Jim Baird send this:
Hey Ben,
I would like to tell you about one of my adult ESLstudents, 36 year old Juan Lopez.
In 1995 Juan immigrated from rural Guatemala to California. Reportedly, his English speaking skills were zip. He went to work in a resin factory in Modesto, but stayed only a year, returning to his home country. He remained in Guatemala until 2008 and came to Dalton, Georgia. His wife brought him to one of my classes. His English conversation level was barely upper beginner. Because of his disability, he could not work or navigate without help. Despite help from Vocational Rehab, he remained socially isolated and rarely left his house.
Today Juan is almost fluent, he also writes skillfully in English on his computer and from reading his emails it is often difficult to detect he is not a native speaker. He is my strongest student, but he has never cracked an English grammer book, filled out a work sheet or memorized a vocabulary list.
So what is so unusual about this? Juan was blinded in 1996 in an industrial accident. I would like to take credit for his amazing progress, but I only see him two hours a week. I’m not sure what to make of this, but it must be the CI coming from his TV and radio.
What do you and your readers think?
Jim