Children and ESL

Children and ESL

When working with children it is not always so easy, especially when the children do not have the same language as you do. Its is even more difficult to see if there is a problem with these students and it is even harder to find if there is a speak-language disorder. The articles “Assessment of Language Proficiency of Limited English Proficient Speakers: Implications for the Speech-Language Specialist” by Sol Adler, The Use of an Invented Language Rule in the Differentiation of Normal and Language-Impaired Spanish-Speaking Children” by Celeste A. Roseberry and Phil J. Connel and “Dynamic Assessment: The Model. Its Relevance as a Nonbiased Approach, and its Application to Latino American Preschool Children” by Carol S. Lidz and Elizabeth D. Pena, have one common link and that is assessing limited English speaking (LEP) children to see if there is a speech-language problem. Each article gives a model to use in assessing. Each article expresses the difficulty in assessing these children.

I would like to know why some LEP children go into special education rooms and others do not? Is it because the teacher doesn’t have the understanding of the child or that they are too lazy to deal with that child? It seems to be very reasonable and logical that a children is LEP that they will score low academically because of the fact that American schools are based on the English language and using English to learn.

I can understand the frustration when trying to assess a LEP child. I personally before reading these articles didn’t even think about assessing LEP for speak-language impairments and had no idea where to start or how to go about it. Each article gives a different approach that is helpful. In the article by Alder, they are evaluating the aural-oral language proficiency of LEP children. What does aural-oral language proficiency mean? I am not sure I understand the term. Instead of using a standardized test this approach uses tape-recorded samples of the students, which is favorable because of the uselessness of the standardized tests for these students.

In the article by Roseberry and Connel it states with students with specific language impairment that there is a clear learning style that is different than normal children. Why is that so? Why do they react confidently with the imitations and negatively to the other? The results of the study showed that the children that were perceived as normal did well and the children perceived as low achieving did not do well at all.