Because the purpose of the interviews was to get information about the participants’ background and experiences and not to do any discourse or linguistic analyses, a simple transcription system was adopted as recommended by Duff (2008). In the excerpts presented here, the symbol […] refers to talk that I have ellipted, and punctuation, such as commas and
periods, has been added to aid reading comprehension. In addition, words in square brackets have been provided to aid in interpretation of passages while the words ‘laughs’, ‘laughing’, ‘chuckles’, and ‘chuckling’ were included to show when participants engaged in these behaviors.
Finally, words in parentheses included in the excerpts indicate my own utterances.
4.2 Generation 1.5 Students
4.2.1 Ian
“Just tired and work really gets in the way a lot. Um work gets in the way of a lot of stuff, like events, hanging out, studying, relationships, you know (yeah), it gets in the way of a lot of things.” (Ian, Interview 2)
Ian moved to the U.S. from South Korea at the age of 11, without his family, to go to school. He lived with South Korean friends of his parents in a metropolis in the South East of the country for two years, when his mom and two sisters joined him. They then moved to the city where this study was conducted. His dad stayed in Korea to work and send money to the family in the U.S. and was still living there at the time of data collection. Ian was quite reticent in talking about his family situation, and I did not pressure him to share more than what he was comfortable with, but from what I understood, he had not seen his father since moving to the U.S. His mom did not speak English and apparently was self-employed. In Ian’s words: “she
actually works, but she doesn’t need to, I guess she doesn’t need to learn [English] because she doesn’t work under anybody, so…” (Ian, Interview 1). The baby of the family, Ian had two older
sisters who were also in college and with whom he communicated both in English and Korean. The three of them lived at home, and the primary language used in the household was Korean since the mother did not speak much English.
Ian came to the U.S. without much knowledge of English at all (“I didn’t even know the alphabets really” – Ian, Interview 1) and was placed in ESL classes from day one in 6th
grade. After taking two and a half years of ESL classes in middle school, he passed an exam and did not have to take ESL classes until high school, where he was placed in ESL once again. He
explained: “I passed the ESL exam in middle school, but when I went to [Name of school] high
school they made me take the exam or they made me take ESL again. I guess they needed people to be in that program so I did. I passed the exam again, so I I I got out of it after one year” (Ian,
Interview 1). He attributed his success in learning English to the support from family, friends, and ESL teachers and to his motivation to read books, study, and watch TV in English. In the literacy narrative he wrote for his EH101 class, Ian provided more details about how he learned to read and write in his L2, as seen in the following excerpt.
To briefly summarize the 7 years of my life as a reader and writer [Ian was 18 at the beginning of the study as reported in Table 3.3], I learned how to read and write the alphabets in 2007, I read my first book in English and understood in 2008 […] I literally spent the whole summer looking up every word in the book on my little electronic dictionary I used to carry around with me everywhere. It took me a while for me to even call myself a reader and a little longer to call myself a writer. But the fact that I was young enough to catch up quickly was a big advantage. The biggest advantage that helped me to become a reader and writer in such a short period of time was the environment, meaning teachers at school, friends at church, and books in library. On August 5, 2007 my journal says “I wish I can write a journal in English and be able to read it when I get older.” in Korean. I had a strong motivation to learn to read and write English, I practiced reading and writing every day.” (Ian, Literacy Narrative, EH101)
Ian gave his mother credit for his claimed abilities to read and write well in Korean both during his interviews and in papers written for his EH101 class. He explained that his mom always encouraged him to read books and to keep a journal in Korean in order for him to develop his L1 literacy.
My mom is passionate about books, she is the biggest bookworm I know. She would always recommend two or three books every month and chose all of the books on my bookshelf since I was a toddler. My mom has always encouraged me to write a journal, because it will help me greatly in writing Also, reading the books she gave me have shaped how I read and developed my reading skills and vocabulary. (Ian, Literacy Narrative, EH101)
He confessed, however, that he did not engage in much reading or writing in his L1 anymore. His writing in Korean at the time of the study consisted of sending text messages to his mom, and all of his other activities involving reading and writing were in English and digital, such as “a lot of texting”, browsing different websites, and social media, specifically Facebook
and Twitter.
Ian’s ACT score was 25, and his acceptance letter recommended him to register for
EH101S (i.e., English 101 with the studio component as described in Chapter 3) perhaps because of a low score in the reading portion or perhaps because of his ESL status from high school. The cut off score for EH101S was not available on the institution’s website, and Ian did not recall
what reason the letter he received gave for his placement in EH101S. However, determined not to be in ESL any longer, Ian took a placement test before classes started and placed out of EH101S, enrolling for a regular EH101 class instead. His declared major was finance even though he was not particularly fond of mathematics. He chose finance after orientation day and explained that although he did not like math (or science), he liked money, economics, socializing and meeting new people – important skills in the financial world.
