Sociocultural influences on ELL students are very strong; some families feel that their social life is a major part of their culture. The use of bilingualism is someone that is fluent in two different languages. An ELL students home language can be quite different than English. The students’ family may have no desire to speak English. This cause many learning delays because of the lack of practice. The parental and community resources for English acquisition in my area are scarce, but they did locate an amazing website for ELL families. The school district around me can improve their home and school relationship by getting the families more involved in their child’s education.
There are many cultural and social factors to an ELL student. The “notion of culture as a dynamic entity--not simply a collection of foods, clothes, and holidays, but a way of using social, physical, spiritual, and economic resources to make one's way in the world” (Leighton, 1995, pg.1). When an educator takes the time to get to know the families the students will learn more efficiently. The only problem with that is the educators “schedules are already full, teachers resist devoting that much time and effort to an activity that the most "efficient" of them can imagine replacing with a short questionnaire sent home at the beginning of the year” (National, 1994, pg. 4). With educators too busy to take the extra time to get to know the students’ families these students will not learn through their background knowledge.
An educator that “provides instructional strategies that support additive bilingualism enhances Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency and subject matter comprehension” (Otaola, 2008, pg. 6) will make ELL students successful. Students th...
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Dual language is a form of education in which students are taught to read and write in two languages. The majority of dual language programs in the United States teach in English and Spanish, although there are emerging programs that teach in Mandarin, Japanese and Hindi. The programs start of mostly in kindergarten sand 1st grade and continue throughout primary education, in addition some dual language programs depending on the grade continue through middle and high school. Even Hayward’s own Burbank elementary and Winton middle school are offering dual language programs. Each level of teaching uses a different language ratio in which class is instructed the classes start off with a 90:10 ration and later as years pass the ration becomes a steady 50:50 (Lindholm-Leary, Kathryn J,2001). The goals of dual language immersion programs are to get children to become both bi-literate and bilingual, in other words, they will be able to speak and write fluently in two different languages. Dual language programs are becoming more and more common most of them are in public school but there are some beginning to become present private and charter schools. Dual language education should be introduced in all elementary schools beginning in the Kindergarten to boost achievement for English language learners, benefits it will bring to the community, outstanding brain benefits and lastly cost efficiency in education across the United States.
I found it interesting that of the three ELL teachers interviewed, only one had a personal ELL experience. This teacher teaches at my middle school. She moved here from Poland when she was nine years old. She didn’t know any English besides basic words like colors and days of the week. This personal experience can help her immensely, because she understands the experience of her students and the students can relate to her. This teacher is the only one who is bilingual of the three I interviewed. Interestingly, it is also two of the three teachers first year teaching ELL. These two educators were aides in the program before this teaching job, and they both received their endorsements from the IRC. The other elementary teacher has been teaching ELL for twenty years, and has lots of experience.
There is an agreement in the literature that “when people share a strong sense of community they are empowered and motivated to change the problems they face and are better able to mediate the negative effects over things which they have no control” (Chavis & Wandersman, 1990).
Because America is such a diverse country, public schools are faced with the challenge of providing students from all over the world with a quality education. As Chen points out “public schools have embraced the linguistic challenge presented by immigrant students” (¶1). Then, No Child Left Behind law was approved, and it required every public school should have an English Secondary Language (ESL) program that will provide the “academic support” for English Language Learners (ELLs). ELL parents are happy that their children are getting education help from the school, but it has raised the question of how successful are the ESL programs? Do ESL programs provide enough “academic support” to all ELL students? Do ESL programs have enough tools to help students learn English? Some ELL parents complain that ESL programs do not help their child learn English. A successful ESL program is not based solely on the test scores, but also the ability to connect parents, teachers, and students together to strengthen tools that will help ELL students to learn a new language in reading, writing, and speaking.
Despite the high number of ELL students, it is difficult to know, because of lack of data to see what type of educational programs they participate in. According to Prospects, a 1995 national survey, reading and math were taught in programs using bilingual education in less than half of first and third grade classrooms serving limited English proficient students. Offered more frequently were programs where instruction was offered only in English, or where instructional aides, not teachers, were the vehicles for native language instruction.
Bilingual Education has been an increasingly controversial subject throughout education systems in America. The growing numbers of bilingual students in the country have provided much debate regarding the most effective way of instructing these students in traditional American schools. Perhaps one of the newest and fastest growing methods throughout the country has become "transitional bilingual education," a program which integrates the English language into these classroom by adding more English instruction throughout the course of the lesson. It has proved to be both beneficial to the students engaged into these programs as well as the teachers who administer it.
