Isela Pena Estrella

Professor Vanessa Doutherd

English 5M
8 December 2017
Improving Literacy
I remember as a child my mom turning on the television and putting on our favorite
shows Teletubbies or Barney and Friends early in the morning. My twin sister and I loved these
shows and now I realize why my mother turned it on for us. As a mother who did not speak
nothing but Spanish, tried helping my sister and I to at least hear how the English language
sounded like. Many people argue that the best way to teach a child a language is to speak to
them; however, not knowing English made it impossible for both of my parents to teach it to us.
For this reason, my first language became Spanish and caused me to struggle when going into
school. Growing up as a multilingual student was challenging; however, with the help of my
family, friends, media and school I was able to shape my identity and current literacy.
Spanish was my first language that was taught by my parents and relatives. Most of my
relatives came to the United States at an older age where English became hard for them to adapt
to. For this reason, Spanish became my first language since no one around me knew or spoke the
English language. My family showed me how to speak and count in Spanish, but did not really
prepare me for school in the United States. Therefore, going into preschool for me was hard
since I did not know as much English. I remember crying every time my mom dropped me off
because I felt scared and lost for not knowing how to communicate with my teacher and peers;
however, the more I went to class the more I started learning and adapting the English language.
This experience of feeling scared and lost was initially what motivated me to learn and continue
learning English.
Preschool was the first place I had to adapt to the English language and learn things such
as the alphabet and counting. Before this, the only English I really heard was from watching tv
shows such as the teletubbies or Barney and Friends. In my preschool/kinder class I remember
having to do weekly homework packets that required me to trace the alphabets, numbers, and
colors. Using these packets and writing on paper with two parallel lines and a dashed line in
between was the first time I was introduced to this type of material. This was the beginning of
my transition from learning not only Spanish, but English as well.
Another thing that helped improve my literacy was story time. Sitting in the colorful
square carpet for story time was my favorite part of the day, especially when it came to The
Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle or The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. I remember these
being my favorite books and I loved reading and rereading them. Not only was I reading books,
but also learned things like the days of the week, fruits, counting, and more. These educational
books along with others were read to us. It became a way that I started learning English and
gaining more information.
As the years advanced, I remember feeling behind especially when it came to writing;
however, being placed in programs and going to the library helped improve my literacy.
Grammar was something that I always struggled with, which greatly affected my writing. I
would receive my report card with a note from my teacher asking my mom to take me to the
library so I can practice reading. I remember feeling embarrassed for not being good enough and
came to think that something was wrong with me. In the article Multilingual Students and
College Writing, Dana Ferris explains that ML students face many challenges in school. She
discusses the importance of students seeking for help and knowing how to get help(25). Being a
ML student myself, I agree with Ferris because I too had language issues and was falling behind.
The lack of English caused me to have a harder time understanding the material and greatly
affected my writings.
Even though I struggled with this more at a younger age, I often find myself now with
similar problems and challenges as Ferris described; therefore, I had to work harder and do extra
things. It wasn't until third or fourth grade that I noticed I wasn't the only one who was
struggling. I was placed in an English Language Development(ELD) class where I was finally
comfortable in asking for help and really understanding the material better. ELD is a program
that helps students advance and is dedicated for students whose first language was not English. I
was also in the after-school program during elementary where I was required to go to tutoring
and get extra help. Doing these extra things really helped my literacy and helped me be prepared
for High school.
Strict teachers also had a big impact in my literacy since they pushed me to work hard
and challenge myself in doing better. Summer after 8th grade was the start of International
Baccalaureate and was the program I was in throughout high school. High school was a period
where I found myself struggling and stressing about my teachers expectations. I was
recommended to enter this program that is dedicated to help students prepare for college. That
being said, teachers had high expectation and required us to do a lot of work.
Junior year of high school was the most difficult of all, I had a strict and picky English
teacher who really made me challenge myself. With her, I was required to read a lot of books
throughout the year, annotate almost everything I read, do an essay of length 1,500-3,000 words
every week, and apart do all of my other homework from other classes. This year in high school
was very difficult for me, it required me to pull a lot of all-nighters, and work extra hard. I
remember wanting to give up and getting out of the program every time from all the stress I felt.
I felt like I wasn't good enough and struggled with balancing all of my homework with sports,
clubs, and community service. Although this teacher was hard, she pushed all the students to do
their best and believe that with her high expectations I was able to become a better reader and
writer.
In addition, High school was also the place that I learned a new type of Spanish. Like
Anzaldua explained, speaking to different groups requires to speak to them in a different way. In
my Spanish class; although I already knew Spanish, I was still able to learn much more. I learned
more of the proper Spanish which is something different then what I spoke at home. It is where I
also saw my weaknesses in Spanish and notice how much Spanish I had lost from not speaking it
as often. Likewise, in How to Tame a Wild Tongue Anzaldua states that Chicanas feel
uncomfortable talking in Spanish to Latinas.(58) I found this interesting and made me realize
how even I oftentimes find it uncomfortable speaking to Latinas as well. It's every time I go to
Mexico that I feel embarrassed for not knowing the Spanish language as well. Now I speak
mostly English or if I talk to my parents I speak Spanglish. There is never a time other than when
I go to Mexico that I find myself having a long conversation in Spanish. Since both my parents
learned English, I began to mostly speak to them in English and stopped practicing Spanish. It
has led me to speaking Spanglish and ultimately forgetting many of the Spanish vocabulary. For
this reason, I believe that learning English affected my Spanish literacy.
In conclusion, after seeing my progress in Literacy it has made me see how my struggles
are what has helped me push myself and become a better reader and writer. As a multilingual
student I was able to get into different programs throughout elementary that prepared me for high
school. Likewise, being in the IB program throughout high school I feel really helped my literacy
and be better prepared for college.