Paw's Story: A Laotian Refugee's Lonely Entry into American Literacy.

Abstract

Savang sat with shoulders hunched, head down, her straight black hair falling into her eyes, and one hand covering her mouth and half her face. Though she showed little emotion, she was deeply distressed. Her llth-grade English teacher had announced that the class would have a debate with the boys on one side and the girls on the other. To avoid participating in a classroom event that she didn't how to join, Paw left her desk and sat in the corner doing her mathematics homework. Her teacher could see Paw's unhappiness and later confided, don't what I should After 3 years in American schools, Paw still couldn't understand her classmates' propensity for expressing their opinions and disagreeing with their teachers and one another: When the students have a big argument, especially when they talk back to the teacher, I don't what I should do. I am not used to that. I can only be quiet. Paw's story is that of a lonely young woman struggling to enter into and become part of a new culture, to acquire literacy in a second language, and to find happiness and satisfaction in a new world. How many other newcomers to the United States find themselves in a similar plight? And how many other English teachers just don't know what to do? Fu (1995) observed Paw and her three brothers in their classrooms several times a week over a school year; she held frequent, informal exchanges with the students and conducted formal, One pis desire to succeed collides