Our native speakers are English language learners too

I have a new student this semester who recently moved here from Mexico. Both her spoken and written English are rather exceptional and she is an incredibly hard worker. Sometimes I forget that English is her second language when I read her writing. While reading her reflective letter for her Unfamiliar Genre Project, a transition at the beginning of one of her sentences immediately reminded me that English isn't her first language. The word was "firstable." I share this not to make fun, but to commend her for attempting to use a transition in the first place (something many students still struggle with). My guess is that she hears native speakers say "first of all" in rapid fire and therefore the words aren't enunciated when she hears them and so she interprets it as one word, "firstable."

It's easy for us to forgive this error because English is not her native language, but upon further reflection, why aren't we more forgiving with our native speaking students? English might be their first language, but they are still learning too -- and a difficult language at that -- one with more exceptions than rules. We have to remember that students aren't born with a rule book imprinted in their brains. They learn by making errors. We need to curb our frustrations when we come across them because if they're not making errors then they may as well not be learning.

When my husband and I lived in Germany, I was deathly afraid to make a mistake when I was learning the language because I didn't want people to laugh at me. So I understand how fragile minds can be when we project frustration and mockery on our students. And you know what that fear got me? An inability to become fluent in German. My husband was fearless and became fluent in 6 months.

So I want to ask you this question: Is our view of how pure and rule-abiding language should be preventing our students from even becoming fluent in their own native languages?  Do students see language as only an endless set of rules, and not as a means of communication, expression, maybe even innovation? Are we creating a classroom of fearful or fearless students?  

Existentialism on a Weeknight

A few nights ago my husband read me the original German version of Monsters Aren't Real (i.e., Monster Gibt es Nicht) by Kerstin Schoene. As we laughed together like we haven't laughed in a long time, we also had quite a deep discussion about the monster in this book who is having an existential crisis. Don't tell me picture books can't produce prolific, literary discussions. Here we were on a Thursday evening talking about existentialism in a children's book. :)

We also compared the English and German versions of these two books and noted that there are many places that did not directly translate. When I first read the English version, I thought the ending fizzled. The original German ending, however, was more substantial, which makes me wonder how many other translated books we've all read and disliked because things get lost in translation.

I clearly need to get back in the classroom if I'm having literary and linguistic discussions with my husband about children's books and existential monsters.

Speaking of getting back in the classroom, a few weekends ago I took the high school English test for Michigan Teacher Certification and I passed! So I'm hoping to get back into the classroom by September. We shall see what new adventures are in store for me in the fall. My classroom library is tired of being chained up in the basement. It has asked to see the light of day and start making its way into kids' hands again.