Julia Robinson

October 17, 2015

Dr. Thomas Griggs
ECLD 592
Language Learner Profile #1
This learner profile focuses on David, a student in my first period sixth grade language
arts at Franklin Middle School in Greeley, Colorado. David is from Chihuahua, Mexico and
moved to Greeley Colorado in January 2014. He lives in Greeley with his sister, Wendy, who is a
seventh grade student at Franklin Middle School, and his father, who works in construction. His
mother and older brother still reside in Mexico due to the fact that they were not able to obtain
papers to enter the United States. Davids father brought David and Wendy to the United States
to better their education, in hopes that they will attend a university here in the United States.
Davids parents and older brother have little to no formal education, so they do not comprehend
grades and schoolwork. However, both of his parents are very supportive. His father attends all
of the parent teacher conferences and his mother often calls from Mexico to check on his
progress. David states that he enjoys school and he rarely misses school because he knows that it
is important for his future, but he cannot wait to move back to Mexico with his mother. He states
that he feels more comfortable speaking Spanish and that he only speaks Spanish at home and
outside of school. His father, mother, and older brother do not speak any English, while his
sisters English proficiency is lower than his. He also states that many of his friends prefer
Spanish as well so that is how he communicates with them.
As far as Davids schooling, he first attended school in Mexico for eight years, which has
vastly affected his schooling in the United States. Often times he did not actually attend school in

Mexico because his family is very poor, and Mexico does not have enforced schooling laws. In
fact, he was retained a year in his Mexican school. At his school, he did not study English while
he was in Mexico so he has only been studying English for the past two years.
In the Greeley District 6 school district, he is labeled as a NEP level two, meaning that he
is classified as having no English proficiency, and he is ranked at a level two out of a scale from
one to six. When he first entered the schooling system in the United States he was placed solely
in ELL classes, where he was in classes that only allowed students to solely speak, read, write,
and listen in English. However, now that he is in sixth grade, even though he is extremely low on
the English proficiency scale, he is in all mainstreamed classes except for one. He receives an
oral language class, which is meant to help English language learners with their speaking
abilities.
Davids English proficiency was last tested on January 31, 2014. He has the greatest
amount of difficulty with reading and speaking English, while he excels in listening and writing
in English. Even though David struggles with English, he told me that language arts is his
favorite class because he loves to see how much he learns and improves every day. His least
favorite class is AVID because he says that he is disorganized and his teacher is hard to
understand. Even though David has only been in my class for two months, his English has
already improved. He spends nearly every lunch with me, speaking in English and practicing his
writing. When it comes to writing, he is a perfectionist and will change his paper until it is
perfect.
David is also highly motivated to succeed and to make friends with his English-speaking
peers. Even though he struggles with vocabulary and expressing his ideas in a timely matter, he
tried his best to communicate fluently. David is also an extrovert. The first day of class, he was

shy and timid in my class, which was because it was his first day in a new school with a new
teacher and new peers. However, after the first day and especially after I studied with him for a
test, in which he received an A, his demeanor changed. He now begs to read aloud in class. He
always participates in group discussions; his hand is always raised to tell a story or make a
connection to the text. He still struggles with his writing. I asked him why he wrote so slowly
and he told me that he has to translate in his head often, while writing. He also stated that he
wants to make everything perfect.
Now that all of Davids background and schooling information has been presented, it is
time to analyze Davids second language acquisition. It is obvious that his L1 is Spanish and his
L2 is English. One benefit that David has in acquiring his L2 is that he has started before he hit
puberty and before his brain has fully developed. Yule states that, after the critical period for
language acquisition has passed, around the time of puberty, it becomes very difficult to acquire
another language fully (Yule 188). This shows that David has not passed the critical period for
language acquisition and he will continue to develop English and become more fluent.
In addition, to him being able to continue to develop his fluency, he has many external
and internal factors that have influenced his second language acquisition. Since I have met
David, he has stated that he cannot wait to return to Mexico. His mother and brother still reside
in Mexico and he wants to return, after his education, to help support them. He also misses the
Mexican culture, and he stated that he misses speaking predominately in Spanish. Schumann
states that one factor of that affects ones language is social distancing is intended length of
residency, which means, Social distance is greatest when members of the group only intend to
stay in the country a short time (Freeman and Freeman 126). Schuman proves that when one
wants to return back to their native country that contains ones native language, they often