A sweet, carefree, laid-back and very much ‘Americanized’ teenager, Ian’s world appeared to revolve around socializing with his – mostly American – friends, going to the gym, and having a good time. Yet, he was constantly preoccupied with portraying an image of himself as studious and responsible. Although not always quick to respond to my e-mails or text messages, Ian came to all interviews (though not always on time), but habitually forgot to bring his assignments as I requested. Throughout the semester, he kept bringing up the importance of “a good GPA” and
the added responsibilities he had taken on with work to help pay for his tuition, as seen below: I feel like I have more responsibilities (uhum) so I try to help my parents pay for my tuition that’s why I have a part-time job (yeah) and now I’m looking, like, to see if I can get a full- time job, so to be full-time and…and to have that and be a full-time student, it’s really tough, so (yeah) I’m not sure…(Ian, Interview 2).
He worked at a retail sports store and had interviewed at a fast-food chain restaurant around the time of our second interview for a manager position where he would make more money and “not have to work as hard”, according to him (Ian, Interview 2). He did not get the
job, however, and seemed rather disappointed about it. The tension between having to work and juggle school and social time was frequently brought up in his interviews. In fact, work always seemed to ‘get in the way’ of more important things for Ian as illustrated in the introductory
quote.
Nonetheless, like the other generation 1.5 students, Ian claimed that college was not very different from his high school in terms of workload and that his high school prepared him well for higher education. In our first interview, he commented, “I really couldn’t tell [any differences between high school and college]. I guess the classes are bigger, um, but [name of school] high school really tried to make the environment close to college, so, it’s very similar. […] English, Math, and Science I think they are about the same.” (Ian, Interview 1).
He was, however, the least motivated about school of the generation 1.5 students in the study, and his social life was undoubtedly a big priority. Being very socially active, Ian
participated in various events on campus and joined different organizations in his first semester in college. He was also quick to give me a report on what movies were being shown at school or what games were happening on campus on the weekends following our interviews.
His social skills seemed to serve him well when his zest for studying or working on assignments failed him. Always very respectful of and courteous towards his instructors and classmates, Ian was able to get notes and help on assignments from peers and gained the
sympathy of the instructors he saw during office hours for assistance on papers and assignments. His English 101 instructor mentioned that although not an “A student”, Ian was sweet and polite
and was trying to do better. The interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts might suggest a different reality, however.
For instance, Ian was in fact often late to classes and many times absent in the courses where attendance was not taken. He also waited until the last minute to work on his papers and reading responses for the English class and asked peers to ‘borrow’ their answers for economics
assignments, copying them down in class right before they were due. As a matter of fact, he did not even own the textbook for the economics course and claimed that the book was not necessary to do well in the class. Realizing my surprise at this statement, Ian – trying to maintain the good student image he wanted to convey – quickly added that he did not have enough money to purchase the book. Despite his less than diligent and very much teenage-like behavior at times, Ian was skilled at taking advantage of the resources available to him, and his likable personality and the hard-working persona he strove to portray indeed seem to have helped him develop strategies to work around his weaknesses. Although he seemed to struggle with finding a balance
between school and work, Ian passed all of his classes in his first semester of college, earning two As (one in BIO 119, Principles of Biology, and one in FYE100, First Year Experience), one B+ (in EH 101, English Composition), and two Cs (one in ECN142, Principle of
Macroeconomics, and one in MA112, Pre-calculus Algebra).
4.2.2 Jacob
“I was really pushed in high school so I’m really good already and it’s kind of like math, in calculus B where people say it’s the hardest, I’m bored in that class [laughs], I literally I don’t do anything in that class; I just sit there […] well, I don’t know everything, I look at the book while she’s teaching the rest of the class, I just look at the book, see if I can do a few problems, I understand the problem, like how, why this works and I can just do from there on on my own, then it’s just needing to be careful not make any silly mistakes here and there, and that’s it.” (Jacob, Interview 1)
Confident, determined, and a student athlete involved not with one but two sports in college, Jacob could come across as arrogant if you did not know him as the quote above might suggest. He indeed excelled in sports and school and was not shy about his accomplishments. However, Jacob was one of the kindest and most helpful students in the study, always
volunteering to help others. He was on time for every meeting we had, including one interview when he was sick with the flu, shared with me all of his assignments, and even helped one of my EH101S students who was doing a research paper on soccer literacies, participating in interviews and recruiting the collaboration of other soccer teammates for the project.
