According to the Glossary of Education Reform ("English language learner," 2013), English Language Learners (ELL) are students who are unable to communicate fluently or learn effective in English, who often come from non English speaking homes and backgrounds, and who typically require specialized or modified instruction in both English language and in their academic courses. Immigrants make up 13% of the United States population, and within the 13% many people have children who speak their native language. In 1974, there was a Supreme Court Justice case, Lau vs. Nichols. Kenny Lau was a Chinese immigrant, and his lawyers thought it was unfair for him to only be taught in English when he was at school. Kenny did not know the English language, therefore when he was in school he was not learning. Education systems had to do something, so that non-speaking English students would have equal access to education. There was even research done that showed English Language Learners had a higher dropout rate, and their grades were significantly lower than students who spoke English. This led to school creating programs for ELL students. The programs that were created can be summarized in to five categories. English As A Second Language English as a second language (ESL) refers to people who have not learned English as their primary language. Some people may say that ESL is not a correct term, because there are many students who are learning English as their third or fourth language. Therefore, a better term to use would be Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). The main goal of ESL and TESOL programs are to, develop students' English-language skills, with a primary focus on communication, grammar, and vocabulary (America... ... middle of paper ... ... progresses to the 50/50 model, as the students get older. The Amigos Program The Amigos program was established in Cambridge, MA in 1985-1986 and now serves nearly 300 students (Two-way bilingual education, n.d.). The goal of the program was to have a bilingual education program for limited English proficient students and native English speaking students. The program followed the 50/50 model and had one English and one Spanish-speaking teacher. To have a proper assessment of the program the English Amigos were compared to a group of students from a Cambridge public school that spoke English, and the Spanish Amigos were compared to a group of students from a Cambridge public school that spoke Spanish. There were achievement tests given to each of the four groups and the results were that the English and Spanish Amigos both performed better on the tests in general.
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.
America’s educational system is home to an increasing number of English language learners. Some research indicates that by the year 2030, over 40% of elementary and secondary students served by schools in the United States will come from homes where a language other than English is spoken (Thomas & Collier, 2001). In an effort to accommodate these students, the United States has adopted policies at both the federal and state levels. Generally, the direction taken to meet the needs of English language learners has depended on the climate of the nation. During times of peace and prosperity, policies reflect the nation’s tolerance of other languages and cultures. However, during times of war or conflict, policies have reflected intolerance or fear of anything deemed “un-American.”
Every year, the number of immigrants in the U.S. has grown “significantly.” Chen predicts that by the year of 2020, public schools will have at least 50 percent of students that are non-English speakers (¶5). This shows that it is important that public schools have a successful ESL program. The purpose of ESL programs is “to enhance” ESL students learning, to help students’ “emotional well-being”, and to accelerate students’ ability to learn the new language. According to Chen, some district schools have failed to support ESL students’ learning. For example, Chen stated that “...[some] school districts [have been] accused of not meeting t...
No other language group makes up more than 4% of limited English proficient students. What complicates the issue of education for language minority students is their low socioeconomic status. 80% of ELL students are poor, and most attend schools where the majority of students also live in poverty and are English language learners. There is some difference in the level of poverty among language groups. Here, again, Latinos are disproportionately represented: 57% of Spanish-speaking families earn less than $20,000 compared to, for example, only 35% of families where Asian/Pacific Island languages are spoken (McArthur, 1993).
This essay will consist of two analyses of significant legislations. One is the reauthorization of 1994 regarding the Bilingual Education Act (BEA). Two is Title III or English Language Acquisition Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement Act. The three states discussed in this essay regarding English language learner issues are California, Arizona, and Massachusetts. However, these three states share the anti-bilingual education law. California enacted the law in 1998. Arizona initiated the law in 2000. Massachusetts approved by legislature the law in 2002. This essay will also discuss the comparisons with the anti-bilingual law passed in these three states, explanation of challenges with the anti-bilingual law in the three states and an explanation of the benefits of the anti-bilingual law in the three states.
