English Language Learners Essay

On September 2015, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, marked its 25th anniversary. With the shift of the nation’s demographics, higher education is concerned with the academic success of Latinos. Not only is the federal government addressing issues of access and equity for underserved minorities’ populations, but higher education is playing a crucial role in reducing the academic achievement gaps for Latinos.

Not only do they struggle with isolated schools separated from wealthier and better equipped White schools, but they must endure with their inadequate facilities and their lack of solid educators and school administrators. Also, due to the segregated nature of their schools, Latinos must meet much hostility when it is time they enter the workforce, as attributed to white student’s equal amount of segregation from Latino students. Another obstacle they have to deal with that is absolutely vital to the amount of success they achieve in tier life is their lack of bilingual programs being taught in this e segregated schools, due to the lack of bilingual educators. Due to the lack of communication occurring between white school systems and Latino schools, students are losing much potential cultural capital that they stand to gain wit the great amount of diversity occurring between these two groups. Though the solution to these problems is implementing assimilation into both White schools and Latinos schools through effective bilingual programs. We should combine the best aspects of Latino culture into our dominant culture while respecting the aspects of both groups, this way we could strengthen ourselves through diversity and

I observed the ELL class on Friday October 11th, 2015. The observation was done at Strawberry Point School in the Mill Valley District for 30 minutes with three English Learners from Kindergarten, which one child is Danish and two children are Koreans. I spoke with Monica who is the person responsible for the ELL program at this school.

“The FL Consent Decree provides a structure for compliance with all the jurisprudence ensuring the rights of ELL students in Florida and equality in educational opportunities as afforded to all native-English-speaking students” (20). Non-native English speakers allow a sense of diversity in the classrooms. Diversity drives innovations, and creativity and builds on communities. The reality of community and diversity in a school environment entails that one must keep an open-mind and be willing to cooperate with others- specifically those having difficulty communicating with other students and educators because of the language barrier- and also to expand their insights on a broader scale from others indifferent to themselves rather than what they are used to encountering every day, in order to become more worldly. I completely agree with the programs that LEP students are entitled to in addition to ESOL, as they are provided to ensure equality in educational opportunities. Undoubtedly, I will apply the FL Consent Decree in my classroom because it protects students against discrimination while promoting justice for all students regardless of one’s native

The Consent Decree (also known as the META or ESOL Consent Decree) of 1990 is Florida’s framework for compliance with federal and state laws and jurisprudence regarding the education of English Language Learners (ELLs) (Govoni & Palaez, 2011). The Florida ESOL Consent Decree came about when the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), along with other civil rights/educational community organizations, decided to sue the Florida State Board of Education. The organizations were fighting for equal educational opportunity for all students, regardless of the individual’s primary language. Students in English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) program were not receiving an education that met their cognitive level because teachers in most schools were not properly trained to give ELL students an appropriate education. Teachers lacked the training to facilitate equal opportunity to the students. The Consent Decree of Florida paved the road to better education for ELL students.

Wouldn’t it be exciting to grow up learning more than one language? Imagine being in Japan for a week on vacation with a group of friends, and one day decided to go to the oldest zoo in Japan, Ueno Zoo. To get to Ueno Zoo, riding the bullet train was a necessity, except knowing which line was the correct line, when to get off the bullet train, or even which ticket to buy was a daunting task. Nobody in your group has the confidence to ask the workers for help since they don’t have the knowledge of Japanese to help them. So everybody agrees to head back to the hotel to plan something else considering nobody knew how to speak a bit of Japanese, and that inability to communicate hurt your group’s confidence

The film “Speaking in Tongues” (2010) obtained the students, parents, and communities perspective towards bilingual education. The students interviewed were all mainly towards learning how to speak a second language. The students felt they could benefit in learning a second language or in expanding their home language. In the film, Kelly Wong stated she loved speaking Chinese to her grandmother. Kelly could practice, learn, and get corrected by her grandmother while speaking Chinese. The parent’s perspective towards bilingual education was like the student’s opinions because both individuals felt immersion classrooms benefit the students and the parents. The father of Jason was proud his son was the first in his family to read, write, and speak in English. Jason’s father knew his son would have many career opportunities by learning English at school. Learning the English academic language was not the only proud language Jason’s father encouraged for Jason to learn but also the Spanish language as well. Jason’s father only speaks Spanish so if his son was to lose his home language, a language barrier would form between father and son. To prevent the language barrier Jason’s father encouraged a bilingual immersion

