As a tenth grade English teacher at Port St. Lucie High School, I had the opportunity to sit and interview a student, “John,” on his experiences with learning English as a second language, and how he perceives himself – and believes others perceive him – in an English-speaking environment. This interview took place after school on Wednesday, December 7, 2016. John and I began our conversation with acquiring background information. John and his family (father, mother, and two older sisters) moved to Tampa, Florida in 2009 from El Salvador. John was nine years old when the family immigrated. They lived for four months with John’s grandmother, who had travelled earlier to secure residence for the family. John’s father had secured an excellent new job opportunity in information technology that could not be rejected. The family knew basic English, according to John, but spoke and wrote solely in Spanish. When they moved to Florida, John’s …show more content…
He recalls that he felt “like an outsider” who would “never fit in.” As he made friends, he initially only trusted those that spoke Spanish. In fact, it was not until his fifth grade teacher, a bilingual young man with Argentinian heritage, began working with him that his acquisition and appreciation for English and America began to materialize. His teacher was able to empathize with learning a second language in elementary school, and that gave John the motivation in knowing that he, too, would be successful. Then came another transition. John’s family moved again to Port St. Lucie, Florida for John’s father’s career. As John said, “I knew I would be going to a new middle school anyways, but I lost all my friends again, and it sucked.” John went back to his comfort zone of associating with native Spanish speaking students for the first few months. After a while, though, John had a diversity of friends and had more confidence in his ability to understand and communicate in