As you saw in my video, I grew up in a monolingual household in
Texas. Although my father speaks Hindi, my brother and I do not. I actually
don’t remember ever hearing my father speak Hindi until I was in my teens. Most
of my friends as a child and teen spoke English but I didn’t have very many
non-English speaking friends until college. I have met and made friends with
many people who are bilingual—English being their second language. One of my
peers throughout the time that I have been in the Education Program at the
University of Houston is Ana. I interviewed Ana last semester and she told me
about her experience learning English. Ana, who was born outside of the United
States, would be considered a “Foreign-Born ELL” (Wright, 2015). Part of SLA
that I find interesting and am excited to learn more about are the different
sociocultural factors that come into consideration when instructing students.
According to Wright (2015), teachers should be familiar with things such as
students’ home languages and prior schooling. Ana’s heritage language is
Spanish, meaning that is the language that is spoken at her home by her family.
I agree with Wright when he says that it is important to understand these
different sociocultural factors so that teachers are, “…able to provide
effective instruction” (Wright, 2015).
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research,
Theory, Policy, and Practice.
Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
