Graduate / ELL and Bilingual Speech Therapy-SOP for Masters Speech Pathology program [3]

Hi All,

I'm having lots of trouble structuring my statement around one main idea/reason for why I want to do speech pathology. Also it seems to need more a hook. Advice appreciated!

"I go the zoo." Coming from Kay, these words were special. Just several months before, Kay, a 4th grade ELL who had lived in Minnesota for 2 years, had rarely spoken more than a word at a time in any language: neither English nor her native Karen. Her silence was unusual, so I had decided to spend the following 3 months working one-one with her to elicit creative oral output. Every day we opened a colorful leveled-reading book, and I prompted Kay to give me oral feedback on what was happening in the text and what connections it held to her personal experience, in the process reviewing structures like the present progressive, the copulative, and subject pronouns. Progress was initially slow, as Kay would spend up over a minute thinking of how to respond to a question. Yet In the end, even I was amazed by her growth; Kay's teachers noted that she had spoken more in the past few months than she had the previous half year. Although she still has a long way to go, Kay was producing significantly longer utterances, telling me about everything from her former pets in Laos to the activities she did on the weekend. Perhaps most touching of all, Kay had the newfound confidence to assist newcomer English language learners in her classroom.

Growing up as a Russian-speaking ELL myself, I remember the frustrations of learning a second tongue. My experience sparked a passion for the teaching of languages, and I chose to take on a 2nd major in Spanish while participating in the DirecTrack to Teaching pre-licensure program at my college. During my study abroad experience in Lima, I volunteered at Deporte y Vida, a community organization providing tutoring and mentorship to children in the shantytown of Villa El Salvador. Since most of my students were Quechua speakers for whom Spanish was a second language, I had the exciting and challenging practice of teaching in a second language to students who were non-native speakers of the language. The experience reaffirmed my desire to find a career where I could utilize my Spanish in educational and meaningful ways.

When I entered my M.Ed program in second languages and cultures in June 2013, I believed myself to be completing a long journey towards becoming a Spanish and ELL teacher. Yet as I worked with Kay at my placement and another ELL with special needs in the weekly literacy program Reading to Achieve, I discovered my heart lay in teaching children one-on-one, particularly those in need of special support. My yearning to work individually with struggling children led me to withdraw from my teaching program, and shortly after I accepted a position as a one-to-one special education aide. It was then that I had the opportunity to observe and assist in delivering speech services. Since my student Thomas received weekly speech therapy, I was able to familiarize myself with the kind of services a speech therapist delivers and even participate in play-based therapy for categorization and vocabulary-building. I was impressed with the way that Thomas's speech pathologist could build off of his interests in paper fortune tellers and YU-GI-OH cards to deliver engaging therapy, though it was from more structured articulation sessions that Thomas held his most-cherished accomplishment: correctly being able to pronounce the "th" in his own name.

My work with Thomas and continued interest in second language acquisition is what has ultimately lead me to pursue a career in bilingual and ELL speech therapy. Although it has been a winding journey to uncovering my dream career, I am dedicated to acquiring the skills I need to be an excellent bilingual therapist. This is my 2nd school year working as a special education paraprofessional to a student with a speech disorder. In addition to my full-time support role, which includes assisting in weekly speech therapy sessions, I am taking a full-time online course load in introductory speech and communication disorders at Utah State University. Literacy also continues to be a strong interest, and this will be my 2nd year working with my ELL 2nd grade student in the program Reading to Achieve.

Given my work and former studies in ELL development, I am excited by Dr. ____ studies on ELL language growth in various language instruction programs and settings. I hope that given my graduate level coursework in second language acquisition and literacy as well as my direct experience working with ELLs, I may be able to aid in his continued research on ELL environments such as SEI, Sheltered Immersion, and the wide variety of bilingual program models. I am also drawn to the University of ______ excellent onsite ______ Clinic, as I believe the University's exceptional bilingual certification program will prepare me for the unique challenges of serving ELLs with language disorders.