I can relate to my ELL students

I don’t travel often.  When I do travel, I generally do not go very far from home.  Although, I’m amazed to say I’ve actually been all the way to Florida a time or two!  I have never been to another country, never had to deal with a primary language other than English.  At the same time, I’m not oblivious to the difficulties.  I have tried to learn Spanish on a number of occasions.  I took Spanish in high school, college, through a school district after college, and through the recreation center.  I’ve learned bits and pieces of the language.  I can ask for a hamburger and a beer.  I can ask for the location of the bathroom or library.  I know just enough to get me into a conversation, but not enough to continue it.  If Spanish is spoken to me, I can understand bits and pieces, but may not be able to respond correctly.  It’s really frustrating.  In that way, I can relate to my ELL students. 

To deepen my understanding, I selected a text in a foreign language that reflected my approximate reading level.  The text was chosen from Readinga-z.com and was a level Z book.  I chose to print this book in French.  I thought this would be fairly simple because parts of English are Latin-based, as are Spanish and French.  Going into the exercise, I was fairly sure I would be able to decode the book relatively easily.  I was sorely mistaken.  I found it extremely difficult to decode the book.  I looked for familiar words or chunks that might give me a clue to the meaning of the text.  The book contained pictures, so I was able to look at the pictures for clues as well, but to be honest they were not much help.  It was clear, very quickly, that I was not going to be able to decode this level Z  book.  Perhaps if the book were a little easier, I reasoned, I might be more successful.  I dropped the level to R.  The title was different, but the level was easier and the book was still in French.  This time I found little words I could recognize and chunks of words I could decode.  I was still not able to read the book entirely, but I was able to read bits and pieces. 

Next, I dropped the reading level to N.  There were more small words and chunks I recognized and could determine the meaning of, but there were still plenty of words I was unable to decode.  As a result, I was not able to read the text with any level of comprehension.  As a matter of fact, there were several words that I tried to read, but am not sure I was even pronouncing them correctly!  So frustrating!  Level H, and even D, was not much better.  I found myself struggling with the same issues regardless of the level.  Finally I dropped to level A.  I did not understand the words any better, but I was able to find a pattern in the words.  Based on the word pattern and the pictures, I was finally able to decode and comprehend the book. 

What an interesting exercise!  In order to understand a book in a foreign language, I had to drop my reading level all the way back to a kindergarten level.  I wonder how this experience would have changed if I had an instructor to guide me as I tried to read these books.  With some support, would I have been able to read a more difficult level with someone helping me decode words?  I also chose fiction stories.  Would I have been more successful with the use of non-fiction text?  Was part of the problem a lack of prior knowledge to fall back on?  I wondered, as well, how being presented with a book designed for 5 year olds would make an older student feel on a strictly personal level.  This was not as easy as I thought it would be.  I was surprised and have been enlightened as to what my ELL students experience in my classroom.