Letter to an Interviewee

My research project’s primary data consists of teacher and student interviews.  One  interview was with my former professor.  She taught TESL graduate courses on Linguistics and Language Learning and Acquisition.  She has 25 years of experience teaching ESL to adults and it was because of this expertise and experience that I asked to interview her.  There are many adult ESL teachers that do not specifically have a background in Education or pedagogy, so I felt that she would provide an informed perspective that was rare in the world of Adult Education. Wendy Luttrell in “Reflexive Writing Exercises” suggests writing a letter to an interviewee and summarizing what was learned from the interview.

 

My letter to this interviewee follows:

Dear B.

Thank you for your time last week as an interview subject for my research project on language learning plateaus.  They main ideas I heard you express were:

·         Language learning plateaus happen to all language learners.  It is normal phenomenon.

·         The quantitative evidence of a plateau is a stagnation in standardized test scores for over a year.

·         The qualitative evidence of a plateau is frustration and absenteeism on the part of the student.

·         Overcoming a plateau often hinges on the student having the motivation to meet their own instrumental goals despite the slowdown in learning progress. Keeping an adult student motivated is essential.

·         Explicit communication with the students about their learning plateaus, all their skill areas, and specifics about what they are learning each day is important.  Pointing out their progress will help.

·         The amount of language input outside the classroom can influence how quickly a student can get past a learning plateau.  Homework assignments can help provide those opportunities.

I noticed that you never looked at a language learning plateau from a deficit perspective.  You didn’t find the student, the testing, the school, the resources, or teaching styles as blameworthy or as unassailable obstacles, though they may not have been ideal.  There was always an approach that you, the teacher could take to make up for any shortcomings.  (Though I used the word shortcomings, you just see learning conditions as neutral.)

For example:

·         Classrooms might not encourage communicative pedagogy, if there are rows of tables or chairs.  But rows can be rearranged into more communicative groupings.

·         CASAS assessments may only measure reading ability, but teachers can conduct other formal and informal assessments to measure other skills and be explicit with students about conducting these assessments and sharing the progress they see.

·         Text books can be supplemented with a variety of resources and activities that provide language input.

·         Students might stop coming to class when they meet their specific instrumental goals.  Though teachers may want them to continue their language study, we can remind ourselves that the students have succeeded in meeting their short-term goals. And that itself is success.

·         Anxiety about things going on outside the classroom or in his/her personal life may distract a student and diminish his/her ability to concentrate but uncovering and acknowledging these issues can help students know their experiences are valid and make them see the classroom as a safe haven and supportive community.

I want to thank you for providing your perspectives on language learning plateaus for my current research project.  But mostly, I want to thank you for providing me with suggestions that I can use as a teacher to assist my student as well as suggestions about how to positively and effectively work with the various challenges that confront students and teachers within the world of Adult ESL Education.

Sincerely,

Deborah McCoy

Adult ESL Instructor

Dorcas International Institute of RI

Let the Interviews Begin!

My field notes will not be one of my data sources.  My days and my notes are too variable to pertain to my research question about language learning plateaus.  My data sources will be interviews with students, interviews with teachers, and classroom surveys.  My interview questions were revised last week after my research questions were revised.  I reached out this week to some teachers and scheduled one interview for Friday afternoon and two for Monday.  I have a couple of emails out awaiting responses and a couple of verbal agreements to be formalized. 

I set off to Genesis Center, an organization that offers adult ESL classes, with my interview questions and consent form.  The teacher I interviewed is a white male, 38 years old, with 17 years of experience teaching adult ESL including a couple of years in China.  His post graduate degrees are in English literature, not Education.  I was never quite sure what pedagogical lingo to use with him.  He has many years practical experience and has been a presenter at the RI Adult Education Conference.  He was familiar with the term “fossilization” but not “language learner plateau” which I defined in general terms.  In the literature I have been reading, these terms are sometimes interchangeable, but fossilization more often refers to specific long-lasting errors in grammar or pronunciation or syntax, while “plateau” is used to describe the overall learning process and the leveling off of progress.

I looked at my watch to gauge the time.  I explained that I would try to keep the interview down to 30 minutes.  He predicted that he would talk more than I would want.  We went on for 50 minutes.  He seemed happy to share his thoughts and experiences and he exhibited a healthy air of confidence.  In asking my questions, I realized there was overlap.  This was initially intentional to ensure that the questions would be addressed, but in execution, this seemed to be awkward.  I took notes in the form of phrases or key words and I audio-recorded the interview.  During the interview I heard mostly non-specific responses and I thought there may not be much applicable data to analyze here.  But I was comfortable with the process.  My subject seemed comfortable with the process.  He asked for a repeat of the question a couple of times when he thought he may have strayed away from the topic.  We had an easy rapport and he told several anecdotes about his students and some of his teaching activities.  It was my first interview. I had mixed reactions.  The process seemed workable and easy, but usable data seemed elusive. 

