Interviews

Interview with Denise Prestes Fernandes, São Paulo, November 2009

Interviewers: Daniele Guedes and Sara Carriel from the University of Sorocaba – Talk About News.

Abstract:

As an American international school in São Paulo, Monica’s school prepares its students for achievement on a global level as the community works together to ensure the success of each of its members. The language of instruction for all subjects is English. It curriculum encourages the moral, intellectual, social and physical growth of the students and helps them achieve success wherever their lives lead them.

Introduction

This interview was conducted in São Paulo, SP with Denise Prestes Fernandes, who has studied English for 10 years and teach since 2005. Denise is graduated in History by the University of São Paulo.

At the moment, Denise is teaching at Monica’s school thus, in the interview she deals with the questions on this school system.

We hope you enjoy reading the interview as much as we enjoyed talking to her.

The interview

TA- The international schools and bilingual schools offer an environment of language acquisition. As an English teacher in a bilingual school could you tell us what is the student’s profile?

Denise: Most of my students are foreigners and they come from all around the world (Sweden; Porto Rico; Spain; China; Argentina; Chile; United States; Portugal; England; etc); only 40% of them were born in Brazil. In general, those students’ parents work for multinational companies so they move to different countries from time to time taking (of course) their children with them. In order to keep them in regular schools (instead of home schooling), they have to enroll their children in monolingual International Schools. I also have Brazilian students whose parents have chosen an international school instead of a national one because they plan to have their children studying abroad when they go to college.

TA- In your opinion, what are the positive and negative points of international schools?

Denise: I think that an International School offers children a wide range of opportunities that they would probably not have if they had been enrolled in regular ones. It opens their minds to different cultures and ways of facing the world and this can bring important benefits in matters of personality building.

The only negative point I see in studying at an International School is the literacy. At schools like the one I teach in children will be literate in English only and if they don’t have a special attention from the parents or another professional hired to work on their writing and reading skills in their mother language, they will probably have problems with it in the future, especially if the parents plan to go back to their country some day.

TA- How do you motivate students?

Denise: Children are easy to be motivated. I believe that children’s motivation is strictly connected to the way things are presented to them. If not even the teacher is interested in what they are trying to present, the child will probably notice and it will seem boring to them too. It’s all about the way you look at your work object and your enthusiasm to present new things to your students. I always try to put myself in their shoes and ask how I would like that thing to be introduced to me for the first time. My answer to that question is always the key to start my classes.

TA- In your view, an International School may shake the child’s cultural identity? Comment on that.

Denise: Not really. I do think that being part of an environment where you can be in touch with people from different cultures can actually help you become more conscious of your own identity and reduce or eliminate the prejudice against different cultures.

TA- How long have you been an International English teacher?

Denise: For less than 6 months.

TA- You have taught in regular national schools before, right? Are there any differences between international and national schools in terms of language teaching method? What’s the method used at Monica’s school?

Denise: Unfortunately, the base for English teaching in regular schools in Brazil is grammar rules. Most of the schools in Brazil are not even concerned about the language fluency and focus only on the “Vestibular” Exam and written texts. On the other hand, in International Schools, students have the opportunity of getting to know a new language the same way they learned their mother language: being widely exposed to it and stimulated to use the new language for daily activities. This is the method we use at Monica’s school.

TA- Is there a right age to start learning a second language?

Denise: I wouldn’t say that there is a right age to start learning a second language, but there is no doubt that learning languages is much easier for pre-scholar children because at this age they are building their connections between the real world and the language that represents it. That’s why doesn’t matter how many languages they are exposed to, they will link all of them to the real world.

TA- Do kids get the languages mixed up when they are outside the school? Do you think this is normal or it can interfere on the literacy in both languages?

Denise: They not only mix the languages outside the school, but also inside. Because we have kids who speak different languages, many of them end up speaking not only English plus their mother language but also Portuguese and other languages. One of my students, Hugo, came from Sweden two years ago (he is 3 years-old now) and despite the fact his parents talk to him in Swedish only, he speaks English and Portuguese too. He is not being taught Portuguese, but he has learned it just by interacting with his Brazilian friends. Differently from what happens to adults and teenagers, language learning is a natural process to pre-scholar kids and mixing up two or more languages is more than natural, it is essential. Mixing up languages means that they are learning to link the world around them to the many languages that represent it. At the end of the process they learn which language they should use in which environment. One of my students, Tommy, speaks only Spanish with his parents (who are from Chile), but at school he only speaks English, even with friends whose mother language is also Spanish. That means he reached the end of the process, he can identify the appropriate language for each place of interaction.

By Sara Carriel ‘n Daniele Guedes