Portrait of a Multilingual

Learner

by: Rachel Hsieh (PJ 261)

 Learner Profile

Background Information &

Intersectional Identities
 Description of Learner

Name: Brittany

Age: 6 years old

Grade: 1st grade

Country of Origin: Argentina

Heritage Language: Spanish

*Information retrieved from Purdue English Language Learner Language Portraits

 Brittany’s Immigration Journey
Argentina ---------> USA
Midwestern USA Argentina
- National Language = - National Language =
English
Spanish
- North American first - South American low first
world country
world / second world
- Predominant faith
country
affiliation = Christianity - Predominant faith
(Roman Catholicism)
affiliation = Christianity
- Shares the Great Lakes
(Roman Catholicism)
Region with Canada - Aligned with the US
- Distinct accent from the
Constitution
South and American - Trends of immigrants =
Northeast - labelled as
Italians, Spaniards,
the standard American
French, and English
English accent - Reliance on main wealth
- Many metropolitan areas
sources: agriculture,
such as Chicago,
cattle-rising, and
Indianapolis, and
commerce (trade-
Columbus
oriented)
- History of political
movement and fervor

*Information retrieved from Academic Dictionaries and

Encyclopedias pages
 All About Brittany
Family Life School Life ESL Hobbies, Interests, &
Programming Future Aspirations

Brittany has stated that she enjoys Brittany loves growing flowers,
Brittany immigrated from Argentina
school, yet misses her friends and Brittany receives daily ESL instruction especially sunflowers, with her
with her mother, with no mention of
former school at the same time. This through a pull-out program from her mother as it reminds her of her
another parental figure or siblings. Her
implies previous schooling experience school’s ESL teacher. Within a small group of family’s garden in Argentina. As
mother prefers to speak Spanish in
at a young age, meaning that she has a 8 students that range from intermediate to mentioned in one of her oral and
their home instead of English and
preconceived idea of what school was advanced levels of English proficiency, written assessment samples, she
works as a Spanish translator for a
like in Argentina. She misses not having Brittany has a one-on-one iPad technology also likes Barbies, macaroni and
local church. This perhaps suggests an
school from December to March. She program that can be used at school and cheese, toys, music, math, field
inherent value for the heritage / home
prefers her small classes (perhaps home. This implies that the regular trips, reading, and spelling. She
language and a moral sense of
more small-scale or individualized homeroom teacher is not trained to teach mentions, “I want to show people
religious / faith affiliation. A key
ways of learning) and her favourite ELLs and the majority of Brittany’s learning how to see”, perhaps suggesting
distinction is that Brittany’s mother
subject is science. time during the day is not directly educator- her desire to be an optometrist
does know English rather than not
supported. However, she seems to have a when she grows up.
being able to speak / understand it at
all. positive feeling about her teacher as she
wrote “I like my teacher” in one of the
assessment samples.

*Information retrieved from Purdue English Language Learner Language Portraits

 Cultural & Linguistic Background
The primary languages that Brittany is exposed to in her daily life are English and Spanish. Many of the characteristics listed below explain the possible strengths and challenges
that Brittany may encounter including moments of translanguaging, pronunciation, and communication tendencies when using English and / or Spanish.

An important caveat to mention is that there is a lack of knowledge on Brittany’s mother and her speech / speaking ability; this is an important factor that influences Brittany’s
early experience with languages in general and shapes her cultural and linguistic repertoire going forward (Hurtado et al., 2007).

14+ vowel sounds (varied 5 vowel sounds (varied

pronunciation and pronunciation and
spelling) Same Roman spelling)
Alphabet
Use of quotation marks Use of dashes for
(“.....”) 30%-40% quotation marks (---....---)
related words
Absence of various
Less frequent use of Similar More frequent use of
More consonant and consonant and ending
accents sentence accents
ending sounds sounds
structure
Structured word order Written and Relatively free word order
read from left
to right Existence of
Absence of grammatically
grammatically gendered
gendered nouns
nouns

English Spanish
*Information retrieved from Colorado (2007) and Hurtado et al. (2007)
 STEP Placement

STEP Observable Language

Behaviours (OLB) Oral
Continua
 Oral STEP Placement -
Step 2 with some Step 3 tendencies
Brittany provides very direct answers to
prompter’s questions; ex: “What colours are
they wearing?”... “white, and blue and red”
(Brittany)