Then I listened to the audio-recording two days later.  It was all familiar, but I noticed different connections I hadn’t noticed when the conversation originally happened.  It is really hard to be a good listener.  In the moments when the interview was happening, I was concentrating on recognizing and pulling out what I expected to hear.  And when I didn’t hear what I expected, I thought that there was nothing there.  But when I listened later, I heard what I wasn’t listening for, what I wasn’t waiting for.  I heard more of what was actually there.  It is really hard to be a good listener.  It is hard to stop expecting what I expect and just be open to what is there.  I must practice this.  Tomorrow is another day, another two interviews.  I will try to listen.  I will also continue to record the interviews, so I can have as many chances to listen as it takes for me to really hear what is really out there.

Field Notes or Professional Journal?

What have I been writing these past three weeks? According to Falk and Blumenreich in The Power of Questions, field notes are detailed observations of what happens in the classroom. (p. 92) and a professional journal contains the thoughts, questions, and ideas of the writer that may include insight about what happens in and out of the classroom.  (p. 91) Our assignment is to write daily “field notes” and yes, I have been recording observations from my work as a teacher, but it seems to me I am also writing a professional journal.  My writings are a mix of both types of journaling:  observational detail and reflections, questions, and brainstorming.  It is difficult to stick strictly to the field notes format because I am not yet in a steady class of my own.  Adult ESL Education is a new career for me.  I started volunteering at Dorcas International Institute of RI, working with adult immigrants and refugees in ESL classes three and a half years ago.  Three years ago, I started the RIC Master of education program in Teaching English as a Second Language. Two and a half years ago I become a substitute teacher in addition to continuing to volunteer in classrooms and tutoring students.   So, I am a student part time, a teacher part time and a volunteer part time.  Every week is different for me and every day of the week I am in a different setting.  My field notes have turned out to be just as variable as my weeks are.  I decided to use different colored sticky notes to designate the different settings my notes are based on.  The categories are:

1.      Substitute teaching for Dorcas,

2.      Volunteering at Dorcas (includes volunteering as classroom assistant, conversation facilitating for class break-out group, and tutoring individual or small groups of students),

3.      Working in Adult Basic Education (ABE/GED) for the Department of Corrections (DOC) at the Adult Correctional Institute (ACI) (so far this includes two days as volunteer, one job interview, two half days as hired substitute teacher), and

4.      Working and reflecting on my coursework for FNED 547: Introduction to Classroom Research.

What I have learned from the process?  IT IS USEFUL.  I have always written extensive notes to the teachers for whom I substitute.  I give them great detail about what topics we covered and what activities we did and if any particular questions, confusions or issues came up and also specifics about students themselves if any events stood out.  But to now write extensive notes for myself helps me in many ways.  Writing in my field notes/journal allows me to remember more about what activities worked, what didn’t, and how I should adapt them in the future.  Writing allows me to brainstorm for future lessons and follow-up for individuals and classes I will work with again.  Writing causes me to reflect on and give expression to my personal philosophies, attitudes, and perspectives about teaching practices and strategies.  It allows me to be reflective and identify what I believe is good pedagogy.

What I have realized about my own pedagogy? I value getting to know my students, using authentic materials, translanguaging, using props, costumes, and realia for context, including writing exercises, and sticking with a grammatic theme or vocabulary theme for a long time while varying the activities (rather than jumping for one theme to another too quickly).  Methods I dislike include word searches, current adult ESL and ABE text books, handouts with one-word blanks, cloze sentences, and multiple choice, and using child-oriented videos and materials for adults.

How can I use the field note/journaling process more productively?  I need to REREAD my notes more regularly.  I think I need a way to mark or draw attention to my notes I have labeled “action” or perhaps have a separate “to do list” page where I also transcribe my “action” items, for quick reference. 

How will my field notes fit into my research project? I had thought that some of the students I tutor and write about in my field notes would be students I interview for my research project, but I realize it is past students who are more appropriate for my research questions.  The classes I have subbed for so far are beginning level ESL and therefore not directly connected to my research questions about intermediate level students stalled in their progress towards advanced level proficiency.  Some of my journaling does pertain to the course work I am doing including the research project in the planning and organizational aspects. Thus far it proves to not be a source of data for the project.  But the lessons about process make me think that I am learning skills of journaling that will help me in my future endeavors in classroom research.

