Esol Case Study Examples

“My Spanish Standoff” by Gabriella Kuntz explains how the fear of prejudice against Latin America in the United States led her and her husband to avoid speaking and teaching their children Spanish. One reason that she decides not to teach her native language to her children is because she saw how the Anglo-Saxons in the community treated her because of her dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. Another reason, she mentions involves the fact that her children developed accents and were unable to understand either language completely. Because of this, Kuntz decides only to speak to them in English to prevent others from criticizing her children for speaking with broken grammar and thick accents. She believes

Emergence into a new culture requires courage, toppled with humiliation. Despite the energy or the will, unfamiliar territory/language and events present unrelenting and unavoidable tensions. Hispanic students encounter teachers who fail to support them in maintaining aspects of their cultural identity. For some ELL students honoring and respecting another’s culture may diminish some of the struggles these students face.

The curriculum for English-Spanish Learners (ESL) or English-Language Learners, was created to assist students who do not speak any or little English. Angela Valenzuela describes in her article, “Subtractive Schooling, Caring Relations, and Social Capital in the Schooling of U.S.~Mexican Youth,” that

Growing up in a Latino household is hard. My parents only spoke Spanish therefore my first language was Spanish. For the first few years of my life this was not really a problem, I enjoyed life as any normal little girl would. I got to talk to all of my cousins and all of the neighbor’s children. It wasn’t until I got to school that it became real that I was going to learn English. Don’t get me wrong I always knew I had to learn English my parents always talked to me about school and helped me as much as they could. It was also around this same time where I started to understand that it was not only hard for me it was hard for them as well. My parents had to live in this country not knowing the main language spoken.

It's a regular Tuesday morning, just like any other. A Hispanic mother is called to the school for a meeting for a consultation about her son’s performance. While in the meeting, the principal tells her that her child is in the 2nd grade, but is very behind. He adds the fact that her child does not understand the language the teacher speaks, and consequently, is not learning. The mother feels helpless since she cannot help him by reason of not understanding the language either. Hence, this is the difficult reality for numerous Hispanic families.

The film does a great job of portraying the complexity of the situation by comparing two teachers that work at Hoover, Third-grade teacher Dianne Lee and First-grade teacher Arcelia Hernandez whose approach towards ELL students differs tremendously. Dianne Lee takes the English only approach with her students, hoping they will learn the language through immersion. Dianne is approaching her students in a way that is forcing them to give up their culture, even quoted saying “to become American, you have to be willing to give something up” pointing to her grandparents who immigrated from Russia and strove to Americanize themselves and their family. What Dianne most likely did not realize that more dropouts come from students who are placed in English only instruction where their primary language is suppressed (Freeman, p. 159). While showcasing another approach is Arcelia Hernandez who uses Latino culture and language that she shares with her students in order to help them learn both Spanish and English.

Acculturation can determine whether a first generation Salvadoran American student’s pursues higher education. As new immigrants immersed in the American culture, they have to adapt or comprehend the culture acceptable “behavior, values, language, and customs” in order to educational succeed (McCallister 2015). Moreover, California is a diverse state that first generation students come across a dilemma of longer period of time to dominate the native language. For instance, Lucy grew up in Central California, in a small Hispanic enclave. As a result, Lucy was exposed to Spanish conversations at home and in the community, except in the school. School provided Lucy the opportunity to apply the immersion technique:

Born in the state of California to two Mexican parents my primary language was Spanish. My parent believed that learning English would be second nature because of the environment around me. It was extremely important to them as their first born to know the language that was inherent to me by the blood that runs in my veins. Therefore, when the time came to get enrolled into school my mother opted out for English only thought classes. It wasn’t until Mrs. Ledezma my third grade teacher suggested to my mother that it would be a benefit to transition into in all English class. She specifically said “A Spanish class such as mine is for children that are just arriving from other countries and do not know the English language, your daughter was privilege to be born here. Don’t take away an opportunity to

I propose to you a case study on a pre-kindergarten English language learning student through qualitative research. My goal was to find out if he faces any problems with regards to his behavior, academic progress and attitudes towards his teachers, classmates and parents. His name is David and just recently came to the United States from Russia about two years ago. He has a complicated time understanding what goes on in his environment because of the language barrier. The one positive aspect for David is that my assistant in the class is Russian as well. Even though he has a hardship speaking the English language and understanding his peers, my assistant helps translate words from Russian to English for him and vice versa.

