First, before I can argue on whether or not African American students should have access to language support services, we must first understand what an ELL student is. “English language learners are students who speak a language other than English as their first language and who are in the process of acquiring English as a second or additional language. They are not fully proficient in English and we can refer to them as “emerging bilinguals”” (Orosco, Almanza de Schonewise, De Onnis, Klingner, & Hoover, 2008) Other researchers like Walqui (2005) point out that some ELL students are true immigrants to the United States while other ones are born here in the Unites States. All of the sources on the matter note that all ELL cases our unique and are dependent on the student’s upbringing. Almost all of the sources, especially Linguistic Society of America, state that Ebonics is a full language (Rickford). However, as was noted in the 1996 case in Oakland there can be backlash in every facet of the community when Ebonics is labeled as the student’s first language (Nunberg). What we need to change is not whether or not we are going to label Ebonics as a first language but rather changing the requirements for ELL students. Sylvia G., Rousseau is currently arguing that African American student should have access to language support services. She gave a speech on April, 21st of 2014 in Los angles where she laid down her fundamental arguments:
The cognitive structures expressed in the language of home are no longer acceptable and the support to acquire a Standardized language is absent. The distinction in academic performance between African American students, who are categorically classified as English Only without any assess...
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... American English). Retrieved 5 3, 2014, from Linguistic Society of America: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/what-ebonics-african-american-english
Rousseau, S. (2014). An Inclusive English as a Second Language Approach for Standard English Learners. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
Rousseau, S. (2014). Standard English Learners . Presentation to Committee of the Whole (p. 17). Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
Smitherman, Geneva (1997). Moving Beyond Resistance: Ebonics and African American Youth. Journal of Black Psychology, 23 (3), 227-231.
Tatum, A. W. (2005). Teaching reading to black adolescent males: Closing the achievement gap. Portland, Me: Stenhouse Publishers
Walqui, A. (2005). Who Are Our Students? In P. Richard-Amato, & M. Snow, Academic Success for English Language Learners (pp. 7-21). White Plains, NY: Longman.
This marginalization is still prevalent today, as Black English is still overwhelmingly stigmatized and discredited in nearly all academic settings, particularly within American culture. Jordan’s demonstration that Black English is not given respect or afforded validity in academic and social settings still rings true today. Black English-speaking students see little to no representation of their language in the classroom, and are often actively discouraged from speaking the language of their community and of their upbringing. This suppression and delegitimization of a valid method of communication represents colonialist and white supremacist notions of language, social homogeneity, and latent institutional racism, and has negative, even dire, consequences for the students
Our world is full of different cultures and languages. Many of these different languages are mainly used in schools. Most of the time, none English speaking students have a hard time transitioning between English and their native language. This could be a reason why school boards have provided programs like ESL, to help students adapt and learn American standard English. Recently, one of the main languages that have been giving students problems to succeed in their education is African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
in Richard Wright's Black Boy: Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. Stepto, Robert. "Literacy and Ascent: Black Boy." Appiah, 226-254. Thaddeus, Janice.
The purpose of this study is to figure out which ways experienced teachers work best with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study illustrates which strategies experienced teachers have found to work best. The diversity in school in the United States has increased each year. This means that there are an increasing amount of students who are learning English, English language learners (ELLs). This article comes from the perspective that each child should be taught to their specific needs. All students deserve a fair chance to learn. Fair means that every student is treated differently, not equally. Every student learns differently. In order to give every student a fair chance at learning, you must teach them according to their needs. An experienced teacher, Tiffany, describes her experiences working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study watches her methods and discusses what works based on data analysis of the success of her students.
United States. Reading to Achieve: A Governor's Guide to Adolescent Literacy. Washington: National Governors Association, 2005. Print.
As of right now in the United States, the school system is not doing its best to promote the growth of African American students who speak Ebonics at home. Obviously something has to be done, because students from predominantly AAVE speaking areas are succeeding at a level well below students who are familiar with Standard English coming into school. The way the education system is set up, schools build upon existing skills that students already have especially in primarily white communities. Adding value to these skills promotes rapid growth causing them to excel past the AAVE speaking African American students. (Rickford, 1999) Those whom are n...