Demonstrating work ethic beyond his years, 18-year old German Jacob was consistently ahead of schedule in completing his assignments and never missed a class during the semester (according to some of his instructors, my classroom observations, and his own self-reported practices) despite having soccer practice five times a week and matches twice on the weekends. As if not busy enough with his six classes and soccer, Jacob claimed to have “plenty of time”
soccer season would be over. The track coaches did not allow him to train until then worried about his health and schoolwork. Such concern seemed ludicrous to Jacob, but he was willing to listen to them for he was a respectful student.
Jacob’s confident and hard-working personality appears to have been developed through
his upbringing and school experiences in the U.S. – where he had to work hard to adjust to a new country and succeed in his L2. He was also determined to do well in college and “get an A in basically every subject” (Jacob, Interview 1) since he was not able to do so in high school.
Coming from a seemingly privileged background, Jacob moved to America at the age of nine with his parents and older sister when his father was relocated from Germany as a high executive of a German car company. Jacob did not recall knowing any English when he first moved but said that he learned the language fairly quickly at the international private school he attended for two years; he then attended a different private school for the rest of his secondary education. He explained that they did not have ESL classes at the international school, but all the “German kids” were sent there, where they had a program in which an older German student was paired up
with a new German student in order to help with his/her transition as seen below.
Uh, I started 4th, uh, 4th grade in [Name of School], which is a school in [name of town where he lived up until college] (ok) and the reason I went there, and I went there for 2 years, it’s because it’s a school that actually had half German and half American, that whole German, like every German kid that kind of came over for [car company name] went there, yeah […]you had like, they were always paired up with someone German that could do both German and English so you could learn it (ah ok), but you learned it within like 2 months, you could like no problem speak it. (Jacob, Interview 1)
Jacob’s parents and sister spoke English well, but they only used German at home. When
around people who did not speak German, they used English, however. Because he had moved away to go to college and lived on campus, Jacob used German primarily when calling or visiting home. Jacob’s L1 literacy appears to have been the least developed of the four
generation 1.5 students in the study because of his early arrival age and the fact that he did not practice reading and writing in German very often. As a matter of fact, Jacob pointed out that he was “not a big reader or writer or anything of that sort” (Jacob, Interview 1) in any language.
While completely fluent in German, Jacob explained that he was only able to read and write at basic levels in his L1, and – unlike his older sister – was most likely not able to comprehend or produce academic texts because he did not know “complex words” (Jacob, Interview 1) and
experienced difficulty with spelling in German. In fact, he recalled reading just one book, called “Dragon”, in German during his entire childhood. Interestingly, his chemistry professor was also
German, and they only talked in their native tongue during his visits to her office. She mentioned in our interview that while definitely fluent in the language, Jacob’s spoken register was quite informal and that he addressed her using personal pronouns normally used with family and close friends only. He seemed unaware of this, however, and the instructor said she did not bring up this issue to him because she noticed that Jacob did not realize the differences in how she addressed him with more formal pronoun forms.
Although learning to speak English seems to have been relatively easy for Jacob, reading in his L2 was a challenge throughout school. Calling himself a “slow reader”, Jacob attributed what he considered a low ACT score of 26 to his reading speed. He said he was not able to finish the test because of the reading section and explained that this was a difficulty he faced all
throughout school. Unlike reading in English, math and soccer were two areas in which he had excelled from back home, and he decided to capitalize on these strengths once he moved to the U.S. with his family. In his words:
My love for these two things only increased when my family moved to America. Soccer and math were two worlds that remained the same as I came to America. They practically are my childhood. They never change no matter what the language is. Numbers are always numbers and soccer is always soccer. They both are things I could understand
through that language barrier that I had to cross. It is not like numbers would just change into letters – at least not that I knew of yet. So I held on to these two worlds of mine and practiced them more and more. (Jacob, Literacy Narrative, EH101)
The importance of ‘practice’ was often brought up in his interviews as seen in the literacy
narrative quote above. His concluding sentence in that essay summarizes his work ethic and school philosophy displayed throughout the semester. It reads: “Through my two big literacy events, it is made clear that practice is the key to becoming great at something” (Jacob, Literacy
Narrative, EH101). He indeed diligently practiced soccer and running sprints, even when sick, and also practiced chemistry and math problems time and time again.
His very first chemistry exam was not what he had expected, and he was very unhappy with his grade. He did not tell me what his grade was, but it must have been a really low score because he needed to make A+s in all other tests in order to make an A in the class. Thus, after reviewing the test to understand what he had missed and talking to the instructor about it, he began to work on different chemistry problems over and over, almost daily, to ensure that he