Does My Identity Speak English? A Pragmatic Approach to the Social World of an English Language Learner with Language Impairment

ABSTRACT

The case description provides a comprehensive picture of the complex social and linguistic factors that shape the social identity of an English language learner with the additional challenge of language impairment (LI). These issues were explored over 6 months with Fernando, an 8-year-old, Spanish-speaking male with LI in grade 3. A pragmatic, or practical, approach to problem solving was developed for two purposes: first, to obtain a multifaceted understanding of Fernando's world at school, and second, to arrive at possible educational/clinical solutions that met a standard of cultural appropriateness and practicality. The patterns found that, contrary to teacher interpretations of Fernando as inattentive, he employed both perseverance and saving face strategies, which appeared to function as practices for preserving his self-esteem in different situations. These patterns led to specific recommendations for collaborative instruction and intervention that would better integrate and support Fernando's social and bilingual learning needs while also meeting standards of cultural appropriateness and practicality.

KEYWORDS

Bilingual - language impairment - pragmatic assessment - social identity - social competence

REFERENCES

1 All names, including the name of the school, have been changed to maintain confidentiality.

2 The Center School, a Title I school, has 700 students in prekindergarten through grade 5. About 69% of students are minority students; a total of 41 receive ESL services. Spanish is the most populous first language of ELLs in the school.

3 For detailed guidance on writing classroom-based field notes, see Klingner et al.[27]

4 Ms. Lopez is a bilingual, native speaker of Spanish from Peru who has lived in the United States for 24 years. She holds a BA in Spanish and is in the process of obtaining teacher certification in Spanish for grades K-12.

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