Monzó and Rueda (2009) conducted a study examining the concept of passing for English proficient in Latino immigrant children. They studied a group of Latino English language learners (ELLs) in and outside of school. They not only observed these students but also interviewed them as well. Within these interviews students opened up about their feelings about their first language, English, and their place in American society. Monzó and Rueda (2009) then found within their data the most common forms of passing for English proficient that these students used.
The education system faces a great challenge in serving immigrant youth when it comes to incorporating them in the classroom. The language acquisition is easier for younger children and increases with the time spent in the United States but these newly arriving immigrant teens have a very limited time not only to learn English, but to study the required material for standardize testing, and catch up to their native English speaking peers before graduation. Thus, performing under this enormous amount of pressure can leave students feeling overwhelm and with a higher chance of subsequently drop out.
The purpose of this assignment is to explain the impact of English language learners in the classroom. As a foreign student, English language learner in the United States faces multiple challenges for achieving academic success. To successfully complete a task, they need to master both English as a language and how it is used in core content classes especially when they are an adult. When trying to assist in instructing English language learners, they usually have many concepts and language abilities that they need to master, as do the teachers that are trying to teach them. With the incorporation of the concepts and approaches to identify and assess the issues and concerns that we have learned in our classroom instruction, such as lesson preparation,
...l survival in our society. I work as a counselor each summer at a sports camp in Philadelphia, and each summer I encounter very intelligent students who are placed in lower tracks or labeled as ìlearning deficientî because of their language. This disturbs me because as a speaker of both Black Vernacular speech and Standard English, I know that students can learn to use Standard English just as I have. Unfortunately, many students are not privileged enough to have the same educational opportunities that I was given by my parents, therefore, it is my responsibility to teach these students Standard English the way that I have been taught. But I must learn more about teaching students and dealing with the issues that plague the educational system, and I am looking forward to receiving more of this knowledge during my pre-student teaching and student teaching experiences.
"Linguistics 201: First Language Acquisition." Linguistics 201: First Language Acquisition. Western Washington University, n.d. Web. 8 Sep. 2013. .
Throughout this course, my beliefs have been reaffirmed regarding the literacy needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners in a few ways. First, I have been implementing sheltered instruction observation protocol in my classroom. “Sheltered instruction teachers use the regular core curriculum and modify their teaching to make the content understandable for ELLs while at the same time promoting their English language development” (Echevarria, Short & Powers, 2008, pg. 42). The sheltered instruction I have been using in my classroom includes slow and clear speech, scaffolded instruction, visual representations, connecting prior knowledge to learned knowledge, cooperative learning, and targeted vocabulary development (Echevarria, Short & Powers, 2008). This course has reaffirmed the importance of using sheltered instruction to support the needs of the diverse
In the essay, I set the English as a foreign language (EFL) context with a group of Chinese middle school students aged from fifteen to eighteen who mostly have an intermediate level of English proficiency.
North, S. (2012), 'English a Linguistic Toolkit' (U214, Worlds of English), Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Language has pioneered many interracial relationships and historical milestones. Language is a necessity for basic communication and cultural diversity. Being multilingual is a skill proven influential to a successful future. Due to rapid globalization, countries all over the world are stressing the importance of learning a second, or even third, language. With the exception of time and lack of resources, adults have very few widely applicable disadvantages to learning multiple languages. However, language learning as a child presents more complications. Some of those include not having enough funding at the elementary school level to introduce a program for secondary language, academic overload for the youth, stress for both the parent and student parties, and the mixing of languages. Not all of these complications are true in any or all situations, however, and the absence of them provides multitudes of opportunity for future career and academic success. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the parents or the education legislation to decide whether they encourage the learning of a secondary language at the young age necessary for retention. “The general consensus is that it takes between five to seven years for an individual to achieve advanced fluency,” therefore the younger a child begins to learn, the more likely they are to benefit to the maximum potential (Robertson). Keeping the language learning in high school or beginning the process earlier is a greatly controversial discussion that is important to address because of the topic’s already lengthy suspension.