Achieving Literacy by Overcoming Bilingual Barriers
Reading was not part of my daily life when I was beginning my schooling
years. Living in a household where both of my parents did not receive a high level of
education whether it was in Mexico or here in the United States, they were not very
focused on my learning much less my access to reading materials. My father only
attended third grade in Mexico so he learned the basics for reading and writing in
Spanish. The basics included learning to read and write every letter of the alphabet,
as well as being able to put letters together to make a word and pronounce them. He
did not get to a more advanced level in learning where the accent marks go on each
word. My mother, on the other hand, attended high school here in the United States
for the first two years and then decided to drop out due to the difficulty in learning a
second language. Both of them disregarded education as a priority and instead saw
the need to work as a way of maintaining themselves and their family back in
Mexico.
From kindergarten level to first grade, I was introduced to reading and
writing but only in Spanish at the school setting. All the reading materials I had
access to were plainly in Spanish. Books like the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Where
The Wild Things Are were the types of books I was able to read, but only in Spanish
since they were the Spanish translations of these books. My literacy levels in
Spanish were barely developing when suddenly my parents decided to move out of
our current home so I had to transfer to the school that belonged to my new area of
residence. This school’s preferred language was English; therefore no school
materials such as textbooks were accessible in Spanish. The only interaction I had
with the Spanish language at this school was speaking to a very few group of
students whose native language was Spanish. Entering this new school as a second
grader and not knowing a single word in English caused great distress and difficulty
on my learning for the first two months or so. I was so accustomed and proud of
being able to read a book in Spanish, yet having an English book I was so confused. I
felt I had gone back to zero on not being able to read a book but this time in English.
The Spanish language itself is very complex and functions in very different ways
than English in terms of pronunciation and the way to write it is very distinct also.
Therefore, transitioning from a Spanish literacy to an English one disrupted my
learning development.
For the first two months or so, I tried my best to catch on to the course
material and the English language although I was not placed in an English learner
class. I had difficulty communicating with my teacher Mrs. Lawn because she did not
know a single word in Spanish aside from the basic “hola, adios, si” and “no”. So even
through writing it was difficult to let her know what I needed or not. It wasn’t until
we began a reading proficiency program, that I began my English literacy. The
program’s name I cannot recall but it was a school-wide program that served
somewhat as a competition among grade levels, classrooms, and individual
students. The way the program worked was we were all given a list of hundreds of
books for each grade level beginning with first and ending in fifth grade. Normally, it
was ideal to begin with the grade level one was at and see the books under that list
to begin reading. Once selecting a book and reading it, each student was sent to a
computer and had to take a ten question quiz online based on the book read. At this
time, I had never touched a computer in my life so I struggled somewhat in learning
how to operate such machinery also. The quiz was multiple choice and we were not
allowed to have the book in front of our hands either to check the answers. We had
three opportunities to pass the quiz with a 7 or higher, and anything else gave you
an automatic fail.
Aside from this program being an incentive for students to develop and/or
enhance their literacy levels, it was a program that worked as a meritocracy. Each
quiz, depending on how well one did and what books were chosen to take the test,
would award points. The harder the literacy level required was for the book, the
more passing the quiz on that book was worth in terms of points. When each
student would reach 25 points, the teacher would give the student a certificate that
said they had completed 25 points in the reading program. When a student made it
to 50 points, he/she was awarded with a bronze medal. At 75 points, another
certificate plus a ticket for an ice-cream would be given. At 100 points (a rare
situation), the student would be presented with a silver medal and a ticket for an
ice-cream. At 150, the student would get a gold medal. Anyone after 150 points,
would receive repetition of medals or something extra be given since not many
students were expected to reach more than 150. I had always been a very
competitive person so reaching past 150 points became my ultimate goal.
When I looked at the list, I was honestly hoping to see some bilingual options
for books but unfortunately there were none. All the choices I had were in English
and I knew there was a limit of points that we all had to do for the class aside from
the possibility of winning some type of award. I remember that instead of going for
the books in my second grade level, I decided to start off in first grade. The books
were more simplistic in terms of text and served as a guide for me to learn English
quicker. I never had any access to books at home so I decided to check out at least
three to five books per day, made it my goal to read them, and then take the quiz.
After reading my first three books, I went up to the computer and tested my reading
ability by taking a quiz. I had one of my fellow classmates teach me how to move the
mouse as well as how to take the quiz correctly. With that quick five minute lesson, I
was able to take my first quiz successfully. Within three weeks, I was able to go
through all the first grade level books and completed its quizzes. I surpassed the
minimum requirement by just completing some of the quizzes for the first grade
level books but I know I wanted to continue and my goal became to finish off all the
second grade level books. Within two weeks or so and still continuing my daily
pattern of reading three to five books, I was able to read all of second grade level
books and achieved winning the bronze medal.
By this time, winning a medal was so inspiring and an amazing feeling since
at the time I was only one of four that had gotten to that level. I knew that regardless
of how much I could read in English, I was going to push myself towards achieving
that goal of winning a gold medal. Second grade level books were not cutting it for
me because they were not worth as many points as third and fourth grade level.
Therefore, I decided to read a few second grade level books that were the ones that
were worth more points than the rest and take the quizzes. Once I was able to pass
the quizzes successfully, I moved on to third grade level books and fourth grade
level. Fourth grade level books were lengthy novels and were very different from
the first and second grade level books I had read. Also, there were very few pictures
in these fourth grade level books and I was so accustomed to seeing the images with
the text. That is how I even learned how to associate certain images and actions with
English terminology. But knowing that my goal was to advance in my reading and at
the same time be rewarded allowed me to read constantly and every day.
Eventually, English no longer became a barrier. I was able to read, write and
speak in English even better than I did in Spanish. Forcing myself to read every day
extended my vocabulary and allowed for a way to finally communicate with my
teacher and classmates. In addition, I ended up earning two gold medals for making
300 points and the principal decided to take me out to lunch individually. I was the
only one in the school to reach that many points and in such little time. I can say that
if it was not for the reading program and it giving me an incentive to engage in
reading, my literacy would not be the same it is now. First of all, being part of the
program encouraged me to open up a book even though it was in another foreign
slanguage. I was intimidated to try to read a book in another language rather than
my native Spanish because I felt I was going to fail and feel inferior to the rest of my
classmates. However, having the choice to start at a lower basic level of reading
allowed me to overcome that failure. Also, if it were not for the program, I probably
would have suffered with bilingual difficulties throughout the entire year. Lastly, I
developed a need to read daily as part of my regular homework schedule outside of
class. In addition, I developed computer skills that I never had and I can say it
sparked an interest in computing at a very young age. Today, I have a high computer
literacy and am pursuing a career in the computing industry.