along with nonverbal
communication, I also made sure to keep my voice patient and calm, and I always
encouraged and cheered for them whenever they did well or remembered a word. I thought
most of the strategies we used on the first day were effective and useful, such
as utilizing flashcards with no abstract concepts, so I planned on using them
for the next visits.