Brittany did not shy away from answering any questions

and responded with both verbal and non-verbal cues;
ex: as the prompter used a pointing stick to focus on
one part of the image, Brittany would focus on that
section and stay on topic

Brittany uses very relevant words when

asked to describe various school rooms; ex:
“And what kind of room is this in a school?”
… “I think of recess” (Brittany)

In response to “why” questions, Brittany begins

her responses with “because”; ex: “Why do you
think they’re holding flags and wearing red,
white, and blue?”...“Because they are celebrating
Lafayette” (Brittany)

Brittany is able to connect the image to what she

notices in her classroom; ex: “so do you have
flags in your school?”...”Yeah..in the classrooms
we do” (Brittany)
 Oral Assessment Samples

*Information retrieved from Purdue English Language Learner Language Portraits

 Observable Language Behaviour -
Oral
Comprehension - Brittany can understand nearly everything at normal speed, although occasional repetition or wait time may be necessary.

Fluency - Brittany can express herself, but will often times takes frequent pauses to search for the correct manner of expression.

Vocabulary - Brittany can use an increasing range of vocabulary, but gaps in vocabulary knowledge and some misuse of words make it
somewhat difficult to connect intended meanings.

Pronunciation - Brittany is naturally very direct and concise with speaking, but pronunciation challenges necessitate some concentration on the
part of the listeners and occasionally leads to misunderstandings. This could also be due to the fact that she generally seems to be more soft-
spoken.

Grammar - Brittany is starting to use longer utterances, though errors of grammar and word order may occasionally obscure intended meanings.
Her longest utterance was “Because I want to show people how to see”.

Non-Verbal Communication Strategies - When Brittany was asked these choice questions, “Out of all of these rooms, what’s your favourite
room?” and “If you could work in any of these rooms, which one would you work in?”, she pointed to the images instead of repeating the verbal
descriptors she used before. Throughout the interaction with the prompter, she makes eye contact when she responds to the questions.
Reading STEP Placement -
Between Step 2 and 3 Brittany is able to answer questions
based on the cover of the book; ex:
“What do you see on the front cover?”
… “I see a boy drawing” (Brittany)

Brittany is able to take instructions in terms of

turning the page and reading according to the
lines / words on the page (read in order
according to the provided transcript); “Open to
the beginning and we’ll start reading”

Brittany seems to be able to understand that the

start of a new sentence begins with a capital
letter as she will pause accordingly after a
period; she can also read some words with
apostrophes (ex: “don’t”)

When reading aloud, Brittany does not

hesitate on where to start or the order to
read in; she automatically begins reading
When taught by the prompter on from the left side of the page and reads
how to pronounce “gotta” downward, then moves to the right page
correctly in the title, Brittany was
able to apply it when she
encountered the word again

Brittany uses the sound-it-out

technique by whispering quietly to
herself (ex: “st-ran-ge….strange”)
 Reading Assessment Samples

*Information retrieved from Purdue English Language Learner Language Portraits

 Observable Language Behaviour -
Reading
Reading Fluency - Brittany lacks in the practice and recognition for self-correcting (ex: says “I am” instead of “I’m” repeatedly throughout the book)
and skipped over the second instance of the word “as” in the phrase “as soon as I finish one drawing” (knows how to say it but skipped over it). She
added a couple of ending sounds to words when it was not necessary such as “mess” is read as “messy”, “pencil” sounds like “pencils”, added “am” to
“I finish drawing” when it wasn’t there, and “draw” turns into “drawing”.

(Mis)Pronunciation - Brittany needs help with the pronunciation of uncommon words such as the word “battleship”, but is able to start the correct
pronunciation of a word if she recognizes part of it (ex: she said “got” instead of “gotta” but did not get stuck when she encountered that word again).
There were mispronunciations of other words; “chalk” sounds like “chilk”, “piece” sounds like “prince”, “pad” sounds like “bad”, “might” sounds like
“night”, “start” sounds like “stein”, and “little” sounds like “light”.

Repetition - Brittany had some tendencies to repeat words when reading aloud and paused when reading parts of a word (ex: she read the word
“pup” twice, and said “mark…..marker”).

Intonation / Tone - Brittany does not read according to the change in punctuation, regardless of exclamation marks or capitalized words; perhaps a
slight expression with question marks.