Hall’s “Powerful Poetic Inquiry” and Falk’s “Data Collection Tools”

Allisa Hall’s “Powerful Poetic Inquiry” from Stephanie Jones’ Writing and Teaching to Change the World

O.K. I will confess right away that poetry has never been my thing.  I often don’t get it.  I have occasionally memorized a poem, been impressed by some poetic spoken word performances, and enjoyed the Pablo Neruda verses we wrote about in class.  I have also looked for poetry by multi-ethnic writers to share with students.  But writing poetry seems extremely daunting to me.  I came into this topic slightly skeptical about its relevance or usefulness to me.

My response to Hall’s two poems is barely measurable.  I found the preceding narrative versions sufficient.  However, I found a couple of lines of this essay to be poetic in their own way and thought provoking.  In quoting sociologist Laurel Richardson, who “described poetry writing as an experience that sharpened her critical eyes and ears, enabling her to become more attuned to the lived experiences of others” Hall writes that “the process affected [her] willingness to know [herself] and others in different ways.’” (Jones, p. 74) Hall also brings up Cahnmann (2003) who wrote that “while the demands of writing poetry are great, so is the potential ‘to make our thinking clearer, fresher, and more accessible and to render the richness and complexity of the observed world.’” (Cahnmann, p. 34 as quoted in Jones, p. 76)

-becoming more attuned to the lived experience of others

-being willing to know one’s self and others in different ways

-making our thinking clearer, fresher, and more accessible

-rendering the richness and complexity of the observed world

These are amazing payoffs!  Who wouldn’t want to experience this?  In the realm of pedagogy could these enhanced ways of tuning in, expressing, and experiencing make any impact on how we as teachers reach our disenfranchised students?  Could these enhancements help teachers assemble the conditions for a critical pedagogy identified by Jones in chapter one as (1) an openness to unpredictability, (2) a commitment to ethics, and (3) a commitment to the aesthetic?  Hall believes that yes, writing, and in particular “poetic inquiry enabled [her] to enact critical pedagogy.” (p. 80) 

What practical suggestions do I take away from this?  “Focus on the moment and the moment only.” (p. 78) “Write personally.” (p. 80) “Commit to returning” to my writing. (p. 81) I will try all these suggestions with writing group exercise #2 on page 82: “Find a poem in a memory.”  I will write about a memory with detail, let it sit, return to it, then pull out the powerful phrases and burning questions to arrange in poetic form.  Maybe it’s not too late to “get” poetry, personally.  And if that results in any of the bounty that Hall, Richardson, and Cahnmann have found, it will be worth the time and effort.

Falk & Blumenreich’s Chapter 6: “Data Collection Tools” from The Power of Questions

I plan to use interviews for my research question about what effective means are there to propel students past the language learning plateau that often confronts intermediate level language learners; that slowdown or stalling of progress in learning that previously moved ahead steadily.  I plan to interview both students and teachers.  This chapter had a lot of practical information about interviews. 

• “Interviews are best suited to finding out in-depth information from a small group of people.” (p.  98)
• Use open ended questions of various types (i.e. broad, specific, follow-up)
• Plan interview questions ahead that relate to the research questions, without using the research questions themselves
• Be flexible during the interview and follow where responses may lead        
• Take notes; notice other cues such as body language; consider recording       
• Transcribe only what is relevant to the research questions; transcribe very soon after the interviews

There were more guidelines in figure 6-3 on page 103 as well as in Exercise 3 on page 114.

Using these guidelines, I began to compile possible interview questions for my project. These questions are for teachers.  I will have other questions for the students.

1.      Can you share examples of students who had reached a language learning plateau, students who seemed stuck at a standstill in their language learning?

2.      What signs were there that the student was experiencing a plateau?

3.      How were the different modalities (reading, writing, listening, speaking) similar or different in the student’s progress?

4.      What strategies did you use in your teaching that may have promoted progress for those students experiencing a plateau?

5.      What were the results?

6.      What do you recommend teachers do to propel students forward who are experiencing language learning plateaus?

7.      What do you recommend students do to propel themselves forward when they are experiencing language learning plateaus?

I think I have a combination of broad, specific, and follow-up questions that are all open ended.  I want to include a question about stressing grammar, conversation, or vocabulary strategies without leading the interviewee, but I am drawing a blank. My question about strategies is broad and perhaps I should leave it that way and see what comes of it.  Perhaps if I specify grammar, conversation, or vocabulary I am tainting the question with my assumptions. I welcome any thoughts about that.