Sierra Matsubara

Case Study

Introduction

Within my field placements and in college courses focusing on adolescent behavior, I had

come to learn of how sociable and noisy teenagers are when in the presence of each other. Give

them the slightest opportunity to mingle, and they would seize the moment to babble away.

However, one student in my placement challenged this notion of teenagers as sociable creatures,

as it was her silence and disregard for socializing that piqued my interest.

Charice Bautista (pseudonym) is a high school sophomore at Pearl City High School in

Mrs. Beauregard’s (pseudonym) class. Charice is a quiet fifteen year old female who prefers to

keep to herself, but is very polite when directly addressed. While I had met a few students who

had similar personalities, in terms of being quiet, yet polite, it was her reluctance to talk to other

students that began to worry me. In the four months that I had the privilege of being in Mrs.

Beauregard’s classroom, I could count the number of times she interacted with her fellow

classmates on one hand. Yet all those times she did interact with her peers, she had to be

instructed to do so by either Mrs. Beauregard or I for classroom activities. This behavior was in

stark contrast with her chatty and interactive classmates, who we often struggled to get them to

stop talking during moments of silence. Even then, what was most baffling was how her peers

did not interact with her unless they had to do so for a school-related activity. This was odd,

considering how interactive and loud they are with the rest of their classmates. The lack of

sociable interaction between Charice and her peers started to make me wonder: How do I get

students who do not socialize with their classmates to interact with their peers?

The Interview as a Baseline for Conflict

 It was difficult at first to get the interview I needed to understand a bit further as to why

she keeps to herself in the classroom. However, with a bit of coaxing through an informal

conversation on the Los Angeles Lakers, I was able to gain a bit of her insight on her

background. Charice is of Filipino descent, hailing originally from the Ilocos Norte region of the

Philippines. She arrived to the United States four years prior, which allowed her knowledge and

use of English to expand to a conversational level, albeit tinged with a heavy Filipino accent that

was difficult to understand at times. While I tried my best to make sure that my confusion was

not noticeable on my face, I had this feeling that she already knew that I had some struggle with

trying to grasp what she was saying through her accent, based on the look of exasperation on her

face. This piece of information on her immigrant status and her accent made me wonder whether

the reason she refuses to talk to her classmates was due to her accent impeding on the ability to

communicate with her peers. Generally, the inability to properly communicate and understand

what is being spoken due to language or accent barriers could cause the speaker and the listener

to be frustrated.

Beyond the barrier of being able to effectively communicate to English speaking peers,

Charice does have a solid grasp of what is being spoken to her, as she had no issue of

understanding what I was saying through our informal conversation. Her understanding of

verbally spoken English extends to the academic realm as well, as she is able to keep up with

taking notes on news broadcasts, which requires her to listen to what the speaker is saying in

order to take note of the information from the newsclip. Knowing the extent of how much

English she can understand from another English speaker further solidified my belief that the

root of the issue was not the inability to understand what is being spoken to her, but rather the
inability to accurately express what she wants to say and how to get that information across to

her English speaking peers that struggle to understand her beyond the accent barrier.

While Charice’s silence and preference to not interact with her peers was only half of the

story, I had to get a glimpse as to why her peers did not socialize with her. Through an informal

interview with her classmates, in which I had to be really sneaky of how I phrased the question

without raising suspicions, I was able to understand as to why her classmates hardly interacted

with her on their own free will. According to one peer, a female named Serena (pseudonym), she

thought Charice just preferred to keep to herself, so by not interacting with Charice, she was

respecting the former’s decision of non-interaction. Another peer, a male named Cyrus

(pseudonym), stated he hardly talked to her beyond school work because “It’s really difficult to

understand her, or even engage in a conversation outside of school work.” From these two

interviews, and observing their behavior whenever they interact with Charice, I deduced that the

main reason why many of her peers avoided interacting with her beyond classroom activities was

because of her accent made it difficult for English speaking students to understand her and the

commonly held perception by her peers that she prefers to keep to herself rather than converse.

As for Charice’s academic abilities in respect to her self-imposed silence issue, she is

able to comprehend verbal instruction, yet she struggles to articulate the information when

required to present the content out loud. For instance, she is able to take short, bullet pointed

notes after watching a newsclip from CNN. If you read her notes, the information is accurate of

what the video showed. Yet if you ask her to read what she wrote, the accent heavily alters how

some of the words are pronounced, which could cause confusion amongst English speaking

students. Words that start with P, for example, would come out sounding like an F, and vice
versa. She would also stress specific sounds in words that would create confusion as to what she

would try to say (e.g. Ray-diant vs. Rayjant).

