In order to better
understand some of the difficulties faced by my ELL students I tried to read an
article written in an Italian online magazine.
I felt like an article written about entertainment would be an easier
read versus a scholarly article. Based
off of the title, and the picture, I know the article is about actor Paul
Walker. With my intermediate level understanding
of the Spanish language, I was able to make out a few basic words; first, one,
for, etc. Before reading this article I
already knew he died in a car crash and that background knowledge helped
tremendously. With the information I was
able to piece together from “reading” the entire article I also believe he was
in Los Angeles and the car was a Porsche.
Next I
tried to focus on just the beginning paragraph of the article. I figured with the basic information that I
already knew maybe I could fill in some blanks.
I combed through the first paragraph identifying words that looked
similar to Spanish or English words. The
only additional word I could pick out was “legal”. I focused next on just the first sentence,
“La vedova del conducente dell’auto nella quale e morto l’anno scorso l’attore
Americano Paul Walker (noto per I film di <<Fast and Furious>>) ha
fatto causa alla Porsche.” To me this
sentence says something about a deadly car accident with American Paul Walker
from Fast and Furious in a Porsche. My
translation is very poor and I could not decode any additional words so I used
a translator and came up with this; “The widow of the driver of the car in
which he died last year and the American actor Paul Walker (known for films The
Fast and the Furious << >>) filed a lawsuit against Porsche.” WOW! Was
I off or what!? I had a very basic
understanding compared to what the article was truly about.
This
exercise has really aided me with my putting my self in my ELL students’
shoes. As a teacher it is imperative
that I utilize as many sheltering strategies as possible when teaching academic
content to my students. It is also
important for me to check for understanding throughout the activity/lesson and
provide additional support in the students native language whenever
possible. This was a good learning
experience for me.
Paul Walker, la vedova dell’amico: “Faccio causa alla Porsche”
I also had a similar experience trying to read an article on CNN.com in Spanish. My roommates in college all spoke Spanish (and would make me practice answering them in Spanish) and I've worked with a lot of Spanish speaking families in the past, so I figured I could make something out. In all honesty, I thought maybe I was cheating a little bit because the assignment said to pick a language you had no familiarity with. What I discovered was this: it made no difference what my past experiences with the Spanish language was. I know almost nothing about it. The only thing I could confidently gather from the article was that it was about two kids from New York and something had happened to them. I kind of just figured it was a dog bite or something like that. The funny thing is this: later that night I was reading the news (in English this time) and stumbled upon the same article! The article was about how two kids in New York were planning in the front lawn in a bouncing castle and the wind was so strong that it ripped the metal anchors out of the ground and sent the bouncing castle shooting into the air with the kids still inside of it! One kid hit a car on the way down and another landed in the middle of the street. What?? I read the article several times because could you image that happening! When I "read" it in Spanish I obviously missed a lot! It was a practical eye opener as to what types of things ELL students face when they walk into a class taught only in English.
ReplyDeleteThat was smart of you to translate the article to see how close you were on your own translation. Good point to check for understanding throughout the lesson to make sure they are on track with what you are teaching, and not going in a different direction because they haven't understood a part of the lesson.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your post, I noticed that you had a more unique take on your language experience. I enjoyed reading how you picked apart the whole article, only to find that your translation did not add up to what you were expecting. This assignment really does open your eyes to the world. I personally was amazed at how the experience of trying to read a book in a different language tricks you. I thought it was very intelligent of you to translate the article on your own and even through a translator the article is not like a native translator. The thing is that you can comprehend bits and pieces, but usually not the article as a whole, I know that I often miss out on many of the little details when I attempted this assignment.
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