exploration (2-page write-up)

CHST/LING 187: Language, Power, and Learning

Week 2 Exploration: The real-life effects of language policies

Due on GauchoSpace by Sunday, April 11 by 11:59 p.m.

In this assignment you will examine how language policies in educational settings have affected

the students who experienced these policies. You will explore this issue by interviewing

someone who experienced either ESL/ELD or bilingual education (in any form) anywhere in the

United States or around the world, whether for a brief period or for a longer time. You may

interview a person of any linguistic and ethnoracial background for this assignment.

Identifying an interviewee

During the next week, you will conduct an interview with any adult (18 or over) who has

experienced either ESL/ELD for immigrant students or bilingual education (in any form, for

immigrants and/or U.S.-born students); in either case, your interviewee should have experienced

ESL/ELD or bilingual education in the United States as part of their K-12 schooling. It can be a

peer, a sibling, a parent or guardian, co-worker, friend, auntie, uncle, etc. Be extremely polite

and respectful when requesting an interview, and don’t assume that you already know someone’s

linguistic or educational background. Tell your potential interviewee that you’re looking for

someone who has experienced either ESL (or a similar program) or bilingual education in the

U.S. at the K-12 level. If they’re willing to be interviewed, be sure to tell them right away that

they don’t have to answer any question they don’t want to answer. Explain that the purpose of

the assignment is to gain a deeper understanding of the effect of language policies on

students. If you don’t know anyone personally who fits the above description, we’ll help

facilitate finding folks who are willing to be interviewed for this assignment. (If you are a

student who fits this description, consider volunteering to be interviewed – it will probably be an

extremely interesting experience and may help you with your own assignment.)

The interview

Documenting the interview. You may either do an online interview via email (not via texting—

it’s hard to get full answers in that format) or a face-to-face interview (via Zoom or adjusted for

Covid safety measures – i.e. living with you). The interview may be conducted in any other

language(s) that you and your interviewee feel comfortable with. If you do a face-to-face

interview (whether in-person or via Zoom), audio-recording is highly recommended if your

interviewee agrees. If you use Zoom or your phone, test it beforehand and make sure it’s

working. For face-to-face interviews, at the beginning of the conversation, ask if it’s okay for

you to record/take notes. For all interviews, tell them you’ll keep the email

exchange/recording/notes confidential and destroy them after you write up the assignment, and

then do so immediately.

Interview style. The interview should be more like a conversation between two acquaintances or

friends (depending on how well you know each other). This means you should talk/write like a

real person in your usual style, not like a researcher or interviewer, and you should respond as

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you normally would to someone telling you about their life experiences, including by showing

interest and your emotional reactions and perhaps, if appropriate, sharing your own life

experiences, if they’re similar to your interviewee’s. Regardless of your interview format, try to

put your interviewee at ease. Avoid making the interview feel stiff and weird by asking stilted or

formal questions. You may need to refer to the written interview questions during a face-to-face

interview, but avoid reading the questions like a script; just consult the list from time to time to

nudge your memory, if necessary.

Length. A video or face-to-face interview may take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes or

more, and an interview via email may fill one or more screens, depending on how much your

interviewee has to say and how comfortable the two of you are with each other. A longer

interview will give you more information and details, as well as putting your interviewee more at

ease, so the longer the better. The goal is to get stories and rich details, not vague generalities.

You want to get a clear sense of your interviewee’s experience and its effects.

Interview questions (These are suggestions – don’t read off the list like a robot.)

1. How old are you?
2. How long did you attend K-12 school? What were your home language(s) when you were

in school?

3. What kind of school did you attend, and where was it located?
4. How did you end up in the English language program(s) you experienced, whether

ESL/ELD, bilingual education, or both?

5. What was your experience in the program like? Could you describe a particular instance
or example that illustrates your overall experience?

6. Were you able to use your home language in a classroom setting in your school? What
kinds of responses did you get from your teachers and peers when you spoke your home

language? If you didn’t ever do this, did other students do so? Can you think of a specific

example or instance and describe what happened?

7. Did you ever feel like you, your peers, or other folks in the program experienced racism
in anyway connected to the bilingual education program?

8. Do you think the program was helpful for you? If so, why? Do you wish it had been
different in some way? If so, what kind of experience do you wish you’d had instead?

9. How has your experience in the program had an impact on your educational and/or job
trajectory?

10. What other questions should I have asked you, but didn’t? What else do you think it’s
important for me to know?

Be sure to thank them for their time. Write up your assignment as soon as possible after the

interview; you’ll remember more details that way. And don’t forget to destroy the data

afterward!

The writeup

You must submit a discussion of approximately 2 double-spaced pages (600-750 words or so)

that discusses key aspects of your interview in relation to the course readings. A high-quality

writeup will include several direct quotations from your interview. A quotation can be anything

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from an especially important word or phrase to a full paragraph (for a really powerful quote). As

a general rule, summarize facts without quoting, and use quotes for examples/stories and

expressions of the interviewee’s attitude toward their experience. Quotations should be discussed

or explained. Always tell your reader what a quote’s broader significance is; never assume a

quote “speaks for itself.”

Your discussion should address the following issues (in prose paragraphs, not in list format):

1. The key details of your interviewee’s background (age, current situation, schooling
situation, type of program, etc.). Do not use your interviewee’s real name; give them a

pseudonym (false name) or ask your interviewee to choose their own pseudonym.

2. Your interviewee’s experience with their English language program, including at least
one example.

3. Your interviewee’s experiences with their home language in the classroom, including at
least one example.

4. Your interviewee’s view of whether the program was helpful or whether they wish it had
been different, and how they see it as affecting their educational and/or job trajectory.

5. How your interviewee’s experience of schooling compares to your own with regard to
language medium (e.g., was all of your schooling in your first language or another

language?), and how this comparison sheds light on your understanding of language

policy in some way (e.g., does it confirm your experience? does it open your eyes to new

perspectives?).

6. Connections between your interviewee’s experiences and concepts/ideas from course
readings, lectures, and other materials/activities.