Comprehension - Based on the provided questions and answers, Brittany was able to get 2/4 questions right, meaning that she was able to
understand about half of the 2 pages that she read. A possible common theme in her answers were the mention of the mom in the story, which could
indicate a possible personal connection to her actual mom as a single parent. In response to one question, she openly states that she doesn’t know
something instead of perhaps being silent / shrugging.
Writing STEP Placement - Step 2

In the first sample writing titled “Dear Baby”, Brittany is

able to complete the prompt, “Your mommy is” with a
correct adjective (“nice”) and is able to replicate the same
sentence by herself afterwards (“Your mommy is sweet”)

Brittany repeats and relies on high frequency words like

“will”, “like”, and “we”, which are action-based words

Brittany varies between writing sentences that are as

short as 3 words (ex: “I like speilling”) to sentences that
are longer with 9 words, although these longer sentences
have grammatical errors (ex: I will think she will make
your hair pretty”)

Brittany varies her writing by using various pronouns (ex:

You, I, she) and is consistent when using the present
tense (some error in using future tense)

In the second sample writing titled “I Like”, Brittany uses

the same sentence pattern (including continually
repeating the same spelling mistake of “wen” for the word
“when”) to list out things she likes (ex: going to music,
math, field trips, reading, etc.)
 Writing Samples

*Information retrieved from Purdue English Language Learner Language Portraits

 Observable Language Behaviour -
Writing
Composing - Brittany is able to complete, copy, and replicate the structure of a simple sentence prompt and chooses words that make sense. The
central idea in her writing has relevant details in a well-organized text since the stream of thought can be followed and it stays within a certain theme.

Style – Brittany makes acceptable vocabulary choices with some sentence variety. She is consistent in the way she writes but the tone could be more
appealing with the addition of varied punctuation.

Sentence Formation - Brittany maintains a standard word order with no run-on sentences or major sentence fragments. She has one seemingly
incomplete sentence; “I like when the las day of scool”. However, she does not use any transitions to help make her writing flow smoothly.

Spelling - Brittany is generally able to spell words accurately according to the letter sounds she detects. However, she does make errors with beginning
sounds (ex: omits the “h” sound in writing “when” as “wen”), middle sounds (ex: additional “i” sound in “spelling” as “speilling” and missing “ch” sound
in “school” as “scool”) and ending sounds (ex: omission of the “t” in “last” as “las”).

Usage - Brittany mostly uses inflections correctly and can have some consistency with tense and subject-verb agreement. She mostly stays within the
realm of her knowledge with standard word meaning and most errors do not detract from intended meaning.

Mechanics - Brittany mostly uses mechanics correctly and has proper formatting in writing; any sort of errors do not detract from meaning. She writes
within the lines on the page and readers can make the distinction from her capitalized and lower-case letters.
 Gaps in Information & Additional
Activities
From the provided information, there is no
presence of any L1 (which would be Spanish
in Brittany’s case) detected in any of the
assessments and so, it cannot be determined
on how much she relies on her L1 or if she is
able / willing to use her L1 at school
Additionally, there is no evidence of her
direct interactions with her teacher or peers
and so it cannot be determined if any
patterns or changes of social behaviour or
academic rigour occur within these contexts
It is also unknown what literacy skills Brittany
attained from her previous schooling in
Argentina and whether there are aspects she
needs to relearn / unlearn over time
Activities that would yield a more accurate STEP assessment:
· A prewriting activity to see how many ideas Brittany is able to generate on her own
and if she relies a lot on her teacher and / or peers (or to see the appearance of Spanish as
her L1)
· Observing the process of organizing her ideas and information – to see whether she
needs a graphic organizer or a place to draw / write her ideas down first before she writes
or if she can do that all in her head
· More free-handwriting activity outside of a teacher framework to see if her thoughts
naturally flow (or to get her to do this activity in her L1 first and then English)
· A follow up editing conference so that Brittany could learn from mistakes and have
the chance to make her writing more nuanced
· An oral read-aloud of a complete story – the video sample presented Brittany
reading 2 starting pages of a story (unable to see her overall comprehension of the story)
· The format of the Reading Comprehension Questions and Answers – no indication if
this was done on paper or orally – could have provided a more accurate assessment
Supportive Strategies &
Activities

Individualized Principles
and Strategies for Learner
Growth
 Academic Success
Oral

Based on Brittany’s oral assessment video samples, the primary way to support her verbal production success would be doing phonemic
awareness activities (Colorado, 2007). Often times with Spanish speakers that are learning English, the differences between certain letter
sounds and phonemic emphasis creates uncertainty or lack of proficient clarity when attempting to express oneself (Colorado, 2007).
Especially keeping in mind that Brittany is already applying techniques such as sounding-it-out and is willing to attempt speaking despite
encountering difficult words, scaffolding focus such as learning the pronunciation of beginning / prefix sounds first, then middle sounds such
as two or more vowel sounds together, and ending / suffix sounds will make learning much more manageable and holistic. An additional
practice that could be explored to support intonation and syllables in words could include equating pronunciation practice with music
(Cummins et al., 2015) since Brittany positively attributes to this subject in school.