distance themselves from their L2 because they do not intend to use it in the future. This is the
case for David since his family still resides in Mexico and plans to reunite with them.
Another external social distancing factor is social dominance, which refers to the power
relationships between two groups. Social distance is greatest when one group dominates the
other (Freeman and Freeman 126). Since Davids father works a construction job and speaks no
English and his mother and brother could not come to the United states because they did not
have papers, Davids family is seen as less powerful than the typical American family. Davids
family does not have a lot of money and his family is split apart due to legal issues. When
comparing his family to the typical white, middle class families in which resides in northern
Colorado, one can see that the vast majority of northern Colorado dominates Davids family.
Although the previous two external factors are negative, David has a positive external
factor that influences his second language acquisition. Schumann states that there is not solely
social distancing, but there is also psychological distancing. In Davids case he is highly
motivated to learn English and succeed. Freeman and Freeman states, those with a high
motivation to learn the language are more likely to learn the language than those with low
motivation (Freeman and Freeman 127). David wants to be successful in school and wants to
earn good grades. On a daily basis, he asks me how he can get an A in my class. This shows his
motivation to succeed. He is also enrolled in an AVID class, which is an elective class that is
meant to teach students study skills so that they can succeed in school and then go onto college.
This shows that he is motivated to graduate and then plans to enroll in college. Not only does
David motivate himself to be successful, but his parents motivate him as well. His father expects
him to have all of his assignments turned in and he expects David to earn a C or higher in each of
his classes. His mom calls often to make sure that he is completing all of his work and attending

school daily. With David and his parents motivating him, his second language acquisition has
been vastly improving.
Not only does David have external factors contributing to his second language acquisition
but he also has internal factor contributing to his second language acquisition. David is an
extremely outgoing student. He likes to communicate with his peers and his teachers. He likes to
tell stories about his personal life and he often makes connections between our class work and
his personal experiences. Since David wants to communicate with his peers because he is
outgoing and he likes to tell stories, it pushes him to develop full fluency in English. This shows
that David contains integrative motivation which is means he wants to learn the L2 for social
purposes, in order to take part in the social like of a community (Yule 192). Since his
personality is extroverted he strives to meet English proficiency so that he can gain more friends
and school and communicate with them more effectively.
Due to Davids low test scores and drive to speak solely Spanish and go back to Mexico,
it is clear that he should have continued ELL support while being in main streamed classes.
David often uses the communicative strategy in my class, which means that he tries to explain an
object using vocabulary that he already knows. He also has difficultly with pragmatics, which is,
the study of what speakers mean, or speaker meaning. In many ways, pragmatics is the study
of invisible meaning, or how we recognize what is meant even when it isnt actually said of
written (Yule 125-126). This shows that he needs support with developing his English
language. In order to better support David, it is important to utilize the audiolingual method by
providing him with many oral activities, such as pronunciation and conversation practice (Brown
104). This will help him with his accent and it will help him develop his vocabulary, which will
therefore improve his writing and speaking. However, his listening skills are high, which helps

his comprehension. He also loves to read aloud and is highly motivated to succeed. This shows
that he should be in some mainstreamed class because he has the ability to be successful and rise
to meet high expectations.
It is important to state that even though David does need more English language support,
his language is improving vastly. Due to his will to read aloud, his reading ability has improved
vastly. His vocabulary has also improved by reading and listening to his peers in class. His
writing has also improved with the writing structures I have provided the class, and with him
working with me one-on-one during lunchtime. Due to Davids achievement, personality, and
motivation thus far, I foresee David being a successful student who has reached full second
language acquisition.

Works Cited
Brown, H. Douglas. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching: A Course in Second
Language Acquisition. Sixth ed. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, 2014. Print.
Freeman, David E., and Yvonne S. Freeman. Between Worlds: Access to Second Language
Acquisition. Third ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2011. Print.
Yule, George. The Study of Language: Fifth Edition. Five ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2014.
Print.