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2004

JULY 2003

Reflections on English Language Learners
by Adam Sugerman

Our city’s education leaders made the correct decision in rethinking a one-sided approach to the city’s English language learners. We hope that common sense, rather than political pressure, helped Chancellor Klein and his team decide to use a variety of proven approaches in making sure this growing student population is capable of surviving the realities of adult society. Contrary to research that shows that children need one to two years to pick up social English, and five to seven years for academic English, several states have moved English learners into mainstream in an astonishingly short period of time (for example, one year of intensive English instruction in California).

In theory, the best way to learn a language is by being immersed in that language. When English speakers want to learn Spanish, for example, they do it more quickly when they reside in a Spanish-speaking nation and communicate with Spanish speakers in meaningful contexts. Thus, logic would dictate that placing English learners in English immersion classes is the best way to bring students up to speed. By dropping unprepared students into mainstream classes, though, we are doing a disservice to students and teachers alike.

There are dozens of systems that have been proven effective in getting students up to speed in acquiring language. English immersion, the mayor’s first choice, is one way. Without help, though, schools will revert to the period pre-Lau vs. Nichols, the landmark 1974 Supreme Court case recognizing that providing equal physical access alone to schools does not ensure non-English-speaking children equal access to instruction. One form of support is the use of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) to plan lessons. SIOP is a research-based framework that allows educators to teach content such as mathematics or social studies while promoting English language development. Each lesson is built around specific content and language objectives. Students learn content as they build up their language skills. The SIOP model works well with a language arts intensive mathematics program, such as Everyday Mathematics.

The much-maligned transitional bilingual education has been successful in certain situations. Transitional bilingual education is based on the premise that students who master their first language have an easier time learning English. The chief complaint, though, is that it takes too long to wean students from their first language. In some cases around the country, students have very little access to ESL instruction as all content is given in the students’ first language. The strength of these programs is the strong cultural component that can help students break down barriers of living and studying in a foreign culture. The downside is that a student who has limited exposure to ESL instruction each week will need at least three years to learn enough social English to communicate in English on the playground. In the classroom setting, it is doubtful that students will ever acquire the English needed to excel in college. Students enrolled in programs with a stronger ESL component fare better as they transition to the mainstream classroom, which is the ultimate goal of transitional bilingual education.

Another form of bilingual education has been proven successful in a number of schools around the country. In two-way immersion dual immersion-programs (the U.S. Department of Education uses the term developmental bilingual education), classrooms employ one language—either the target language (e.g., Chinese, Spanish) or English—in extended periods of instruction. Ideally, the student body ratio would be half native speakers of the target language and half native-English speakers. In this way, student peers model both languages as they work together to perform academic tasks. After about five years, students are fluent in the two languages. Although this may seem a long time, the students have gained a valuable skill in today’s global marketplace: They have become comfortable in the two cultures.

No one can argue the necessity of learning English. Children must master the language to help ensure their future livelihood and to become informed citizens. They should also learn English because it is the language of our land. Without fluent reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, children will be doomed to a future of academic, economic, and social disenfranchisement. And just like there are dozens of ways to solve a mathematics equation, there are many ways to teach English.#

Adam Sugerman is associate editor of Education Update and is the publisher of Palmiche Press.

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