ENTRY #3

         In order to better understand how an English language learner attempts to read a text written in English when they have not learned the language, I picked up a copy of People en Espanol.  I did this for two reasons in particular: one because I was traveling and I always read gossip magazines when I travel and two because I felt like I may be more successful if I had some background knowledge to rely on.  I decided I would approach the task by flipping through the magazine to see if there were any familiar faces or names that I may be able to recognize.  This tasked proved to be a bit more challenging than I originally thought.  I had to flip all the way to page 122 to find more than one person I had even heard of, so this is where I decided to stop and read.  I saw Justin Beiber, Selena Gomez, and Ricki Martin and saw the names Eva Longoria, and Shakira.  For the record I can speak very little spanish ("hola", and "me llamo es Lauren" are pretty much the extent) and I took a few years of french in high school.

        The section I chose to read was entitled "iFamosamente Enamorados!"  I immediately felt that I understood this as famous lovers because 'famosamente' looks like 'famous' and 'enamorados' looks like 'enamored'.  Past this point I began to struggle to read any part of it confidently or fluently.  I relied solely on my background knowledge to make any sense of anything at first and the ability to identify words that are similar to words in the English language.  After attempting to read through the article without much slowing down to try to understand better, I finished feeling frustrated and very confused.

My second attempt at the article, I spent more time trying to gain meaning and it took me much longer and I think I understood only 5 to 10 percent of the whole text. 
          
"Despues de un tormentoso divorcio, la actriz Eva Longoria, de 36 anos, se refugio en los brazos del cantante espanol Eduardo Cruz, de 26, hermano de la actriz Penelope Cruz."  Using my background knowledge on this topic and finding words that I could connect to English words I took this to read: "Despite a tormented (or tumultuous) divorce, the actress Eva Longoria, who's 36 years, seeks refuge in the arms (I guessed this based on my knowledge of phrases) of hot Spanish Eduardo Cruz, who's 26, brother of actress Penelope Cruz".  This is the only sentence in the entire article I felt I could infer the entire meeting.  In the sentence "Si el amor es la fuerza que mueve el mundo, itodos estos lo han puesto a correr!", the only word I could pull out was 'amor' meaning some form of 'love'.  All in all, I could generalize that the article detailed the love lives of some famous people.  The details of most of these affairs I missed entirely.

          
            This experience was very helpful in allowing me to recognize what is important as a teacher when teaching reading to an English language learner.  I realized the importance of photographs and background knowledge.  The photographs were my first link to the article and allowed me to even attempt to read the text.  My minor background knowledge on the topic was what led me to make any sense of the article, showing just how important this piece is.  A major difference between my attempt to read this article and the attempt one of my students might make is that I have been a fluent reader in one language for many many years and could use my understanding of my language to approach another.  My students, unfortunately do not have this, and are unable to use this strategy to help them comprehend.