Chris Baker
CMDS 6450-401
Dr. Phillip A. Hernández, Ed.D., CCC-SLP/L
Ethnographic Interview
Ethnographic Interview
My interviewee is a 32 year old woman named Celeste. Celeste moved here
from Naples when she was fourteen. Until 2 months ago, she was in the country on a
permanent work visa, and works with her immediate family in their restaurant, Mystic
Pizza. Since that time she was naturalized as a citizen in the US. Along with running the
kitchen, she functions as the translator for her family in day-to-day business operations.
Upon arriving in the US, Celeste did not speak or understand a word of English.
She had extended family living in the area that we’re fluent in both Italian and English,
but since it was easier to communicate with her in Italian, she learned very little.
Celeste arrived in the US in March, and by September she attended her first day at
school. At this point she knew only a few words, so the administrators thought it prudent
to push her back a grade from tenth to ninth. Her first marking period consisted of her
sitting through classes she didn’t understand through the majority of the day, such as
social skills and science. She would show up, look interested, nod where she felt
appropriate, and try to pick up little pieces of the language as she went along. Since she
couldn’t read the tests administered in these classes, she was exempt from them by
default. For this she received straight A’s. She also had two classes worth of ESL
instruction during this marking period, which undoubtedly helped in her acquisition of
the language, but was not the driving force behind it.
Chris Baker
CMDS 6450-401
Dr. Phillip A. Hernández, Ed.D., CCC-SLP/L
Ethnographic Interview
Soon after she entered school, she was quick to gain a core group of friends, with
whom she spent every waking minute with after school. She credits this interaction with
her rapid acquisition of the language. By the end of her first marking period she could
speak and understand the language, though not fluently. By the end of the next marking
period many considered her to be completely fluent. And by the end of the next term she
no longer needed to internally translate, she thought in English.
Her transition from Italy to the US was a rather painless one, and once she
adjusted, and acquired the language, she made her way through high school without any
problems. That wasn’t by any means the end of educational challenges though.
Immediately after high school she began pursuing a college degree. She arrived ill
prepared for the rigors of college writing, and while being perfectly capable of
formulating intricate and detail oriented thought, her ability to get it down on paper in
either language was never developed. Her problems stem mostly from navigating the
process of writing whilst working with a limited knowledge of academia appropriate
grammar and vocabulary. She has taken her prerequisite English classes a number of
times, initially failing the first one, then passing it to move on to the next, to withdrawal
from that before she failed, and withdrawing from it again the next semester.
In the writing-centric world of higher education, this has manifested itself as a
major hindrance. Lacking in this area of academics has bleed over into every other facet
of her education. She developed an aversion to writing in general, and thus far has tried to
Chris Baker
CMDS 6450-401
Dr. Phillip A. Hernández, Ed.D., CCC-SLP/L
Ethnographic Interview
get as far as she could without it. Her plans now are to buckle down and get the
prerequisites out of the way, starting at the beginning.
Before leaving the topic of education I feel it’s worth mentioning a pretty
interesting insight into education she shared with me during the interview. In Italy the
student’s stay in the same classroom all day, and the teachers move from class to class to
teach. As a child progresses through the grades, they do so with that same class. This
built solidarity amongst the students. She described a feeling of family and security
within her class. She feels that this did a lot to build her character and instilled a deep
sense of loyalty.
The teaching style was quite different than the one she experienced in America.
Her teachers placed the responsibility for learning on the student, and ensured that the
students followed through. Everyday someone would be called upon to go over what was
covered in the readings. And, as she tells it, this was a sizable portion of the student’s
grade. Due to the small class size a student’s chance of getting selected was pretty high.
This ensured students took an active role in their education.
In contrast, the US school system did not present enough of a challenge. Once in
her junior and senior year she was able to (as she put it) “phone it in”, and still get by
with decent grades. She feels that moving from a culture where you were held
accountable for what you know, and into a culture where you’re only accountable for
what you can score on a test set her up for failure later on.
Chris Baker
CMDS 6450-401
Dr. Phillip A. Hernández, Ed.D., CCC-SLP/L
Ethnographic Interview
During my interview with her she was reluctant to call any of the social
circumstances she found herself as a result of being bilingual “challenges”. She did
however offer a rather comical circumstance she ended up in as a result of her limited
knowledge of the language and culture. During her first semester in gym class, once it
came time to pick sports, she heard the teacher call out for football and her hand shot up
like a rocket.
She was an avid soccer player in Italy, and couldn’t wait to pick up where she left
off over here. She showed up on the field ready to kick the ball around the next day, only
to find herself the only girl in a sea of boys. At that point she figured she would go for it,
and elected to stay in the class despite the misunderstanding. That lasted until she got the
ball for the first time, and seen the biggest kid in our class bearing down on her. She
dropped the ball, ran off the field, and spent the rest of the marking period on the
sidelines.