A second area that would improve Brittany’s oral production would be teaching lessons on self-expression. In the videos, Brittany has
tendencies to respond, read, and write in a very direct and static way, which exposes the need for punctuation, tone, and motive expression
to be taught. In light of Brittany’s often short responses, providing sentence models or prompts such as “I like…..because….and I want.….” will
help encourage her to articulate herself in more full and connected expressions. In circumstances where Brittany is attempting to find the
correct word or tends to repeat high-frequency words in her speech, having a reference list of synonyms for common, familiar words or
using reliable and accurate interpretation and translation applications can help when / if Brittany expresses her ideas in Spanish or when she
is practicing her reading in English, that the app would translate her speaking / reading in English into Spanish and she would be able to see
how accurate her oral production is and what she needs to work on (Westernoff et al., 2021). In this way, there would be an established
intrinsic and concrete documentation of Brittany’s development and growth in her speaking abilities.

A limitation in the oral assessment videos were that they were strictly questions and responses in an interview-style format which likely does
not accurately depict Brittany’s daily interactions in the classroom or at home. Perhaps having more hands-on participation / interactive
activities would create more authentic opportunities for Brittany to express herself more personally, openly, and creatively.
 Academic Success
Reading

After formulating observations based on Brittany’s reading sample, many of the strategies and activities to
support her growth in this learning skill overlaps with oral production such as more focused teaching / learning
opportunities on beginning, middle, and ending sounds of words and reading / enunciating in response to
various punctuation. However, some reading-specific practices that could be helpful includes pre-teaching key
words in a certain theme of interest prior to reading a book relating to the subject could set Brittany up for
success in terms of understanding the context and meaning that encapsulates a story. Additionally, I believe that
as her strongest learning skill based on the STEP assessment, incorporating other small multilingual habits such
as utilizing the closed captioning feature when watching videos in English would help her retain the oral
pronunciation of words and replicating them in her own writing. With a perceived strength and positive
experience for Brittany, I believe that allowing her to express her answers through drawings or visuals could be
another way to assess her understanding; for example, having Brittany draw images of what is happening in a
simple text-only book helps to improve and focus on her reading comprehension skills that differs from the
traditional question-answer format.

Furthermore, providing a follow-up glossary of difficult words with definitions will be able to help Brittany make
the word to meaning connection in a much more explicit way. In terms of reading text choice and variety, it could
be effective to expose Brittany to different genres or types of books such as procedural texts in order to verify
whether she is able to accurately follow a storyline and other components of literature such as character, setting,
plot, etc. as per stated in Ontario’s Language Curriculum to understand text forms and styles (Ontario Ministry of
Education, 2006). Lastly, incorporating dual language / multilingual books in English and Spanish for Brittany to
access in the classroom and bring home to read with her mother would help to break the barriers of exclusive
learning spaces and actively maintain parent investment in English language learning (Westernoff et al., 2021).
 Academic Success
Writing

In Brittany’s written pieces, there is a general sense of competency in terms of organizational structure, ability to write neatly, and articulate
content that is relevant to the theme (provided that she was not using any assistive aids or teacher / peer help). In terms of specific elements
of writing that would further elevate Brittany’s current work, being able to use punctuation and transitional words would allow her to not only
write longer sentences, but create a more natural flow to her written expressions. In order to scaffold this process, providing a word bank with
visuals when she is writing about a newly-learned theme, which can further be translated into Spanish and English if needed, can help spark
ideas or operate as a descriptive anchor for her to write about in addition to her personal thoughts / ideas. Another way this could be
manifested would be having curated vocabulary lists with English and Spanish, which will maximize quality and quantity of language use (Stille
& Cummins, 2013). As Brittany is able to better grasp these elements in various written contexts, it would be valuable as an educator to co-
create a success criterion with her on what specific elements she can incorporate in her writing (ex: at least 3 different uses of various
punctuation, at least 2 transitional words, etc.) (Westernoff et al., 2021) so that her progress is tracked and built upon over time.

