18th Kassel English Colloquium (KEC) "Language Learning Situation in Southern California" on June 24, 2015.

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Carolina Serna, California State University in Monterey Bay, California, USA
"Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners in the English as a Second Language Classroom" at the Kassel English Colloquium (KEC), organized by Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner, Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Research and Intercultural Communication.
For the 18th Kassel English Colloquium on June 24, 2015, a large number of interested people turned out to listen to the exciting presentations of Prof. Dr. Carolina Serna, California State University, Monterey Bay, on the language learning situation in Southern California. Prof. Serna, who is an Associate Professor in Teacher Education, gave an impressive description of the key facts of the current educational system in the U.S. and addressed the ethnic diversity of students in California.
Prof. Serna presented her study on "Triqui-Speaking Elementary School Students on California's Central Coast," which examines a first-year teacher's experience working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners. The study was conducted in an elementary school in Greenfield, Monterey, California with Triqui-speaking students. Triqui is a language or variety of language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico and brought to California by immigrants. In the presentation, Prof. Serna concluded that immigrant children in California have communication difficulties with parents in part because of differences in English, Spanish, and Triqui language proficiency among children and parents. For students whose English proficiency improved over time, a regression in their native Triqui language was observed at the same time.
Prof. Serna sees a need for trilingual translations (English/Spanish/Triqui) to take into account and respect the culture of the learners. She sees an approach for teachers to get to know the culture and language of the students and to have a deeper understanding of the learners through reflection and feedback. Furthermore, Prof. Serna is concerned to emphasize the importance of the mother tongue in order to avoid cultural as well as linguistic loss.
The analogy to the language learning situation of children from families with migration background in Germany and the analogous regression phenomenon (for example in Turkish) was discussed.
The 18th Kassel English Colloquium (KEC), organized by Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner, was a success for all 50 participants as well as for the presenters

Text: Jenny Selbach and Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner