I feel that students who come to America from non-english speaking countries should most definitely learn to speak English. However, throwing these students into a world filled with so much unfamiliarity is pretty cruel. Ignoring the fact that they do not understand the language is not a way of addressing the issue. I will, however, acknowledge that learning the language is very important, and it has been said that being immersed into a culture and being forced to learn the language by constant aural exposure is a sure-fast way to get people to learn how to speak in another tongue. Perhaps they should have classes where they sit in on only- english spoken classes simply to get them to adjust. I believe that there should be accomodations made to ESL students, as there usually are. They need an extra hand to help them understand things and guide them along through such an intimidating transition. If there isnt proper funding to allow for such programs, like in less affluent areas, then peer teaching may have to be implemented in such cases. Perhaps there are students in the school who have overcome such a language barrier; maybe there is a way for those students to have a class or so with that other student who does not yet know the language. This student could perhaps take this peer tutoring for credit, in place of another course.
posted by juleschester @ 2:43 PM
2 Comments:
I completely agree that being constantly surrounded by a different language will absolutely begin to improve those skills. That is, however, assuming the child has at least some prior knowledge of English.
A person in my studio class is not returning to school this semester for this very reason. He/she did infact speak English, although very poorly, and had too many difficulties in classes such as theory and historiography where there is so much content to be learned alone without having to constantly worry about understanding the language it is in! This is not to say that this person would not have understood these subjects... However, this language barrier caused him/her to fail multiple classes.
This is obviously slightly different at a college level, where a student has more choices in what school/classes he or she enrolls. However, I think this might be a situation that could be easily alleviated by offering some type of ESL support for such students. In a high school or middle school (where children presumably have no choice in attending), this problem becomes even more frustrating and difficult.
Coming from a school system that had a very large number of students that were enrolled in ESL programs, I absolutely feel that students should be given these types of courses. I think that it is most effective when they are able to go to their ESL classes as well as classes that are completely done in English. In middle school, it seems to me that some of these ESL type courses should take place of things like an English class that discusses literature, I know that if I were in a country where I didn't speak the language, mastering the language would be far more important than having to read novels by authors that write in a language I don't even speak. Each student is completely different, and some will take to the language with greater ease than others. These students that might not speak English should not be penalized by being forced to join classes where they will learn none of the course content because of the language barrier. Even if it takes these students a little longer to meet all requirements of graduating, it is worth giving them the advantage of actually learning the language.
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