Bilingual Education is defined as any school program that uses two languages. In a more theoretical sense it is any educational program whose ultimate goal is for the participants to be fully versed in all facets of both languages (i.e., able to listen, speak , read, and write in both languages). The definition of a coordinated, developmental bilingual approach has emphasized the goal of being equally fluid in both languages. Realistically, this has not been the goal for most K-12 bilingual schools in the United States. More commonly in the United States we are using the words “bilingual program” to describe a program that will provide literacy and content in the primary language, while building English fluency, to the point where all instruction will occur in English. These programs are label transitional bilingual programs as their ultimate goal is to transition all students into an English only learning arena. One of the down sides of these programs is that they are not maintenance (development)bilingual programs which are designed to preserve and develop student’s primary language while they acquire English as a second language. Bilingual Program Models All bilingual program models use the students' home language, in addition to English, for instruction. These programs are most easily implemented in districts with a large number of students from the same language background. Students in bilingual programs are grouped according to their first language, and teachers must be proficient in both English and the students' home language. Early-exit bilingual programs are designed to help children acquire the English skills required to succeed in an English-only mainstream classroom. These programs provide some initial instruction in the students' first language, primarily for the introduction of reading, but also for clarification. Instruction in the first language is phased out rapidly, with most students mainstreamed by the end of first or second grade. The choice of an early-exit model may reflect community or parental preference, or it may be the only bilingual program option available in districts with a limited number of bilingual teachers. Late-exit programs differ from early-exit programs primarily in the amount and duration that English is used for instruction as well as the length of time students are to participate in each program (Ramirez, Yuen, & Ramey, 1991). Students remain in late-exit programs throughout elementary school and continue to receive 40% or more of their instruction in their first language, even when they have been reclassified as fluent-English-proficient.
There are several key ideas that are crucial to understanding the best way to teach young, ELL students. The first idea is the importance of recognizing ELL’s feelings of isolation and alienation. When a teacher recognizes this, they are more capable of helping the student feel a part of the class. The student will struggle to participate if they do not feel like they belong with the other students. There is not only a language barrier, but also sociocultural differences that prohibit them from feeling accepted. Tiffany emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this problem and being aware during classroom activities. She suggests that you get a deep understanding of their cultural background, not just a “touristy” one.
From my experience, bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. At the age of twelve, I was introduced into a bilingual classroom for the first time. The crowded classroom was a combination of seventh and eighth grade Spanish-speaking students, who ranged from the ages of twelve to fifteen. The idea of bilingual education was to help students who weren’t fluent in the English language. The main focus of bilingual education was to teach English and, at the same time, teach a very basic knowledge of the core curriculum subjects: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, bilingual education had academic, psychological, and social disadvantages for me.
In the article, Bilingual Children with Primary Language Impairment: Issues, Evidence, and Implications for Clinical Actions, Kohner (2010) indicate numerous school districts that have implemented bilingual programs to help the English Language Learners. Dual language programs enhance student outcomes and close the achievement gap of Second Language Learners (Coyoca and Lee, 2009...
Bilingual education involves teaching material in two languages. In America, this includes ESL (teaching English as a second language) for students whose native language is not English. Bilingual education simply helps those students who would otherwise be helpless in actually learning the material in their English-only classes. It also helps English-speaking Americans learn another language, like Spanish. This is useful to them because America’s demographics are indeed becoming more diverse and thus, better language skills should be employed. Implementing bilingual education in the school curriculum is due to the passing of legislation at the government level. As of now, English immersion programs exist because of the Bilingual Education Act (a.k.a Title VII), which was passed along with the Civil Rights Act in 1964. (Cerda; Hernandez, 2006) At that time, it was expected to change ethnoc...
After viewing the panel discussion about how our local school districts have implemented English Language Learning in their school, I am very intrigued. From what I gathered the field of ELL is a growing industry in education, especially in Colorado Springs. We have ELL’s students coming from all over the world. Here in Colorado Springs alone, school districts have to accommodate for over fifty different languages spoken by ELL’s. I can only imagine the challenge that comes with such a diverse group of non- English speakers in our community schools.
Educating English language learners and determining whether their difficulties stem from the language barrier or a true disability is quite a complex task. Through consideration of their lack of understanding of the English language, effective instructional strategies, and accommodations, the question of language barrier or disability can be clarified. While it is still unclear which method of bilingual education is best for teaching ELLs English acquisition, useful strategies from each model can be implemented to aide in the process. In the classroom, considerations should be made based on the individual student and their level of progression. Hopefully future research will uncover more useful information on teaching English language learners with and without disabilities.
“Learning a second language not only has cognitive and academic benefits, it also supports a greater sense of openness to, and appreciation for, other cultures” (Tochen, 2009). For many students in the United States, English is not the primary language spoken at home. There are several options for getting these children to reach proficiency in the English Language. However, there is only one model that preserves the child’s first language, while also gaining literacy in English. This model is Bilingual Education. Bilingual education is not new to the United States. It in fact started in 1968 under title VII. However, there is still a lot for the general public, and parents of language learners, to learn about this form of education. Bilingual