LJ IDOL - WEEK 6 - Not My First Rodeo
Nov. 16th, 2018 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
onecheapdate
LJ IDOL - Week 6
Prompt: Not My First Rodeo
Zach was one of four brothers, all boasting names starting with ‘Z’, to enter our school during the third marking period. He and his siblings had been unexpectedly upended from their home across the ocean and relocated to our small, humble town on the east coast of the United States. As if joining a class more than halfway through the year and adjusting to a new living situation weren’t enough for an eleven year old to handle, his English proficiency was limited. He could speak and understand many basic phrases, but all of the advanced nuance of the language was lost on him. This meant that it was extremely easy for an otherwise intelligent and creative boy to fall behind in his studies. It wasn’t that he lacked the ability to do the tasks or grasp the concepts or follow the formulas, but rather that he struggled to understand what was being asked of him or how it was being explained. Tests were extremely difficult because he spent so much of the allotted time trying to decipher the questions, that he was left with very little time to adequately provide an answer. It was setting him up for failure despite his massive amount of potential. And that was where I stepped in.
When Zach and I first started working together, one-on-one, he was quiet and unsure. He spent a lot of time looking down at the table with his long, dark hair shielding his face. Of course, I expected as much considering the overwhelming amount of changes he was experiencing. Not only was his environment completely new, but he was surrounded by people who were speaking a language he could only comprehend at a base level. Still, despite his obvious apprehension and subdued nature, I could tell early on that he was curious and had a natural knack for learning.
Now, the English language is very complicated. It creates a lot of rules, but then seems to take pleasure in creating words and phrases and spellings that subvert these rules. It is filled with concepts that are difficult for anyone to understand, but they are especially challenging for people learning English as a second language.
Zach had trouble with all the concepts that I usually find ESL students struggling with. Prepositions, for example, are always a challenge.
in the window
on the window
through the window
Prepositions usually have no direct translation and there is no strict standard on how to use them correctly. Native English speakers know that something happens on Monday, but in July because that particular rule set has been memorized. They know that something happens at night, but in the evening. They know that you can work for, at or in a school and that all of those phrases can have different implications. Most prepositions are assigned in a way that is random and situational which means that the best way to learn them is just by experiencing the English language and committing them to memory over time. Then, once you’ve got a handle on simple prepositions, there is the added complication of where to put the entire prepositional phrase in relation to the rest of the sentence. Groucho Marx once said, “one morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know.” It’s complex. It’s confusing. It’s easy to get it wrong, and that’s when you’ve been an English speaker since birth.
Similarly and equally confusing for ESL students are phrasal verbs. Native English speakers know that you take off your shoes, but don’t take on your shoes. They also know that a plane can take off, an idea can take off and someone can take off from work. There are no rules or parameters or guidelines that can specifically be taught to make learning phrasal verbs easier. One must simply read and converse and ask and then hopefully commit each individual, situational use to memory.
The English language is full of various inconsistencies and things that, honestly, just make no sense. Over the years, I’ve seen many students’ specific struggles overlap. A lot of the same concepts illicit the same understandably blank stares. Zach, however, latched on to something unexpected. Something that had not ever gripped any of his peers with the same level of fascination. Idioms.
Zach and I had spent the remainder of his fifth grade year working together four times a week and his progress had been extremely rewarding for both of us. His English proficiency was improving with every passing class and with it came an increase in confidence. The shy, timid boy who had entered my room hiding behind his hair, fidgeting with the edge of his folder and staring at the floor, was coming out of his shell. He was making friends. He was testing better.
Zach thoroughly enjoyed our classes together, where I would mix lessons and worksheets with casual conversation. On some days we would work in his spelling book and on others I would let him talk about sports and the cartoons he’d watched. I would let him go on about things he enjoyed and loved and when necessary, gently correct his English or suggest words when he couldn’t find them on his own. I would praise him when he effortlessly used an advanced grammar technique on the fly. I’d also let him teach me words and phrases in his native language. I don’t think he ever realized that these were all supplemental exercises and that while performing well on assignments and tests was important, basic communication and the ability to openly express himself was even more critical if he wanted to succeed.
It was decided that we would continue our one-on-one sessions, on a slightly less frequent basis, when he returned for his sixth grade year. I remember our first class together after the summer vacation. He ran up to me and hugged me tightly around the waist, all the while speaking at a mile a minute about how he’d spent his break and how he’d even started teaching his mother some of our English lessons. He was animated and excited and vibrant. And he was as eager and observant as ever. Which is why a few weeks later, he showed up to my room looking quite troubled.
That morning, their class, a rambunctious and easily distracted group, was being scolded by their homeroom teacher. Exasperated by their inability to get their work done, she said, “at the end of the day, it’s your grades that will be affected.” Zach, who diligently caught the phrase, was extremely anxious, awaiting the end of the school day when he expected the teacher to tell them they were failing, or worse, alert their parents.
