Vaughn came from Vietnam at age five. And she went through all of our public schools. And you can see that she wrote this letter because she was really distraught. Because she'd been placed in a beginning level English as a second language writing course at the University of California Irvine.
I was the Director of the Program. And she was my student. She did not want to be in this class. And so she wrote this letter. And she actually brought all her work from her high school. And she had poetry to share with me. And she had essays and a variety of different written work.
All of which was written in a very interesting style of informal, everyday English. It wasn't academic. And so she wrote this beautiful letter saying that she had read many books, that she had written and spoken English since-she said-"since time I come to the U.S."
And all her friends speak English. She always speaks English with her friends in the dorm, and she "reads many book," she writes. "Please do not makes me lose the face. I have competent in English." Even though she received straight A's in English in high school, I had to put her in my ESL academic English sequence of three courses. And at the end of the year, she wrote the second letter. You can see this amazing difference in her vocabulary, in her grammatical development, even in her rhetoric. "Hi, Robin," she begins. And then she goes on and she asks for a letter of recommendation. Well, she does get this letter. She does actually get an internship in Washington, D.C. And then she goes on after she graduates from UCI into graduate school. And you can see what excellent English she uses. Now, is her English perfect? Native English? No, of course not. But it's very good. he can go into any field she wants to.