Guadalupe Quintanilla was 12 years old, her and her family moved from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas and she was enrolled into school there. She was labeled retarded because she took an IQ test in English and could not understand the English language. After months of humiliation, her grandfather agreed to let Lupe stay home and help him be his eyes. As time passed, she married at 16 to a Mexican-American and gave birth to three children years later. Once her children were enrolled in school, they told Lupe that her children were slow learners. She didn’t understand how they were slow learners when at home, they were so smart. This inspired Lupe to take an English course at a university in which would help her teach her children at home. This

When the teacher arrives at her classroom in the morning, she is very quick to point out that she is unhappy to be given hispanic students in her class. The teacher is determined to make her hispanic students feel like they are unequal to her white students. When another student speaks to her in spanish she gets frustrated and says, “Oh! Another one that can’t speak English! Why do they send these kids to me? You can’t communicate with them. Is there anybody here that can speak Spanish?” (Valdez 71). As a teacher you should want to educate all children, not just the ones that share your race or language. She was determined to point out the

The second classroom I observed was a first grade class of twenty-five students. Students in this class were all of Mexican descent and labeled as early intermediate English language learners. The

However, many Hispanic families were and in some cases, still are viewed as lower-class citizens. According to Barrientos, “To me, speaking Spanish translated into being poor. It meant waiting tables and cleaning hotel rooms. It meant being left off the cheerleading squad and receiving a condescending smile from the guidance counselor when you said you planned on becoming a lawyer or a doctor” (561). They are not respected in a lot of communities, they live dirty, and they have bad jobs. These stereotypes are reasons why Barrientos did not want to be called Mexican and never wanted to learn Spanish. If diversity had been celebrated when Barrientos was a child, as it is celebrated and honored now, she would have grown up speaking Spanish and being proud of her heritage.

When trying to communicate diversity issues with parents about certain needs in your class for their child may be difficult. Especially, when trying to communicate among parents of ELL (English language learners) and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students. Some of the difficulties you may run into are language barriers, misunderstanding of dialect, offensive gestures, and even frustration. As teachers when need to keep a cool head on our shoulders and approach this situation with a positive attitude, a plan, and a great expectation of the outcome.

Within a month Brenda knew few words in English, month after month she would say complete sentences. During the meeting Letty described the classroom setting as very cultural looking. She saw each desk had the students name along with the flag each person identified with. She noticed the students were allowed to speak to each other in both broken English and Spanish. The teacher Ms. Rios would address the students in English but once she saw a child had a difficult time understanding what she was saying or teaching, she would then start speaking in Spanish. When a child had a hard time expressing how they felt in English she would create that moment of difficulty, into a learning opportunity. Such as, helping them pronounce the word or guiding them into understanding it. Also, Letty saw Ms. Rios as the teacher who praised them instead of bashing them, when saying something wrong. During the open house it was clear to Letty that every student in the class had individual goals and expectations by Ms. Rios. It was said that Ms. Rios stated that because Brenda was a little more behind than her classmates she was given extra help after school. Not only did the teacher provided her with the necessary needs for her learn in school, she also required the parents to have a part in her learning. The teacher wanted this to be a learning experience for both the parents and their children. She gave Letty some tips and advise on what she should do to help Brenda out. Such as allowing Brenda to watch English speaking shows. It is believed such exposure to the language will help her more than hurt her. Letty was required to study with her and not stop trying to help her do her homework. At home Brenda showed a much positive tone when doing homework, she was more excited than she has ever been since she arrived to