His relief was palpable as I explained that the teacher wasn’t speaking literally and that he still had plenty of time to improve his grades if he needed. I told him how the phrase was an example of a figure of speech called an idiom. He instantly perked up, no longer filled with impending doom. Instead, he was filled with curiosity. He wanted to know more about idioms.
Over the course of the year, idioms became a huge part of our student/teacher relationship. I would reward him for doing well on a test or acing a lesson by sharing and explaining the strangest idioms I could think of. He would run to my room during lunch or before school to ask me what a certain idiom he had heard meant or where it had been derived from.
Rule of thumb.
Not my first rodeo.
Raining cats and dogs.
Kick the bucket.
And Zach’s personal favorite:
Like a bull in a china shop.
Once he’d gained awareness, he was surprised at how often he came across idioms - during class, in a book, in his cartoons, overheard in conversations - and I was surprised by how many idioms I recognized, but didn’t actually understand. I knew the context, I knew how and when to use them, but I had no idea why we’d ‘cut to the chase’ or why we dressed ‘to the nines.’ Many of the idioms that Zach presented me with required some research on my part and I found myself really enjoying the effort.
Even after Zach stopped needing supplemental English classes in seventh grade, he would still pop into my room every now and then to share the newest weird idiom he’d heard or to stump me on meanings of one’s he’d learned for himself. Eventually, though, he graduated and was off to high school, though he had inspired me to introduce idioms to all my future ESL students. And although none of them ever quite grasped on to the concept the way Zach had, it was always a favorite lesson among the students, filled with lots of questions and lots of laughs.
Four years later, a very tall boy with a buzzcut entered my office during my after school hours. He had to stoop down to hug me and small arms that had once wrapped around my waist now wrapped strongly around my shoulders. I might not have recognized him, had it not been for the bright, effervescent smile and the way he immediately launched into conversation, talking excitedly at a mile a minute.
Before heading off to a college across the country, Zach had come back to visit.
He thanked me for our time together and for making his transition into an English speaking school so much easier. He thanked me for taking the time outside of our class periods to indulge him whenever he had a question or a thought he wanted to share. He thanked me for making him feel at ease and less alone in a place that was scary and overwhelming. He thanked me for helping him navigate the confusing and complicated English language. He’d not only gained proficiency to rival any native speaker, but he’d also gained a love of words - the weirder, non-rule conforming the better. Of course, hearing these things as a teacher is the most wonderful, reaffirming gift, but, for me, hearing him deliver his gratitude in such an eloquent way was the most rewarding of all. I know that I teared up and he laughed and then apologized for being so sappy. He told me he couldn’t stay long. He was headed to a testing center to take his college’s placement exams. Zach was one of my greatest achievements, though it’s unfair to really take any of the credit. He worked hard to succeed and succeed he had. He thanked me once more and I wished him good luck with the tests. As he backed out the room, he flashed me a thumbs up.
“Don’t worry,” he said, beaming. “It will be a piece of cake.”
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Date: 2018-11-18 11:21 am (UTC)I taught ESL in my 20s! I loved when you said, It creates a lot of rules, but then seems to take pleasure in creating words and phrases and spellings that subvert these rules. It made me LOL, because YES!!!, it does JUST that!
I really loved... well, all of this! I loved that you supplied the reality of what it is to really be someone learning a second language. It always ticks me off when people are derogatory of students speaking a second language! I mean, firstly, they can barely conjugate, themselves, but SECONDLY, these people are speaking an extremely hard language that they have only the fundamental and rudimentary understanding of! Get real, man! Just because you can ask for the bathroom in Spanish, doesn't make you fluent! =P UGH.
Anyway, I also love how you describe building your student's confidence. It's not just a boost for the student, but also the teacher! ;D And that confidence spirals! You know what to do in the future, even if every person learns differently.
Kudos to you for doing something so wonderful in this world! Kudos for being the kind of person this world needs more and more and more of! <3
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Date: 2018-11-19 08:08 pm (UTC)But, yes! You get it! Proper English is extremely challenging on it's own, but fluent speakers don't even realize how often they use slang or shortened phrases or metaphors or idioms or pop culture references or 'meme speak' or etc etc etc... which makes mastering the language SO much harder. Lots of English speakers use words and phrases that, when confronted, even THEY don't know what it means. They just know when and how to use it. That's HARD TO LEARN!
But, I'm glad you enjoyed the piece and that you could totally relate to the struggle. Thank you for your comment!
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Date: 2018-11-18 02:23 pm (UTC)Zach was one of four brothers, all boasting names starting with ‘Z’ I really love names that start with less common letters so right away I was like "OOOH".
I want to read more about these characters - I felt their voices so vividly and loved reading about them. Beautiful piece!
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Date: 2018-11-19 08:14 pm (UTC)I'm glad that you enjoyed it! Thank you for commenting!
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Date: 2018-11-20 05:32 am (UTC)Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
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