Swapping Cultural Packages Back and Forth: Stories of Two Latino English Language Learners

My recent service learning project has provided me a lens through which I have examined many things about Latino English Language learners (ELLs) that I did not know before. My mission began with an email to the local community English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, Ms. Kim Cook, inquiring if any of her students would like tutoring before class. Ms. Cook invited me to her evening beginning-level class with 14 students, mostly Latino immigrants. Once there, I was first introduced to Maria, a middle-aged woman who smiled and waved. Then Ms. Cook called another student. The second woman trudged hesitantly. "This is Graciela," said Ms. Cook. We decided that I would tutor the two an hour before their actual class. For the first meeting, only Maria came, cradling two dictionaries. She said that she wanted to practice speaking. When she talked she often could not find right phrases. I began to ask her about her background and motivation for studying English. She answered most questions readily, but her limited vocabulary meant our communication remained at a simple, factual level. When she wanted to express her emotions but found no words, she gestured. At times, with a helpless grimace, she flipped madly through her dictionaries. This made the story that she revealed more poignant. Maria came to the USA in 2001 from Columbia after a divorce, hoping to start anew. She first tried to find work in NYC but, lacking English, remained unemployed. Culture shock and the language barrier made her desperate. Then she learned of Miami, where she would be able to survive with only Spanish. She went there, and became a babysitter. That year, Maria desperately missed her 6-year-old son, who was still in Columbia. In the daytime, she was taking care of others' children, but at night she was dreaming of her own son. Maria later married a post office worker named Joel. Because Joel is a Latino American fluent in both English and Spanish, Maria began to learn some English at home. Then, Maria was reunited with her son. In 2007, the family moved to Gainesville. Now, Maria learns English seriously in hopes of becoming a United States citizen. For the second meeting, Graciela trailed behind Maria. Curiosity flickered in Graciela's eyes, but she remained reserved, seemingly reluctant to approach others who weren't Latino. She carried copious class notes, filled margin to margin with a careful script, so I asked her to write a composition about herself. She wrote: My name is Graciela. I, am, from: Mexico. I'm married. My husband's name is Lino. I have four children, I have two boys and two girls. I came to the USA in the year 2000, I worked for five years in a factories four years after I don't work, but I, am very busy in my house I, homemaker and prepare food for my family. I helped her identify and correct her composition's few errors. It is obvious that Graciela had a basic grasp of English syntax and a certain amount of vocabulary. However, she had more difficulty in conveying her ideas through oral English than Maria. Later, I asked Ms. Cook whether she could explain Graciela's motivation to learn English. "Graciela has met racism in her daughter's kindergarten," Ms. Cook said. "The teacher was Puerto Rican and spoke Spanish. Now there were other children who also didn't speak English, but their parents were UF [University of Florid] students or post-doc researchers. The teacher would speak in Spanish to them, but not to Graciela, since Graciela isn't from an educated background." She continued, "Her daughter's teacher probably assumed that Graciela was an illegal resident and wasn't helping her child learn English. If that teacher got to know the family personally, she'd understand that Graciela isn't shunning English, she's trying her best." From Maria and Graciela's stories, I understood that while Maria's motivation to learn English was to integrate into society, Graciela's was to avoid social problems. …