The possible other avenues for Brittany’s growth includes providing choice between familiar topics for her to write about, knowing and
applying compound words in sentences, and learning how to incorporate speech in her writing.

*General suggestion for all 3 learning skills: Making cross-curricular connections to subjects Brittany is
enrolled in, especially the subjects she likes (ex: science, math, music, language), will centralize her home
language and English as starting points that richly overflow to academic subjects rather than being
confined to language zones / spaces
 Social Adjustment
o Providing choice to work independently or in small groups

o Having Brittany create a personalized identity text to be able to articulate to others about herself and
for others to learn about her (ex: an All About Me poster with various common themes) – a practice
like this is likely to receive positive feedback and affirmation of self; even using the “I Like” writing
practice as a springboard for a self-identity collage project (Cummins et al., 2015)

o Doing an activity like Language Flowers; not only because of her love for flowers but as a way to
connect with those in her class and give her confidence in stating what she knows

o Having the homeroom teacher articulate Brittany’s preferences and strengths to other teachers so
that she becomes comfortable with a consistent way of teaching / learning across subjects
(Westernoff et al., 2021)

o Ask Brittany’s mother if there are any key phrases / statements, gestures, songs, etc. that Brittany
responds really well to in terms of praise / encouragement / attention-grabbers – this allows for
positive reinforcement and incorporation of Spanish and learning opportunities for others in the
class (Westernoff et al., 2021)

o Discussing with Brittany’s mom about the possibility of Brittany trying out English at various public /
community places such as the grocery store, the church she works at, etc. – this could help Brittany
formulate more tangible goals for language learning outside academic spaces
 Emotional Well-Being
o Having more direct parental engagement / collaboration – due to the fact that Brittany’s mother can
actually speak English (in light of a decision not to as often at home), encourage opportunities for her
to use English to communicate with Brittany (ex: ask her how school was and have Brittany explain in
English, reading some of her favourite books that she knows in Spanish and reading them with her in
English)

o Demonstrating positive and open body language when speaking with her / asking her questions –
there was a difference in receptivity between the prompters in the oral language samples and
reading sample (the former had a more direct tone while the latter had a more light-hearted tone
which changed how much Brittany smiled in the videos)

o More play-based and inquiry strategies of teaching and learning – Brittany positively associates with
this form of learning, as stated by “I like to play” from one of her oral assessment videos

o Invite Brittany’s mother to come into the class and teach other students about familial / cultural
traditions from Argentina (ex: planting sunflowers as one of Brittany’s favourite hobbies) – this could
work towards breaking the threshold between school and family life for Brittany and maintains the
two-way conversation of learning between school and the outside world
 Implications for Future Practice

In all, I have identified that Brittany is interpreted as being at a possible fluid state
between Step 2 and 3, meaning that it is important that she solidifies her skills within Step
2 before advancing ahead to Step 3. Educators must evaluate factors such as her
competency and usage of her L1 and the ways that this can further leverage her English
language learning. Brittany’s ability to recognize and use English outside academic spaces
in relational ways, such as experiencing English support from her mother, will help her
gain confidence and adjust to her new reality of Canadian schooling .
 References
Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. (n.d.). Argentina. https://catholicism.en-academic.com/1034/Argentina

Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. (n.d.). Midwestern United States. https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/64027

Colorado, C. (2007). Capitalizing on Similarities and Differences between Spanish and English. Colorín Colorado.

https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/capitalizing-similarities-and-differences-between-spanish-and-english

Cummins, J., Hu, S., Markus, P., & Montero, M. K. (2015). Identity texts and academic achievement: Connecting the dots in multilingual school contexts. TESOL Quarterly, 49(3), 555–581.

https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.241

Hurtado, N., Marchman, V. A., & Fernald, A. (2007). Spoken word recognition by Latino children learning Spanish as their first language. Journal of Child Language, 34(2), 227–249.

https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000906007896

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2006). The Ontario Curriculum: Grades 1-8 – Language. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf

Purdue College of Education. (n.d.). Meet Brittany. http://elllps.squarespace.com/enrique-1-2-1

Stille, S., & Cummins, J. (2013). Foundation for learning: Engaging plurilingual students’ linguistic repertoires in the elementary classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 47(3), 630–638.

https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.116

Westernoff, F., Jones-Vo, S., & Markus, P. (2021). Powerful Practices for Supporting English Learners: Elevating Diverse Assets and Identities. SAGE Publications.