Native English Language Interview

Although school seems difficult and hard to us native English speakers, it’s a whole other world for some families. Families that do not speak English have an entirely different struggle that may be hard to relate to. Parents have to go through the tiresome endeavor of helping their child enter school, children have to learn a new language, and families who have a child with a disability have to go through those challenges and then some more to learn how to help their children get the best education possible. In the end, all these families want is for their children to do well in order to help them on their path to success. Children whose first language is not English experience a tedious task that native English speakers do not have to do,

From the interview, I learned that the entire family came from Puerto Rico and that they are all learning English slowly. They are all English Language Learners (ELL), and their children are in school learning English, while coming home to a Spanish household. The parents are both the heads of the household, and share the decision making for the children. According to the article by Linda Garris Christian, hierarchy relates to the decision making, control and power in the family ( (Christian, 2006). Based on the interview I gave the mother, she explained that the father and herself consult together when making family decisions, along with this, they each share the parental roles in the family. According to the book Families, Schools, and Communities: Building Partnerships for Educating Children, different members of the family have certain roles in a household and these roles can flow into school life as well for children (Scully, Barbour, & Roberts-King, 2014), some examples of the common roles in a household include a peacemaker, provider, or housekeeper. According to the mother of the ELL, their family share many roles when it comes to housekeeping and providing. The parents do housekeeping whenever they are off from work, and they are both providers for the family. The mother told me that the ELL was doing fairly well in school, especially in

They both stated that they had a culture of Puerto Rican and Hispanic blend. They both felt as though both parents were involved in their children’s education and wanted what was best for them. Unlike the ELL family, the ESE had to put in a lot more work with the teacher and school because of the child’s dyslexia. The child had to do in class and out of class work to help him with his disability. Along with this, the ELL family followed their personal opinions and family beliefs, they did not rely on research, unlike the ESE that listened to the information the school gave them and chose the best ways that will benefit their child. The ELL family has always followed what they believe is best, along with what the parents were raised, on the other hand, the ESE family chose to follow what the school recommended as best, along with testing different methods out to see which would work best for their child. Although the ELL family wanted to be more involved in their child’s academic and extra curricular life, their challenge of not knowing how to speak much English always hindered them, unlike this, the ESE family has always bee involved in their child’s extra curricular life. This family always took their son to the different places he wanted to go to, and were always involved in the academic issues he faced. The fact that they were fluent in English helped them with this