Meet Carol Mae Archer

1. VocabularyVocabulary
– Rocking chair - a chair that moves back and forth
– ESL - English as a second language
– Pony - a small young horse
– Brush - small trees
– Saddle - a special seat for a rider on the back of a horse or
other animal
– Riverbank - the side of a river
– Maternal grandparents - mother and father of one’s mother
– To impose on - to make a problem for
– Cotton farm - a place where the plant, cotton, is grown
– County - a legal definition of an area such as state, city
– Matriarch - the female leader of a family or group (usually the
oldest woman in the group)

2. Vocabulary: IdiomsVocabulary: Idioms
– Awfully - very (casual way of
speaking)
– To gather eggs - to get eggs from
under a chicken
– Folks - people
– To check on - to see if someone or
something is ok

3. CarolCarol
– Hello and welcome to the
United States. My name is
Carol Archer, and I’ve been
teaching English as a
second language (ESL) to
international students for
many years. I have
continued to teach because
I enjoy hearing stories
about my students’ lives as
well as sharing my stories
with students. I wrote this
book because I want to
share some of the stories
with you. In fact, this is a
book of stories.

4. My FatherMy Father’s Stories’s Stories
– As a little girl, I loved to listen to my father tell
stores about when he was a young boy. He talked
about chasing cows on his pony through the tall
brush of Bosque County in Central Texas. He
talked about fishing for catfish in the slow-moving
Brazos River. He talked about lying on his saddle
and looking at the stars up in the sky. And when
he talked, I could see those stars and feel the
brush on my legs and smell the catfish that he
cooked on the riverbank. This is a book of some
of the stories from my family. As you listen to the
stories from my family, I invite you to come to
know them and to share your stories with the
people around you. I believe that if we tell one
another our stories, our world will be a better
place.

5. My LifeMy Life
– Right now, I want to tell you a little story about myself.
I was born on a cotton farm in West Texas. My parents
already had 4 daughters when I was born, so I am the
“baby” of the family. We lived close to my maternal
grandparents; in fact, my grandfather loved to walk to
our house every morning and help my older sisters
bathe me. He died when I was only two months old.
After my grandfather died, my grandmother came to
live with us. She was one of my favorite people when I
was a child. When I came home from school, I always
went to sit beside her rocking chair and tell her about
my day. She was always interested in me.
–

6. The country & SchoolThe country & School
– I grew up in the country where we had horses, cows and
chickens. I helped my parents on the farm. I gathered eggs,
milked the cows and helped in the house. I went to school on
a school bus. The bus would come early in the morning and
take me into a small town about 15 miles away. I would go to
school from 8:00 to 3:00. Then the bus would take me back
home.
– As I grew older, I loved to listen to people speaking in
Spanish. In Texas, there are many people who speak
Spanish. Later, when I went to the university, I met many
students from other countries. I became very interested in
something I call “culture bumps”. Culture bumps are those
times when our cultures “bump into” one another. In this
book, you will learn a lot about culture bumps and how they
can help us learn to find our common humanity.
– But now I would like to introduce you to my mother, Lucy Mae
Archer, She is the matriarch of our family. Listen to Lucy
Mae.

7. Answer the questionsAnswer the questions
– Who lived with
Carol and her
parents?
– a. Her
grandfather
– b. Her
grandmother
– c. Both her
grandfather and
her grandmother
– .
– Where did Carol
grow up?
– a. on the Brazos
River
– b. In the city
– c. On a cotton
farm

8. Answer the questionsAnswer the questions
– Who rode a pony
in the brush?
– a. Carol did
– b. Her
grandfather did
– c. Her dad did
– .
– In Texas, many
people speak
– a. German
– b. Spanish
– c. Chinese

9. ReductionsReductions
– Reduction refers to the pronunciation
of words in which the sounds of two
or more words are pronounced
together rather than as separate
words. In the following reductions, a
word that begins with a vowel
becomes “attached” to the word that
precedes it. For example, Up in
becomes Upin pronounced as “a pin”.

10. ReductionsReductions
– Long Short
a. Stories about my students b. Storiezubout
ma students
a, This is a b. Tisiza
a .Cows on his pony b. cowzoniz
pony
a. Up in the sky b. upntasky
a. Brush on my b. brushon ma
a. I invite you b. I invitchu

11. Listen and tell if it is long orListen and tell if it is long or
shortshort
– Long Short
a. Stories about my students b. Storiezubout
ma students
a, This is a b. Tisiza
a .Cows on his pony b. cowzoniz
pony
a. Up in the sky b. upntasky
a. Brush on my b. brushon ma
a. I invite you b. I invitchu