Verbal Interview
Interviewer: Can you tell me what your favorite color is?
Juan : Umm, ummm, dark blue?
I: Oh, Dark Blue, that is a nice color? Why do you like it?
J: Because it is my favorite color.
I: What is your favorite animal?
J: Uh, an elephant.
J: Because he can make some noises and give me a ride and he can pick me up with his
nose and put me on his back.
I: Can you tell me about elephants?
J: You eat peanuts.
I: What do they do?
J: They eat peanut butter, get you by the horn and then bring it to their mouth. And an
elephant make noise, more loud.
I: What are you going to do this summer?
J: I am going to, I go get up on a lion, and the lion it is danger!
I: Anything else?
J: I am going to go in the Disney World to see Mickey Mouse.
I: What is your favorite Disney World Character?
J: Mickey mouse because he make uh and make uh and live in, in, in Disney World and
uh we, we, go see it and Lion King too!
I: That sounds exciting.
I: Where are you from, where did you live before here?
J: I like where I am living now. I now live in a big house, it is bigger than before and we
have two chickens named Catchy and Fatty. Catchy is the big white one and Fatty is the black one. I have a big, big backyard and they have snakes lizards and spiders in there. And I touched a cow and it was fun.
I: We are now going to read some books

Reading Sample – book one is a level 1.0 book
J: The Big Carrots
I cannot dig it up
Can you help me?
I cannot tug it up
Can you help me?
I cannot pick it up
Can you help me?
You can pick it up
I: You are reading so well
J: I sound it out, remember we had a paper that said show your mom and I help to read
used my sounds.
I: Since you are such a good reader we are going to read another book.
J: I think that is a harder one.
I: But that is ok, you can try your best.
J: I don’t know that word. That is hard.
I: Look at the picture on the front, what do you think book is going to be about?
J: It is about walkin in the street, and the police will stop them. Hey, remember when
somebody goes walking in the street the police says stop and people still walk. We see people walkin in the street with the bus wagon and people get on and get off, get on and get off with a bunch of bus wagons.
I: Why do you think the police stop the cars?
J: Because if people come, people want run over by the cars.
I: Ok let’s read the story and see if your prediction is right. If you don’t know a word
then you can pass.

Reading Sample - book 2 is a level 1.5 book
J: I see a let. Lot of for you and me.
Here is Sal. He is I a bus ___here he ___this to _____
Here is ____ Gus the _____ by the bus.
(Pause)
I: Your doing well. Is this a hard book for you?
J: Yes
J: Yours ____ _____is ____make on Andy
J: Here is Nan who ____Nan a for you and me

When the above section is analyzed, one can see how far Juan has progressed with English. However, there are many things that comes to mind where he has room for improvement. He frequently stops and pauses, adding in words that are not needed like “um,” “uh” and “like.” This happens around four times in the conversation and many of the times he tries to correct himself. Those words also might serve as fillers that give him more time to think about how to say something in English.
Throughout the conversation, Juan also jumps around to many different subjects resulting in unclear sentences. For example, when he was talking about what he was going to do this summer, he mentioned that he was going to get up on a lion and the lion is danger. There is some confusion as to how the subject of the lion came up; it does not make sense to the rest of the conversation. Overall, it seems like a majority of his sentences do make sense, but he does lack some consistency.
Juan also may have some issues with unclear use of verb tense. Some of his examples are: “I sound it out” and “Help to used my sounds.” Those were the only two instances that he missed, so more research would need to be conducted to see if this is a consistent problem with his speech development.
Upon reviewing the conversation, his use of the wrong pronoun agreement was very noticeable. He referred to his big backyard as “they” and then referred to the elephant as “you.”
One word that Juan consistently pronounced incorrectly was “walking.” Whenever Juan spoke, he always left out the “g” and said “walkin.” This could be the result of the way that he learned the word and no one ever corrected him, or because of the hearing a southern drawl on the farms his family works at.
Overall, Juan is learning English at a very fast rate. The problems he is having with English language, like the ones mentioned above, are normal for a person learning English as their second language. His biggest obstacle is confidence with the language.