MEET VLADIMIR : VLADIMIR UNFOLDS

Case No. 2

 

This was written by a teacher who has worked in Intensive English Centres in Sydney for nine years

Meet Vladimir	Vladimir Unfolds
More About Vladimir	The Untold History

 

PART ONE: Meet Vladimir

THE STORY

 

Meet Vladimir. He is 15-years-old. He has been in Australia only a month. He is in a class of 16 students at an Intensive English Centre. He has developed a fairly fluent (ie. easily understood, flowing) playground social English which is of course limited to perhaps twenty or thirty phrases and expressions. These are fairly formulaic but he's learning to insert key verbs and nouns to increase their versatility. eg. "Give me pen/book,/paper......" "I want to toilet/play/see.....", "Me/my "

So, in this class of English Language learners Vladimir is doing fairly well at picking up communicative oral English skills. At this stage, after 3 weeks at the IEC, however, he is not as competent as other students in producing written English.

In particular

• his English script is difficult to decode,
• his spelling is more non-standard than most of the other students.

Generally, he is far more willing to take part in activities which involve movement and speaking/listening than in those which focus more on reading/writing.

He is often slow to start these written text based tasks and more frequently requires refocusing to these tasks than others in class. Homework which requires writing is not completed at least 50% of the time.

Vladimir is very outgoing. By 'normal' Western standards he is very attractive. Most of the students in the class seem to find him amusing. He speaks Russian; was born in a town 200km from Moscow. Two other students in the class, both male, also speak Russian. The rest of the class are roughly 50/50 male, female with a total of seven first languages.

 

The language 'content' of English lessons is based very much on simple survival English (numbers, days, simple requests, personal credentials etc.) and functional 'school' English ('school' vocabulary)`

 

Questions for Consideration

1. Any ideas based on what you've read so far that may explain the discrepancy between his relative performances in written/spoken mode (does it require explaining?)

2. What are BICS and CALP?

3. In what ways is Vladimir an 'ideal' language learner?

4. Nominate five pieces of biographical data that you'd like to have about Vladimir. NB: This can possibly be provided.)

Back to top

---

PART TWO: More About Vladimir

THE STORY

 

At the end of their initial 12 week program, the students in Vladimir's class either move on to the next program or are 'repeated' - maybe four weeks or eight weeks - by being placed in another class which is behind their class in the IEC program. There is also a special class in the lEC which students may be placed if - for whatever reason - they are not progressing well.

Ten weeks into the initial 12 week program, Vladimir has started exhibiting unwanted behaviour. Generally, he is starting to question the instructions from a number of teachers. He appears to do this rudely. He is a big strong boy and in little ways intimidates others. eg. holding their arms down, pushing past them roughly, snatching objects. Nothing really violent however. He seems to speak roughly to other students in Russian....

Three specific incidents:

• A girl says he used an obscene expression in her first language (Spanish) in your class. You heard nothing.
• He said I'll hit you after school" to a male student in the class after a minor dispute about his bag being put on the floor - to enable the other student to sit down.
• Someone wrote F--- Y--- with liquid paper on a desk. Circumstantial evidence suggests it was probably Vlad but there is no way of proving it.
  

SOME ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL DATA

 

Vladimir's parents are separated. She remains in Russia, Vlad lives with Dad. He likes sport a lot and is body-building at a gym somewhere in the city.

In class?

• He is developing very well in spoken English. With you he is taking up a lot of time. Constantly needs to be told to sit down, get on with the work, be quiet when you are talking.
• Homework is hardly ever done now. Class work tends to be done on (non- hole punched) paper sheets. Little evidence that work is filed
• Other students are now able to write half a page of simple descriptive text but Vlad just never holds a pen long enough to attempt this. Spelling and handwriting remain problems. Vlad seems to feel neither are important - he says this.
• At the end of class meeting (of the main English teachers who teach the class) it is decided that he will repeat four weeks of the program
• Two other students are similarly repeated because they are still extremely reticent / unable to produce target language utterances. Vlad's Russian speaking friends and the other students with whom he is friendly all move up to the next class

Questions:

1. What needs to be addressed if repeating is to be a successful venture?
2. How might his and other students' writing be assessed?
3. How might the decision to "repeat" Vladimir be evaluated?
4. What should Vlad's teacher do about those three incidents?
5. Why might the word "appears" be presented in italics?

