“I would just sit there. I felt disconnected, isolated, scared and shy, timid, intimidated.”
This is a quote from Sevillano describing her experiences as an eight year old ESL child. The quote describes the feelings and experiences of a child for who English is a second language receiving no help in school.
Why should we care?
•Estimated that by 2020 50% of schools will be composed of language minority children
•We live in a multilingualism world and need to be aware of the best way to educate those learning a new language
That is why I feel English as-a-second language learners should be provided with greater assistance in education, mainly through bilingual education
What are the terms we need to be aware of when discussing ELL students?
•ESL which is short for English-as-a-second language learners
•LEP which stands for limited English proficiency
•One option for education is bilingual education. As Domenico Maceri discusses in the Denver Business Journal Article titled The Pros of Bilingual Education, bilingual education focuses on teaching children the subjects – Math, History, Science, etc – in their native language while they are learning English. After a few years of this they are transitioned into English-only classrooms. Bilingual education is also sometimes referred to as dual language education.
•English immersion is another educational method. Ofelia Garcia elaborates on immersion in her article “Bilingual Education is Beneficial” from Newsday. She discusses what immersion fully entails. Immersion is simple English only classes for all children.
What is immersion and why is it not as effective as bilingual education?
•Immersion is a very rigid view of educating children. It is not flexible.
•Immersion does not accommodate the needs of the learners and it is not inclusive of the learners’ differences. All of these are components which our American education system is based on. The American Education system strives to include those who are different which is clearly displayed in a ruling on special education children. It is currently a law that special education children need to be place in the least restrictive environment. This means that special education children are to be placed in an environment as class to a regular classroom as possible while still receiving aid. Why? Because that is where they learn best, where they are interacting with peers and learning from each other.
•It is also proven that English immersion programs are ineffective as demonstrated by the 50 percent of Latino or Hispanic students who do not pass the California High School Exit Exam.
• As researched by Kenji Hakuta a professor at Stanford University, research has not conclusively proven that English immersion raises test scores.
•Another problem with English immersion is that it does not recognize the need to simultaneously learn content area material.
• According to Jeff MacSwan who wrote an article “Schools should Employ Bilingual Education” for the Arizona Republic.
•I do not know about you but I have a hard enough time trying to learn science, I could not imagine trying to learn science in Spanish. That is the experience of children in full immersion programs – they are not learning anything because they do not understand.
•A final consideration in why English immersion is not the best way to educate ESL children, immersion is forcing the child to replace the native language with English. This is very backwards thinking particularly because most schools now require students to have taken several credit hours in another language. Why do schools make students learn a new language? The answer is simple. We live in a multilingualism world. We are a global economy and we need to know how to communicate with those in other languages. So why force a child to stop learning one language, to learn another, to later on have that child relearn their native language we made them stop learning?
Why is bilingual education the most effective means of teaching ELL students?
•Bilingual education allows ESL students to maintain their native language. This is very critical because it is important in the world we live in. Also, it is most likely their parents do not speak English. Allowing an ESL child to continue to learn both languages allows them to communicate with their native country.
•By using bilingual education as the means to educate we are not forcing assimilation. Bilingual education allows ESL children to keep part of the culture from which they came. The American Education system should not again force children to give up their culture to learn as was done with Native American children.
•Bilingual education also allows children to continue to learn the content area material they need to while also learning English, this way they are not falling further behind in the content areas. Bilingual education is a solution for students underachieving in school and feeling segregated.
•Resources on Bilingual Education
Where else do we see accommodating students in education?
•The American Education system has coined a new term, culturally responsive teaching. This means that teachers need to be aware of the different cultures represented within their classroom- children with gay parent, Hispanics, Polish, children who are below the poverty line, etc. – and include those children in their classroom. The classroom is a place to make kids feel safe not alienated. This concept relates to this speech because teachers need to be responsive to the ESL students.
