Client Journal Entry #1: September 5, 2002

Originally, I thought it would be a positive experience coming to the United States to pursue a career. My former employer in Thailand had been contacted by OxyChem in Buffalo, NY because their company was seeking individuals who could work with a newly created chemical compound. It just so happened that I had the qualifications to do this so I was transferred. My greatest desire is to create a better life for my family and to expose them to the virtually limitless opportunities found in the U.S. However, after my first week of work, I have doubts about how qualified I really am to work here. Last week, I was hesitant to initiate conversations and share my ideas with my employer and fellow employees because my pronunciation is so poor. Others’ judgmental stares permeate my skin, quickly shattering my confidence in my English speaking ability. When I first spoke to people at OxyChem, I felt as if they immediately discredited me as an intellectual individual because they couldn’t fully understand my English. I knew it would be difficult to be thrust into a new work environment where English was the dominant language because previously, I had little exposure to this language. Recently, when I have talked to people, they repeatedly asked me, “What?, What did you say?,” so I would repeat the sentence again and again. Finally, they would say, “Ah-ha!,” and then say my sentence, using exactly my words. It was so humiliating! I knew my English words and grammar were fairly decent, but nobody could understand me just because of my pronunciation. Now, I am very motivated to learn how to better communicate in English. It doesn’t seem fair that I am here in the U.S. teaching these employees a new skill (how to work efficiently with this new compound) and they won’t even take a second to help me learn how to better communicate with them. Maybe my fellow employees feel that helping me to pronounce something would belittle me, but that is not the case. I realize that improving English pronunciation is something that I must accomplish on my own. My employer has seen how frustrated I become at work when I have communication breakdowns with others, so he has recommended that I see a speech-language pathologist. I am eager to do this because I cannot continue to live and work here if I don’t improve my communication and pronunciation skills. I long for someone to give me some direction, some tips, some encouragement…anything besides judgmental stares. I am meeting with the SLP next Monday for an initial evaluation. It’s a big step realizing that my problem is real and is negatively impacting me. I’m nervous to go to see this person, yet excited at the same time. I hope this person will show compassion toward me when I tell him or her how greatly my difficulties are affecting me in the workplace. I just hope my English is good when I express my feelings to him or her, so that they may fully comprehend the depth of my anguish. Otherwise, I will feel no one here can truly understand my concerns, desires, and ideas.
Until next time...~Thani

Clinician Journal Entry #1: September 5, 2002

I received a call from Damion Walters at OxyChem today. He expressed concerns with a new worker that was transferred there last week from Thailand. Mr. Walters reported that this individual had difficulty effectively expressing his ideas and understanding others’ when they spoke at a normal rate. The individual’s English pronunciation was reportedly very difficult to understand. Mr. Walters said that while he values the individual’s knowledge and skills, he would be forced to let him go if his communication and pronunciation skills fail to improve. I will be evaluating this individual on Monday morning at 9 am at the Burns Speech and Hearing Clinic. I am really excited about this because I haven’t had the opportunity to work with many bilingual individuals yet. I plan to assess this client’s needs using a variety of different methods. For instance, during our first meeting, I will give the client a self-assessment questionnaire to get a feel for his individual concerns and to see where he believes his areas of strength lie (Weddel, 1997). Then, I plan to further assess his individual needs by asking that he keep a personal journal about his daily communicative interactions and express his feelings about his communication difficulties through a poem. Finally, as part of the intial needs assessment process, I will sample and analyze the client’s spontaneous speech, and then observe his responses to communicative probes (to assess potential problems in pragmatic functioning and language comprehension) (Weddel, 1997). I will have to be very cautious about administering standardized tests to this individual because most of these tests are standardized only on native English speakers (Wrigley, 1992). This is frustrating for me because there aren’t enough adequate assessment tools today that can provide valid and reliable evaluations of the different language varieties spoken by nonmainstreamed speakers. Since I am relatively unfamiliar with the individual’s native language (Thai), it would be difficult for me to modify or revise the existing standardized tests in such a way that would make them appropriate for my client. Therefore, for this particular E.S.L. client, I chose to adopt a primarily needs-based approach, as opposed to one centered upon standardized testing outcomes. Hopefully, I can do enough informal testing with this individual, that I can get a good idea about the client’s strengths, weaknesses, and individual needs (Weddel, 1997). After that, I will be able to begin formulating a therapy plan. Right now, however, I am unsure what to expect. I won't be able to know how severe the client’s pronunciation and communication problems are until I can assess him myself at the clinic. According to Mr. Walters, this man becomes really frustrated and often depressed at work when his communicative attempts fail. I hope I can reassure this person that I really do care about his communication success. I will try to help and support this individual as much as possible, but, ultimately, he must possess a positive attitude and willingness to work hard, if success is to be attained. I hope he possesses the desire to learn, because I greatly desire to learn from the experience of working with him. Hopefully, I can help him become a more confident and effective communicator and, in turn, he can help me become a more confident and effective therapist (when working with bilingual clients). I'll update this journal after the initial assessment. Wish me luck! ~Erin

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