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Elena is presumably an immigrant and not a refugee. I think that because she is at grade level in Spanish and had science classes which I would imagine would not occur in a refugee camp.
Language distance; social distance; psychological distance
In terms of language distance Spanish is a .44 on the language distance which is about in the middle of difficulty between French and Hungarian. Looking at social distance, because Elena is presumably from a middle-higher class family based on her previous education, I would imagine her social distance is not massive in terms of cultural understanding.
She also shares some cultural similarities with native speakers such as a love for singing and soccer which she could have in common with many native speakers. In terms of psychological distance I would place Elena farther away because she has not prior English experience which could lead her to language shock as everybody around her is speaking English. She is very young too (4th grade) which could make this big change even more difficult.
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Elena does not have any explicitly stated prior difficult experiences, but Ecuador is a very collectivist society and she would likely be leaving many friends and family behind all of whom she would miss a lot. It would be especially difficult for her to be apart from her family since they are likely very close as a collectivist society in Ecuador.
Elena loves to sing and play soccer.
She also loves learning so I believe she would see her previous academic successes as accomplishments.
Elena has two younger siblings and comes from a collectivist society in Ecuador so I would expect her family to be very involved.
Elena seems to have great motivation for learning. Her bio specifically says that "In Ecuador, she loved reading and science classes." I would expect this same level of enthusiasm to carry over to her classes in the United States. She also loves singing, which is great to hear for me as a music teacher.
Based on her bio, I would expect both of Elena's BICS and CALP to be very low (level 1) because she has not prior experience speaking or reading English. I expect her to grow in both of those areas quickly because of her CUP and previous educational experiences. She also loves learning and might see English as an exciting new challenge.
In this section, you will describe the student's country of origin in detail. In your paper, please divide the following information into 3 sections and use these bold headings: a) country information; b) educational information; c) cultural information. Use the following information & questions to guide your research.
Elena is from Quito, Ecuador which is located in the Northwest part of South America. (Britannica. Ecuador Paragraph 1). Quito is the capital of Ecuador and is an urban area (Britannica. Ecuador Paragraph 2). The geological size of Ecuador is 98,985 square miles and has a population of almost 17 million people (69th in the world) (Britannica. Ecuador. Quick Facts Side Bar). The demographics of Ecuador are relatively clear cut in terms of majorities. 93% of Ecuadorans speak Spanish (CIA. Ecuador-People and Society-Language) and 71% of them are mestizo ("mixed Amerindian and white") (CIA. Ecuador-People and Society-Ethnic Groups). The dominant religion of Ecuador is Roman Catholic which accounts for 74% of the population (CIA. Ecuador-People and Society-Religions). Ecuador also has a high poverty rate and large income inequality which mostly affects rural populations (CIA. Ecuador-People and Society-Demographic Profile). According to the CIA Factbook, 21% of Ecuador's population is below the poverty line (CIA. Ecuador-Economy-Population Below the Poverty Line). This leads me to believe that Elena is most likely wealthier because she is from the urban capital and has had a fully educational experience in Ecuador based on her bio. Ecuador's history as a country begins in 1822 when it gained independence from Spain (Britannica. Ecuador-The colonial period). Recently, there has been a fair amount of activity in Ecuador's government leading to civil unrest. According to Britannica,
In December 2015, however, the National Assembly, controlled by Correa's [the president at the time] party, adopted 15 amendments to the constitution, including the removal of term limits for public office as of 2021, paving the way for Correa to seek reelection indefinitely. The changes to the constitution, which prompted a new round of street protests" (Britannica. Ecuador-Ecuador from the late 20th Century).
This was law proposing no term limit for the presidency was eventually overruled by a referendum under Ecuador's next president, Lenin Moreno in 2018 (Britannica. Ecuador-Ecuador from the late 20th Century). The intense political tension in Ecuador would very likely affect Elena in some way, adding uncertainty and unease to her family's life. There are also many refugees in Ecuador right now. According to USAid in September 2018,
"As of August, more than 60,000 Colombians and approximately 250,000 Venezuelans were sheltering in Ecuador, many of whom were in need of food, health and nutrition assistance" (USAid. Food Assistance Fact Sheet-Ecuador-Situation-Bullet #1
These massive amounts of refugees fleeing violence will put Ecuador through even more economic pressures than the country is already dealing with.
