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First English Words
I learned few English words in my sister's kindergarten class because I attended the class as an unregistered student occasionally. I did not go to any nursery or preschool. -
Fetal Stage
Memory of Spanish language sounds are developing. -
Newborn
The ability to distinguish Spanish sounds from English sounds, especially sounds made by my mother was developing. -
Babbling Stage
I was babbling ma-ma-ma, pa-pa, etc. -
Single Words
I spoke few single words in Spanish which I learned basically from my mother and my sister. -
Multi-Word Sentences
I spoke multi-word sentences in Spanish. -
Kindergarten-Third Grade
I received formal instuction in Puerto Rico's public shools. All my classes, except English were given in Spanish. I was competent in all Spanish language skills. I was able to decode with difficulty and memorize English texts. -
English Only
I moved to Chicago. I was enrolled in an English speaking school witha pull out ESL program. All my classes were in English. The schools population was English speaking people and a small group of non-latin or Spanish speaking ELL's. My ESL class and music class helped me learn enough English to survive the semester. -
Bilingual Program
I was enrolled in a English-Spanish bilingual program. IAll my classes were given in English, except for history and Spanish. My teachers and peers were Latin American. I was given a game console to learn English at home. I learned English to do well in school and socialize, yet I continued being Spanish dominant. -
High School
I became more interested in learning English. I lacked confidence when speaking English. I had syntax and spelling problems when writing in English. I was perfectionist with my Spanish communication skills. -
Undergraduate Studies
I obtained a BA in English. I learned a lot about English linguistics, but did not gaing enough fluency. I struggled with Britished literature comprehension and essays. -
Graduate Studies
I obtained a MA in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). At this stage I became a more competent bilingual. I improved the English skills that were weak. -
Teaching in New York
I taught ESL (push-in and pull-out modalities). ELA, and Spanish.Living and working in a multicultural place, yet substractive language environment forced me to use all my knowledge of English as perfect as possible. I had to avoid codeswitching because it was detrimental for me as a teacher due to parental language choice and colleagues prejudices. -
Teaching in Puerto Rico
I consider myself a successive, sequential bilingual who is dominant in Spanish and competent in both languages English and Spanish. I am still growing professionally, I am proud of being a role model to my Puerto Rican ELL's.
