On February 24, we were able to connect with a school from Mexico over zoom. At first, I was very nervous as I did not know what to expect and I was not sure how much English the students knew. I was concerned on how I was going to communicate with them because I have a lack of knowledge with Spanish, but these concerns were depleted when I was put in a breakout room with a group of students and some fellow classmates of mine. We started out the discussion by asking the students to share their names, we continued by asking about their families, homes, and their favourite parts about school. They mostly all had a strong knowledge of the English language as they were able to answer our questions or just needed it phrased in a different way.
We were then able to join a different group of students to get to know as well. This group for me was a lot chattier than the first group, they spent most of the time asking me and my classmate questions about us, school for us, and about Canada. They were very concerned that it was so cold here and offered for us to come see them in Mexico if we needed to go somewhere warm. I found it so amazing that they were able to open up to people of a different language over zoom and willing to share and get to know us.
In both groups I noticed that there were one or two students that did not talk much. I was not sure if I should have been pressuring them to speak or just let them listen to the conversation. For these students, I was unaware of their knowledge of the English language, so I felt as though letting them listen was the best option. This made reflect on the idea of a silent period that Rubina Khanam shared in our lecture on February 10th. The silent period refers to a period for children when they are silent and have an absence of speaking a second language. Working in a school with an ESL program, I have dealt with children in this period and find that it is most common when the student first joins the classroom. This period lasts anywhere from a month to a year depending on the student. I believe that this period should not be seen as ignorance of the student from learning a second language, but as a period where they are collecting the knowledge through listening and observation before speaking. I look forward to meeting the students again and making connections with them, while engaging in activities.