Situations potentially pertaining to family's relocation and urban/rual study of hometown)
Elena is from the Quito which is an urban area. In Ecuador, urban areas tend to be very stratified, especially Quito which has some of the country's best universities such as "The Central University" but also his home to many poorer people living "in central city slums" (Britannica. Quito). While Elena's strong education background leads me to believe she is probably wealthier, living in Quito would still expose her to extreme poverty very near to her. Her family may have even wanted to leave to the US to find a safer city to live in than Quito, especially considering the growing refugee population in Ecuador.
The literacy rate of Ecuador is 94.4%, (CIA. Ecuador-People and Society - Literacy) and the spending of Education amounts to 5% of their GDP (CIA. Ecuador-People and Society-Education Expenditures) "Primary education is free and compulsory for kids beginning at age six" (Britannica. Ecuador-Education-Paragraph 1). The country is trying to work towards literacy for every person, but is struggling from rapid population growth and overcrowded secondary education programs with too many students in single classrooms. (Britannica. Ecuador-Education). There is not a discernable gender disparity that I could find that would affect Elena. In fact, the female school life expectancy (length of time students are in school) is 16 years as opposed to the male school life expectancy which is only 15 years (CIA. People and Society- School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)). The schooling is free for students but there is disparity in the quality of education (and class size) as wealthier families will send their students off to private institutions. (Britannica. Ecuador-Education). There are major institutions in Quinto and I would not be surprised if Elena came from one of those institutions because of her grade level work in Spanish. According to Britannica the political unrest in Ecuador as well as a lack of funding have caused the education program there to struggle (Britannica. Ecuador-Education.)
Ecuador is very collectivist and "Most Ecuadorans place great emphasis on the family, including fictive kinship, which is established by the choice of godparents at baptism" (Britannica. Ecuador-Daily life and social customs paragraph #1). This quote is great because it shows the surface culture of religiosity of Ecuadorans with the focus on baptism, but also gives a window into the deep culture of fictive kinship in Ecuador. Within the area of religiosity is another interesting fact that "Many Ecuadorans make pilgrimages or dedicate themselves to the service of a particular saint." (Britannica. Ecuador-Daily life and social customs paragraph #1) While Elena is likely too young to have dedicated herself to a particular saint, this is practice her parents might be engaged in. The way that Ecuadorans celebrate Easter is significant too and is really neat. Ecuadorans will make fanesca which is a soup "made of onions, peanuts, fish, rice, squash·-combines highland and lowland ingredients" (Britannica. Ecuador- Daily life and social customs). As a teacher it might be in my best interest to ask Elena about fanesca when she arrives to show interest in her culture and food from her culture. Another part of surface level culture that are good for me as a teacher to know are that in Quito there is a week long holiday which takes place between December 1st and December 6th. It is celebrated "throughout the week with festivals, parades, and sporting events" (Britannica. Ecuador-Daily life and customs-paragraph #2). The most important deep culture I located that will affect Elena deeply and immediately is the idea of fictive kinship which I mentioned above. The International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family describes the function of fictive kinship as "Fictive relationships serve to broaden mutual support networks, create a sense of community, and enhance social control." (International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family. Paragraph 3). The same source also describes that fictive kinship means that family goes beyond blood and marriage, often in the form of close friendships and Godparenthood (International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family). This closeness of family would likely be a strength for Elena as she transitions as well as difficult factor for Elena. While she can be confident in her immediate family who is travelling with her to the US, it will likely be extremely difficult for her not to be able to see her other family members, both related and not related because they are so close. Elena's first language is Spanish which is very easy for me to research and get support learning basic phrases from my school's Spanish teacher hopefully. I found a great website called Learn Spanish Today run by the U.S. Institute of Languages with a huge array of short phrases which are translated to Spanish and then written phonetically to help with pronunciation. (Learn Spanish Today). I have made a table with some useful ones I want to make sure to learn for Elena.
I also located a "Spanish Classroom Glossary" specifically for helping teachers to instruct EL's that has a guide to basic Spanish for a classroom setting (Color?n Colorado).
Cultural aspects that influence education. (2019, Dec 20). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/cultural-aspects-that-influence-education-essay
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