Overcoming Obstacles In English

Everybody has educational barriers, and everyone has a specific way to overcome it.There’s always going to be barriers, but I never gave up. My first educational barriers were learning.In 1st grade it was hard to communicate with my classmate and teacher.I felt disappointed in myself and discourage making me feel important. Meanwhile, my cousin taught me how to speak English fluently, we first started with basic words like ‘’hi’’ or ‘’good morning.’’That’s how I worked myself through this barrier and to this day, I know how to speak English fluently. Although, some students would make fun of me because I would have an accent. For example, when people come from a different country and they try to talk English they would have an accent of their original country. In the other hand, I was failing math because unlike all the other students, I am not the fastest learner. I would always get confused with the structure and format of the question. For instance, fractions, decimals, and word problems would confuse me . Accordingly, I wasn’t very good with solving any of that so I knew I had to start attending tutoring. I had very good help from the students at Loma Linda University. They taught me an easier way to solve any problem, and that caused my test scores to increase. I can pass that class with no problem now. That means a lot to me because I know what will happen if I don’t give up. I will overcome any barriers that come my way! In addition, I would say that my educational barriers have been learning to speaking , reading, writing and math. I know I can overcome any barriers by putting all my effort and time into it. Education is the way to success, but I am determined to get there no matter what I go through.

Moving from Jordan to the United States was challenging for my family. I was the only child at the time and my parents primarily spoke Arabic in the house. The elementary teachers I had described me as a timid student, because I could barely speak English. I had difficulty with simple reading and writing, while other students went through class with ease. Needing extra tutoring classes and years of being in ESL was exhausting. However, learning how to read, write, and speak English fluently was only the beginning of my journey.

Throughout my academic career, I have faced a few challenges that shaped me into the person I am today. The distinct obstacles that I had to overcome changed my perception of the world and my personality. In first grade, I moved from South Korea to the United States, In korea, I was outgoing and confident. I lived in the countryside where my mother was a nurse practitioner so I always had the best toys and the best resources for my education. This allowed me to excel in school and gain numerous friends. However, my move to America changed all of that. I did not know a word in English and barely knew the alphabet. It was such a bleak contrast to my life in Korea as I was belittled for my lacking English skills and inability to communicate. In

My first educational barriers was learning.In 1st grade it was hard to communicate with my classmate and teacher.I felt disappointed in myself and discourage making me feel important. Meanwhile, my cousin taught me how to speak English fluently, we first started with basic words like ‘’hi’’ or ‘’good morning.’’That’s how I worked myself through this barrier and to this day, I know how to speak English fluently. Although, some students would make fun of me because I would have an accent. For example, when people come from a different country and they try to talk English they would have an accent from their original country.

The first and second year after moving from China to the United States, I was afraid to talk to strangers because my English was not quite well. I had to depend on my husband to deal with my personal business, such as making a doctor’s appointment, calling to the bank, or questioning the DMV officers. Douglass says, “being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart” (62). Being a dependent and helpless adult is a shame for me. In addition, I did not have extra money to go to school to improve my English skills. Thus, I stayed home all the time to avoid the embarrassment that happened when I did not understand strangers’ conversation. Meanwhile, being silent at home leaded worries to my future. I realized that I had to improve my oral English to gain self-confidence. I spent time reading various articles on the internet, and I watched English dialogues’ videos on YouTube. As a non-English speaking immigrant living in the U.S., I challenged myself to overcome difficulties to integrate myself into a new

“What it takes for English Learners to Succeed?” is an article written by Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher that illustrate concepts that will allow English Learners to become fluent in English. The purpose of this article is to discuss four accessible teaching practices that will allow English Learners in U.S. classroom to become academically successful and attain fluency in English. To clarify, the authors use access, climate, expectations, and language instruction as the practices that will eliminate education inequality and enable students to be able to fully participate in rigorous course work without excluding English Learners. Ultimately this provides an approachable school reform, creates additive integration of multicultural perspective and approach and lastly brings a way for language diversity to be seen in the classroom.

Recently, as the schools in the United States become more diverse in cultures, the needs for new English learners to learn the basic of English and grow in fluency has expanded. Nevertheless, a major of English learners receive insufficient education and have low achievement at school. Therefore, the approach of the schools for English learners might not be sufficient for them to unchain themselves from the boundary of differences in language and culture. As a result, the article “What It Takes for English Learners to Succeed” from Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher provides a guideline for teachers to help their English learners by using the four practices of “Access, Climate, Expectation, and Language Instruction.” The four practices can be divided into two categories. Access, climate, and expectations focus on educational settings, while language instruction focuses on teaching contents.

