Originally my main goal of this assignment was to find how people from foreign countries learned to read in write in their native language and then English. I was interested to see who taught them how to read and write and if they could recall any stories about their elementary experience. However, my interviewees found it difficult to recall their elementary school days and I was therefore forced to move on to other experiences that they may have had using English. I found it difficult (in some of my interviews) to follow along with what a person was getting at when answering my questions. I am not sure if all of my interviewees exactly knew what I was asking, despite whether I explained the question more in depth or not. In addition, on the nice side of it all, I did find some insightful and interesting information about the teaching and beliefs of other countries in comparison to America that I would like to further look into.
For this Oral History assignment I have chosen to interview people who were originally born in countries outside of the United States and who were brought up speaking another language other than English. The purpose of this assignment is to find common similarities that natives of other countries have experienced while reading, writing, and communicating in the English language and to the American society. In addition, this assignment will observe differences of culture, principals, language, and education between the United States and other countries. So far, I have interviewed one person who was from the Philippians, one person from Lebanon, and one person from Kosovo. My aspiration for this project is to interview a couple more people from other countries.
Originally my main goal of this assignment was to find how people from foreign countries learned to read in write in their native language and then English. I was interested to see who taught them how to read and write and if they could recall any stories about their elementary experience. However, my interviewees found it difficult to recall their elementary school days and I was therefore forced to move on to other experiences that they may have had using English. I found it difficult (in some of my interviews) to follow along with what a person was getting at when answering my questions. I am not sure if all of my interviewees exactly knew what I was asking, despite whether I explained the question more in depth or not. In addition, on the nice side of it all, I did find some insightful and interesting information about the teaching and beliefs of other countries in comparison to America that I would like to further look into.
2 Comments
Sabatino
10/25/2010 11:08:10 am
This sounds like an interesting project that will be revealing for you, your participants, and your audience. I like your questions -- especially the one about thinking in English (I've often wondered aobout that myself). Will this be a literary non-fiction piece? If you interview multiple people how do you plan to weave their stories together? Any themes emerging from your data?
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AuthorElementary Education and Writing Arts Student Archives
December 2010
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