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ELL Students: A Case Study

Decent Essays

The growth of the ELL student population has increased in all states over the last 20 years. However, ELL parents have difficulty obtaining information from their child's school or attempting to participate in school events. These barriers, which often include poor understanding of English, unfamiliarity with the school system, and differences in cultural norms and cultural capital, may limit parental communication and school participation. However, research shows that parents' participation in school events has a positive effect on improving student achievement and school attendance rate, regardless of socioeconomic background or ethnicity. It is, therefore, important to find practical ways to improve ELL parent involvement and student achievement. …show more content…

In 2000, 6 out of 7 elementary school students and 2 out of 3 middle school students lived in homes where English was not available. Over the past five years, ELL has increased language isolation even in schools that are concentrated in a few schools. Research has begun to document the impact of such isolation trends. For example, in an analysis by a metropolitan school district, Frankenberg and Lee argued that black and Latino exposure to white students was reduced and language isolation was not confined to Latino ELL students. Some Asian ELL students are also isolated. Almost 40% of all children with parents born in Vietnam and China were linguistically isolated and low income backgrounds. Korean parents' ELL children are also linguistically isolated at a relatively high level. In addition, most schools with a high ELL population show a strong correlation between the lack of English language skills and poverty, as confirmed by the 2000 Census data, due to the large number of low-income populations. As a result, poorer schools that target an intensive population of low-income ELLs generally have low educational capacity. In addition to not speaking or reading English, schools with a high ELL population face the problem of communicating with parents whose literacy level is lower in their native language. Many ELL parents did not graduate from …show more content…

For example, many ELL families value collectivity with an emphasis on interdependence and group well-being, but schools often stress individual competition. Another common value of the ELL community includes extended family support, including respect for the elderly. Schools can take advantage of these strengths by inviting extended family members, such as seniors, to participate in school activities. Schools can develop diversity by developing an understanding of cultural values reflected in school policies and the cultural values that ELL students

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