“In recent years the Hispanic population in America has achieved status as the largest minority group in the United States surpassing African-Americans (Baker, p.438).” This sudden increase in the Hispanic-American population is monumental when looking at the past few hundred years when African-Americans held the spot as the largest minority group in the United States. Across the United States this sudden and unprecedented influx of primarily native Spanish speakers has become more visible in some areas than others. Due to the rapid growth and migration of this group it can be seen that many migrant children have not had the time or the opportunity to learn English well enough to achieve success at their particular grade level in the public school system. Many of these bright and eager to learn migrant students fall by the wayside upon entering the public school system. Due to the rapid increase in populations of migrant students in various parts in the United States it has become necessary for localized school systems to adopt and implement programs, utilizing assistive technology, to incorporate English language proficiency programs to help teach migrant students so that they might have a chance at achieving success and continuing to higher education taught exclusively in English.
Bilingual education in public schools has been the topic of much discussion over the last several years. This discussion has been prompted due to the ever increasing numbers of Spanish-speaking persons emigrating to the United States, especially in those states that border Mexico--California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. What the debate seems always to overlook is our country’s other non-English speaking members. This country is now and has always been the “Melting Pot” for the world with persons emigrating to this country from most every country in the world; however, we commonly gear the focus of bilingual education toward our Spanish-speaking citizens.
TBE supported English Learners (ELs) with their first language in transitioning into an English only educated classroom, and the idea that in maintaining, supporting, and further refining the ELs first language it will connect into learning English. This idea is further clarified by Stephen Krashen (1996):
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.
Opinion Editorial By Hassan Abdi In the article written by Richard Rodriguez, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood, he conveys an opinion that Bilingual education doesn’t work. He conveys it through his personal experience. Published by the Phi Beta Kappa to the American Society in 1981, the audience and his message are a broad and important now as it was thirty five years ago. As the amount of children that don’t speak English as their first language continue to rise, bilingual education has become a polarizing topic like most things, and for me, I am neutral on the topic. A form of bilingual education has failed me, but, for most students it benefits in the long term, and it 's not right to dispel one side of the topic to push your own
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.
The article Language Proficiency in Academic Contexts by J. Cummins, was about some issues among English language learner students becoming fluent in English as their second language, along with meeting expectations of keeping up with the academic content in schools. The main idea or concept that I grasped from reading this article, is the large gap between English language learners becoming fluent in English and learning the content being taught in the classrooms without falling below grade level. The article expresses how these expectations of ELLS causes such a gap between becoming fluent in English and learning the academic content, causing English language learners to fall behind. Some information that I pinpointed from the article that
In the 1960s, bilingual education programs emerged throughout America because an influx of immigrants entered the United States due to new immigration policies, reveals Brad Brown in his article “The History of Bilingual Education in America.” Bilingual education programs involve putting students in an environment where their native language differs from the language spoken at the school they attend. Most bilingual education programs in the United States focus on teaching students English so the students can have numerous opportunities and options when they graduate from high school, and be able to smoothly integrate into today’s society. According to M. Lee and Maureen McMahon, disagreement about
Therefore, we should not ignore the problem of English. There is a solution to alter this critical situation as it is always worth repeating the importance of English Language. There are initiatives and programmes can be done to amend the limited English proficiency problem. One of the programmes is called English as a Second Language (ESL) programmes can be offered locally. According to The Star, (November 15, 2015), Philippines needs to concentrate on the issues of ensuring the quality of ESL schools and the qualified ESL teachers. In order to strengthen and arrest the diminishing grade of the language, the representatives of the academe should focus on professional and materials development, knowledge sharing and highlight the requirement for skills in differentiated instructions. This can actually help to boost the English competency in the nation. On the other hand, the government of Malaysia has introduced the Dual Language Programme and the Highly Immersive Programme with a budget allocation of RM38.5 million. Therefore, there would be around 300 schools will be identified for this project to help the youngsters to increase the level of English proficiency. This is vital because according to Jobstreet.com, English was the official business language on the 91 per cent of the companies surveyed. In order to stay in the competitive global environment, everyone should take the initiatives and motivation to keep themselves moving forward to decrease the disappointing level of English command among
Over the course of many years numerous different laws have been put into place within the educational system in order to help ESL students learn to the best of their abilities. As a result of these laws the teaching world has seen benefits within the lives of ESL students that attend school across the United States, and school has become a positive place for ESL students to learn and be immersed in a new language. In 1954 the Supreme Court in Brown vs. Board of Education voted segregated schools unconstitutional. This not only gave African American students to attend school with Caucasian kids, but it also provided permission for ESL students to attend those same schools.