After so many incidents, I was determined to learn this foreign language and prove to people that I wasn’t not lost in this country. Every day afterschool I would ask my family to help me with my English. One year later, I was able to understand what people around me were saying, and I could do basic communications with people. School came to me as an enjoying part of my day, something I looked forward to when going to bed, and an opportunity, a gift for me to learn the language of this new country.

On September 1, 2012 I moved to Virginia, United States. Many can say that, but to me it is one of the greatest things I have done in life. Being born in Puerto Rico, an island in which Spanish is the main language, the wish of learning English was constantly in my mind. As I grew up I started to take English courses in school; however, the courses were not as effective, since I only learned the basics of English. Later on after graduating from sixth grade I was enrolled in a bilingual private school. The fact that the school was mostly in English and that it was private challenged my learning even more than in a public school. Although the school was a great one, I was doing badly accademically. It wasn’t until the school year was over that I decided to move to the state of Virginia in order to begin with my journey. A journey in which I learned many things from life and because of this experience I am preapared to overcome anything that comes between me and what I want.

I put in practice some words that I learned in school. I started having short conversations in English with different people because I had expanded my vocabulary. I would always carry a computer with me because it was helpful . The computer help translate the words I didn’t know. I also stopped being self-conscious because I had to try to speak in English if I wanted to learn more . I mispronounced some words , but I learned from that because someone else would say it correctly . I felt very proud because I was overcoming my obstacle. Additionally, I felt like I was fitting in , and my grades continued to go up. I also was eligible to play in the soccer team. As a result,I can say that the language barrier was an obstacle that made me a stronger person because I overcame the obstacle that life put in my path. Moreover , I never gave up, and I think that’s what life's about. In effect, my GPA is 3.5 now when it used to be 2.0 or lower. These 3 years of high school have been challenging , but I have been putting effort. I am getting more fluent with the language. I am prepared for the next challenge, which is

My situation was similar to the boy’s story from Puanani’s story, and he has struggled with reading and solving math problems. The difficulty of speaking and learning English has isolated me from others. Making new friends and learning things in school are extremely rough as an English language learner. I still remember the fear of getting lost in the strange place during my first week of school as a Middle school kid here in American. The place where I lived is like 15 minutes walking distance from the school. One day I was walking home from school and somehow I got lost. Without a cell phone and not known the street from where I lived were extremely scared for me. I was only able to speak very little English at that time, and that restricted me from asking for help from others. Having trouble finding my way home on a cold and snowy day was the worst. I used to hate the fact that I am an immigrant and only speak very little English, however, this has become something that I would always be grateful and appreciated for in

When you are not given much chooses a circumstance can be a huge obstacle in your life. My obstacle was Spanish. I am Mexican but I was raised in an English speaking home where my parents always new Spanish from early ages, but me, I only knew few words up until a few years ago. My mom was born in Mexico and Spanish was her first language while my father born here was raised in a Spanish speaking home his whole life. Everyone around me on my mother’s side minus a few cousins spoke Spanish: grandparents, uncles, and aunts. After years of ignorance I felt it was time to finally learn Spanish so I could effectively communicate with my family. Plus living in the borderland, knowing Spanish is a huge benefit. At first I tried the public school system

Same as any other regular students who decided to go to college and committed to excellence, I also wish to have a chance for a bright future. However, there are many obstacles along the way. Before I came to America, I had never thought about college because my family could not afford for me to attend. When we had a chance to go to America, it was like a dream came true for my family. We believed that we would have a better life here and everything would be fine. As we moved to America, I was so grateful for a chance to go to school. Nonetheless, the language barrier was crushing my dream. In school, I could not understand the materials my professors presented because they spoke English at a faster rate than I could process. I felt that there was no way I can pursue the American Dream like I always wanted.

Previously, it was almost impossible for me to continue studying because I could not leave my son alone and I did not have somebody to take care of him for so many hours. Now that my son already grew up, is much easier for me to be able to distribute my time in such a way that I can study and work at the same time. As my son still does not drive, we are taking classes at the same time in York Technical College, so that way when I get off from work I pick him up and we can go together to study. Initially, the language was a barrier more for me, but I projected to study and learn English the best possible to continue my career; in spite of the fact that I still have a lot to learn; I think that with some more English classes I'm going to be able to refine it a little

To be successful in English 11, it is important to be interactive. It is a good idea to be in contact with my teacher to let her know if I won’t be able to work for a period of time,or to be notified about any upcoming information. I will complete the assignment to the very best of my ability before I submit it. Help is always available, my teacher is only an email or a phone call away! If I do choose to send an email to my teacher, it is important that I clearly identify myself and what assignment I need help in. It is important that all the work I submit is my own. If I do research of any kind, I will need to formulate my own sentences from the notes I may have taken from another resource. I will take responsibility for my actions and be