Blog #5 - Post-Service Reflection

           My time volunteering for World Relief has ended, and I am grateful to have met the fun and hardworking refugee family assigned to my partner and me. At the beginning, it was difficult because I felt awkward being in a new environment (their home), but I realized it was probably even more difficult for them because they were also in a whole new environment (the U.S., which must be much more overwhelming for them than their home is for me) since they were refugees. My realization kept me thinking positively and patiently.  It definitely helped though that the family always created a welcoming and friendly atmosphere with their equally welcoming and patient demeanors. Although I could tell they were also frustrated at times, especially the mother when she could not differentiate between similar sounding words or when her children were playing around instead of paying attention, they kept trying anyway and laughed away their stress.  Over time, we all became comfortable with each other, and the teaching/learning became more fun.

My partner and I focused intently on teaching the family the phonological and semantic rules of language over the other two (pragmatics and syntactic rules). Phonological rules deal with the sounds of language, so in our case, the sounding out and pronunciation of the words. Semantic rules deal with the meaning, which is the vocabulary portion where we attempt to help the family recognize the meanings (represented in words) of the pictures on the flashcards. Syntactic rules deal mainly with grammar, and since we did not want to overwhelm the family with difficult English rules of sentence structures, we ignored this aspect of language. Pragmatic rules were also irrelevant for us to teach because they deal with social context and appropriate of words, which goes beyond syntactic rules and simple vocabulary. We limited our English tutoring to vocabulary since we had a limited time period of service, in addition, we would only be able to start teaching pragmatics and syntactic would if the refugees were more fluent in English or had already amassed a good amount of English vocabulary. 

Other concepts discussed in class that appeared during my time with the family were nonverbal and verbal communication, collectivism and cultural competence. All of these I had already discussed in my previous posts, but I wanted to expand more on collectivism. I saw this theme when the mother and the son helped each other because they were learning as a family, but I also saw this theme played out randomly during our visits when the family had guests over. One time, we were in the middle of teaching when other people arrived. We assumed they were family because they all spoke to each other in their native tongue, and it reminded me of when Kelly told us about refugees moving to certain locations because some of their family had already relocated to those locations. Besides being present, the other members also seemed interested in our tutoring. Some of them said flashcards aloud, and even though it was more distracting to the mother and the son than helpful, their intentions seemed to be to help the mother and son out.

This positive experience definitely made me feel happy about my aspiration to become an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Even though we only covered vocabulary, I had a lot of fun teaching through the application of games and 2-D items of the words. When I reflected on my strategies, I could see myself using them for my ELL students when I become a teacher. This experience has helped me to learn to be patient with beginner English learners, to use fun ways of learning (such as games or involvement of as many of the five common senses as possible) instead of just drill and practice of flashcards, and to relax when I am meeting new people.

            I learned that being relaxed is important because I had worried too much when I was first meeting the family, and then again when I met them without Kelly, and in the end, I realized I did not need to worry at all. I was anxious, but the family members were also as anxious. I learned that it takes time to get to know people, and everyone is nervous to some degree at first, so I should just enjoy the initial meeting and then the time afterwards where I get to know them better and become comfortable with them. If I had remained uneasy, then my nonverbal communication would have been negatively affected, and, in turn, would have probably sent off negative signals to the family and made them feel uncomfortable, which, in turn, would then make me feel even more uncomfortable. It would have been a vicious cycle. I am glad it did not turn out that way, and I am glad that it turned out the way it did. I wonder how fluent their English will become, and I wish them the best.