My first experience with “my” ELL was a little different than that of my colleagues. My ELL was absent! So I had a nice conversation with the teacher’s aide, whose English was quite good, especially since it wasn’t his first. (He moved here from another country as an elementary student and is a senior now, so he’s had a good deal of time to develop his English.) We had the occasional awkward quiet time but that seemed to be more typical “I don’t know you” silence than a language barrier, at least from my perspective.
As far as analysis: we did talk a good deal about his family (especially his sisters), in line with the mention by the ESOL teacher that people from Hispanic cultures consider family to be very important, and a good topic of conversation. It’s hard to say much else simply because he didn’t seem to be in the *learning* process of “ELL” any more — he already learned the language, likely as well as he’s ever going to learn it, and it’s difficult to apply the knowledge I’ m gaining about people who are learning English to someone who already completed the process.
Next time… well, next time I hope my ELL is in class so I can work with her!