WHAT FURTHER INFORMATION DO YOU NEED TO DISCUSS THESE QUESTIONS FULLY?

 

Back to top

 

---

 PART THREE: Vladimir Unfolds

THE STORY

Vladimir is now identified throughout the IEC as a difficult student. One-to-one, teachers

find him charming. His 'good looks' are mentioned a lot. In the class and the playground

however he is more and more frequently seen teasing, pushing, intimidating other students.

 

His 'new' class is a very cohesive little group. There are a few students whose spoken English is better than Vladimir's. Vladimir tends to sit alone and is less inclined, apparently, to involve himself in class activities - even chose which focus on oral/aural interaction.

He now falls foul of the lEC welfare/discipline procedures two or three times a week, for rudeness, swearing, lateness, non-compliance with instructions. Detentions ensue.

He is interviewed by the Head Teacher because of an allegation of a) 'sexual' remarks, to girls- in Spanish and b) swearing in the presence of a Teachers Aide Ethnic (TAE) in another language. The Head Teacher nominally accepts his defence in both cases that he believed he was saying something innocent. He is warned not to use other languages if he is in any doubt as to their meaning. Warned that father will be called up if he transgresses again in the area of harassment/rudeness.

 

The interview between Vlad and Head Teacher is facilitated by a Russian speaking TAE.

 

Vladimir appears to be making very little progress or effort in writing. He is now very fluent in BICS style conversation.

 

1. How should his classroom behaviour, (disruptive) be managed? Who should be involved?

2. Should other students be helped in knowing how to respond to Vladimir? If so.... how?

3. Would the Special class offer an avenue (maximum student teacher ratio is 10:1, normally two teachers with 10 to 15 students. An open-ended program. Students in there for wide range of reasons including behavioural/emotional)?

4. 'Study skills'. What help is needed here? Can Vladimir be helped to get more organised?

5 . Are there any special features of the Russian language which may be relevant here? How can you find out about this?

Back to top

---

PART FOUR: Vladimir : The Untold History

 

THE STORY

You have a good read of Vladimir's history card and read something you've never known about. He as a twin brother who lives with his mother.

You find out from the Russian speaking TAE that twins are usually kept together in class in Russia.

Vladimir's father is called in because of further misbehaviour. he tells the Head Teacher that Vladimir was always difficult at school and they have a lot of conflict at home.

Counsellor also talks to father and Vladimir. Counsellor believes there may be very angry, possibly violent, scenes at home.

 

Vladimir, by this time, has moved up to the next class. he wasn't placed in the Special class. It didn't seem appropriate because it was thought that he wouldn't blend well with the existing students.

 

Observed in the playground, it is clear that several female students spend quite a bit of time with Vladimir. Sometimes he embraces on of them and touches her legs.

 

By now Vladimir is attracting attention from the IEC's management and counsellor quite intensively. His classroom behaviour (you teach him less frequently now) is up and down.

 

He is now extremely fluent in speaking on most non-academic matters.

 

By the time he leaves for High School after spending about eleven months in the IEC, he is living in a government funded house for adolescents who, in the opinion of DOCS, are better off living apart from their parents/guardian

 

A few months later he returns to the IEC for a visit. He says he enjoys High School a lot and reports that he is doing OK and settling in.

 

Questions For Consideration:

With Hindsight

1. What were the factors impacting negatively on Vladimir on the day he first set foot in the IEC?

2. What additional factors were added during his stay?

Draw a poster which shows this diagrammatically and clusters variables around:

Linguistic

Social

Emotional

Settlement

Cultural

(entitle the poster "some factors which may impact negatively on newly arrived LOTE students")

3. Which DSE policies are of most relevance here? Would they have helped the teacher in dealing with Vlad, in helping Vlad learn?

4. Was something not done that might have helped? Was something done that maybe shouldn't have been done?

5. What additional information on Russia, Russian language, recent history, culture, educational system etc. would be useful/relevant?

 

Back to top

Copyright' M.Teach, University of Sydney