“Empirical studies also show that some immigrant parents sometimes fail to implement effective bilingual education because they firstly, are unable to keep speaking continuously at home out of habits when living in a foreign country; secondly, they fail to push hard enough for education; and thirdly, they try to help but do not know how” (Fan-Wei 115). Often times when children start going to a new school and make new friends, they get used to talking in the language spoken at school (their non-native language). Therefore, when a student starts learning a new language, they tend to practice it as much as possible and start talking to everyone they know in the new language. This causes the child to not speak enough of their mother tongue and eventually forget how to read and write it. On the other hand, parents may fail to make the effort to teach the child their native language because they are so focused on having their child and themselves excel at the new language. This causes a lack of connection or familiarity between the child and language that their parents

According to Jarmel and Schneider (2010), by the year 2025, one-third of students attending public schools will not know English when they start Kindergarten. How will schools adapt to this? Will teachers and/or students be limited on what they can teach/learn throughout the school year because of time restraints? In a documentary Speaking in Tongues, directed by Jarmel & Schneider (2010), four students who range from Kindergarten to eighth grade, showcase their experiences about attending public school around the San Francisco area to become bilingual. The four students Durrell, Jason, Julian, and Kelly are taught in English and also in a second language such as Mandarin, Spanish, Chinese, and Cantonese. Families of the students express both

Raised all my life in Puerto Rico and then transferring to America was a great challenge. I had to overcome various difficulties in order to adapt to new ideas, cultures, and lifestyles. One of the obstacles I encountered was adapting to school. Since I was five my parents wanted me to imbibe the English language in order to have an exceptional future filled with opportunities, but when I arrived all my hard work in learning English did not seem to matter at my middle school. I arrived in this country thinking I was going to be in the most challenging classes and be at the top but reality smacked me in the face the first day I entered eighth grade. To my disadvantage the counselors did not care about my previous grades in Puerto Rico. Seeing that my parents were only able to speak Spanish, the school deduced my English was not well-developed enough and consequently I was placed in English-language learner (ELL) classes. After testing me in reading, writing, and hearing I was

As the United States faces many changes, every state under its regime is affected. This is why Texas always seems to be facing issue after issue. According to current college students attending different universities in the state of Texas, the problems Texas has recently been facing ranges from: high rates of accidents caused by highway constructions; influx of illegal immigrants crossing over especially here in Brownsville; to the smuggling of drugs into the country since the Gulf of Mexico is so close. However, surprisingly each of these students living in different cities within the state have expressed that the most worrisome current issue Texas has been struggling with is funding the educational system.

Spanish is the most common language that English Language Learner (ELL) students speak or understand, and is quickly becoming an important language in the United States of America (US). (López & González-Barrera, (2013). Massachusetts is home to a large and growing population of Latino ELL students (Fry, & Gonzales, 2008, Rennie Center, 2007).

The United States is a place of freedom. We are a mixing pot that unifies as one. Many religions, cultures, and languages make their home in the Unites States. Many foreigners see the U.S. as an opportunity to seek better lives and education, but when it comes to foreigners and native-born non-English speakers that do not yet know English, it becomes a little more difficult to go about an average day let alone make a better future. Children in school often become English Language Learners, or ELL, to assimilate to the American standards. It is a hard journey for both the students, families, and the teachers. But, their journey is not taken alone since there are about 5 million English language learners in the United State.

Hispanics, initial drawbacks frequently come from their parents ' immigrant and economic position and their sparse knowledge regarding the United States education system. While Hispanic students navigate through the school system, insufficient resources in schools and their awkward rapport with teachers continues to weaken their academic achievement. Initial drawbacks continue to mount up, causing the Hispanic population in having the least high school and college degree accomplishment, which is counterproductive of having a possibility for stable employment. According to Portman & Awe (2009) school counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs are anticipated to play a dynamic role in addressing the discrepancy between diverse

We believe that teachers and parents are struggling to make their students and children involved in a different community from their original community. Because these students have different cultures, languages and values from their teachers who are doing their best to meet the needs of all international students (Shurki & Richard, 2009). The schools across the country today are looking for ways to welcome and assist immigrant families because they become a big part of their communities. So how these effect on each of students, teachers and parent?