Charice is acutely aware of how her accent causes confusion amongst her English

speaking peers on what she tries to verbally convey. As a result, she attempts to remain quiet, as

to avoid the embarrassment accidentally saying the wrong thing. However, this attempt has led

her classmates to perceive that she purposely chooses to not interact with them, which had led

them to follow her wishes. However, based on that look of exasperation on her face, it seems that

she really wants to be able to converse with someone without her accent getting in the way of

being understood.

Methodology and Intervention

The first method that I used to better understand what Charice was saying through her

accent was to have her slowly enunciate what she would say. Before starting the method, we

created an agreed upon non-verbal signal to tell the person to slow down their speech without

drawing too much attention by potential observers within the classroom. For the rest of this trial

period, we used the American sign language symbol for “slow down,” where a person slowly

slides their dominant hand up the forearm of their non-dominant hand. We would start a

conversation by using generic starter phrases, such as, “How are you,” “Did you finish all your

homework,” and “What did you do yesterday after school.” From there, she would respond

appropriately to whatever question I proposed to her that day. To prevent her from using one-

worded answers, I required her to respond back with more details. For instance, if she responded

back to my “How are you?” question with “I’m fine,” I would then ask her, “Explain to me how

‘fine’ you are this morning,” which she would then describe why she feels fine rather than great.

If I felt she was speaking too quickly for me to comprehend what she was saying, I would
nonchalantly use the sign language signal to slow down, which then she would proceed to slow

down her rate of talking. If I still could not determine what she said, I would politely ask, I’m

sorry, I could not catch what you said. Can you repeat that for me or draw it out?” In most cases,

I would be able to understand what she said after a single repeat, as she usually followed the

repeated word with either a definition or action. Sometimes, however, she had to resort to

drawing out the word for me to understand what she said. Once I figured out what she meant, I

had her practice how to pronounce the word correctly, using the same method of slowing down

to enunciate the words. We held these informal conversations and used the signals for about five

to ten minutes every morning when I was at my placement.

By having Charice slow down to enunciate her words, the listener would be able to

mentally sound out what she was pronouncing, and use their prior knowledge to try see what

word they knew fits best with what Charice is describing. If the listener was be unable to

determine what she was saying, then they would ask for clarification or find a different mode of

communication (e.g. drawing) to determine what was being said.

One method I attempted in order to get her to talk to her classmates outside of academics

was through giving her miniature tasks to complete at the end of each class period, with each

task getting progressively more complex. For instance, the very first task that I had given her was

to say “Thank you,” out loud to a classmate whenever they do something nice for her. The

classroom routine was conducive in providing opportunities to give thanks, as the students were

usually the ones to pass out and collect materials to the rest of the class. As I sat nearby her desk,

I was able to listen in and tally mark each time she gave thanks to a classmate for helping her

out. The next task was a prolongment of the first task, by having her say “Thank you, [insert

classmate name here].” For this particular task, I had to coach her to pronounce her classmates
names correctly, through modeling how to enunciate the names correctly and have her follow

along. Once again, I recorded each time she said thank you and addressed her classmate by their

name. The third task required her to say, “Good morning, [insert name here]” to any classmate

that sat near her whenever they walk into the classroom. With each task thereafter, I required her

to make small talk, similar to the ones she and I had, with her classmates that arrived to the room

before the start of school. After completion of each task I gave her, I had her bullet point a list of

things that occurred in the chat. From there, we would look at the list and discuss her progress

with that particular task. If she successfully completed the task, I would give her a new one that

required more talking. If she did not succeed, I gave her advice on how she could attempt the

task again and have her redo the task again.

I used this method in order to get her to interact with peers through use of baby steps. By

requiring her to start small with talking to her peers, she would be more likely inclined to

complete a small task, rather than having her hold a lengthy conversation with her classmates.

By going over how exactly each “interaction” went and how to further improve the next time

helps Charice how to self-assess her progress on communication and think of ways to improve

on the next task.

Interpretation/Analysis of Data

The first method was conducted seven times over a period of two months and yielded

improvements on her ability to provide responses longer than a couple words. At the very

beginning of this trial, I had posed a question of, “What did you do after school?” of which she

responded with “Hang at the park.” The very first attempt was akin to pulling teeth out of

someone’s mouth, as it was difficult to coax responses out of her. Even then, her answers were

relatively short and lacked any details. By the end of trial seven, her responses were longer and
provided more detailed. For example, I asked her, “Did you complete your homework?” which

she responded with, “I did most of my homework, except for some of Mr. Takahashi’s

(pseudonym) math problems. I had a hard time answering some questions.” Comparing her

response from the first time we did this method to the very last time, her answers were more

detailed and even went beyond what I had initially asked of her.

She was also able to improve the pronunciation of some sounds in the English language.

For example, prior to using the method, the letter P would sound like she was pronouncing the

letter F and vice versa. By the end of using the method, she was able to accurately use words

with F’s and P’s in the correct context (e.g. Fish instead of Pish). For other sounds, such as using

“Ja” in place of “Di,” is still a work in progress, as she does occasionally pronounce words like

“radiant” as “rayjant.” As for slowing down to enunciate words, the act has become nearly

automatic for her to do so, as she found herself to use the technique outside of our practice

sessions in order to communicate with her teachers and even in the small conversations with her

classmates for the second method.

The second method yielded promising results, as Charice is now capable of conducting

and sustaining small conversations with her classmates. For instance, in one of the last few

conversations I had observed, Kiana (pseudonym), a fellow classmate who Charice held a small

conversation with a few times, started to help Charice in finishing her incomplete homework

sections for another class. When I later asked Charice what happened during their conversation,

she replied with, “I had problems with answering some of Ms. Nomura’s (pseudonym) science

homework. Kiana was nice enough to help me since she has her for another period.” From what I

had observed at that moment and based on Charice’s comments, it appears as if Charice was on

speaking terms with a fellow classmate to the point where she was able to seek assistance on
homework outside of official school hours. Charice has even made a few acquaintances, as some

of the classmates she conducted conversations with have even pursued small talk with her in the

mornings. In another conversation, Charice noted how she and Cyrus, the same student who

previously avoided speaking to her outside of class, started talking about basketball. Later on,

during our one-on-one review sessions, she told me how Cyrus was the one to approach her

about basketball after seeing her come to school with her Lakers’ jacket.

Resolution

From working with Charice, I realize that I would likely encounter more students in a

similar situation in the future. As such, I needed to create a personal intervention plan in order to

prevent problems like Charice’s from ever occurring in the classroom. The first thing I need to

do is to establish classroom instruction that is conducive to student interactions. This means

to dedicate time to doing ice breakers in order to get kids to know each other and start the

interaction process. If students in the classroom know about each other beyond what occurs in

the classroom, they are more willing to converse and interact with each other than students who

do not know each other well enough. An example of an ice breaker activity could be “two truths

one lie,” which would allow students to hear about information from their peers while taking a

guess at which statement is false. Creating instruction conducive to student interactions also

means using cooperative learning strategies that require students to work together and

communicate with one another in order to get things done. An example of an activity that would

use cooperative learning would be small-group discussions on open-ended topics before sharing

the results to the class.

Once classroom instruction is conducive to student interactions, I would have them

engage in practicing their enunciation of words. As social studies is a course that utilizes
complex or foreign vocabulary, this would be excellent for all students to learn how to properly

pronounce words that appear in the content. It would also be great for English Language

Learners, as practicing how to pronounce academic and conversational language can further

improve their communication skills. I would also have students learn alternative forms of

communication, such as interpreting images or drawings. Learning how to analyze the meaning

behind images would benefit students in the social studies content, a subject which requires

analysis of images to gain the hidden meaning. It would also benefit English Language Learners

and English speakers, as the use of images and interpreting them can be an alternative form of

communication when ELL students struggle to find ways to verbally communicate their ideas.

By structuring classroom instruction to encourage student interactions, it would facilitate

student-student communication in a safe and structured environment. It would also provide

opportunities for students like Charice to engage in conversations in peers. Teaching all students

how to pronounce words and alternative forms of communication would improve

communication between English Language Learners like Charice and English speakers.

Appendix

List of questions used in the initial one-on-one interview with Charice:

● Which country did you come from?

● What region did you used to live in?

● How old were you when you first moved here?

● Did anyone else move here [Pearl City] with you?

● How old are your siblings?

● What do you think of school here in Hawaii?

● What was school like in the Philippines?

 ● Do you like living here?

Some of the information pertaining to these questions may not have appeared in this paper.

Nevertheless, this is the complete list of questions used for the first interview.