Importance Of The English Language Acquisition Of An ESL Learner

English language learners (ELL) are one of the fastest growing classifications of students attending schools in the United States today. They represent a diverse group of students typically coming from homes or backgrounds where English is not the primary language spoken. Additionally, ELL students experience difficulties communicating or learning academic instruction in English.

Within the past ten years, the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) has doubled. An increase of more than 2 million ELL students in the U.S schools, left professionals within the field of education with no choice but to face the challenge of understanding cultural differences. In addition to this, educators must understand how these differences affect students’ language development, learning style, academic achievement and most importantly, his or her performance on standardized tests. These differences must be understood, valued and respected by all service providers, especially those who are involved in the decision making process concerning the placement of students in special educational programs. (Roseberry-McKibbin, 2014).

Introduction - Being a part of a bilingual speaking family, like with my mom and dad who are Chinese immigrants, is an experience that no one can imagine unless you are part of a bilingual speaking family. Experiences such as knowing a language that not many of our neighbors don't know can be frustrating for both sides. Being young in my early years, learning English was not only a struggle for me but for my family. I noticed that my parents struggled learning english and communicating with the outside world. From buying groceries to paying for the bills, I observed the painful experiences that my parents persevere through all these years. I was glad public schools gave me the opportunity to not only learn English but to help my family live in this English superior society.

Within this paper we will take a brief look at the Language Acquisition Principles and how they work on the behalf of ELL students. We will see how these principles can be applied within our own learning environment. There is much information from Walqui article that gives a brief overview of ELL students and how things looked in the past for these students. Now that times has change we will see how educators can make the requirements for ELL students better and more effective for teacher and students. Hopefully, as we look at ways of changing learning for our ELL students we must remember that every student learns differently. Even if you follow the principles from

English Learners (EL) are any students that are learning a second language and being introduced to the English language. They can affect education

With the immigration population increase comes a language barrier increase. Therefore, English as a Second Language (ESL) tools in the classroom is essential. ESL was established in the 1970s when children of many mother tongues, crowded classrooms due to the immigration increase (Tomkins, G., 1981, p.

A full range of services are provided to meet individual needs. One of these services, English as a Second Language, provides support in general education classrooms for students whose first language is not English. The English Language Learning (ELL) Program utilizes various instructional models where students work within a classroom setting, in small groups or individually

Bilingualism and home language can be encouraged by the educator to ensure that the student learns successfully. As an ELL student it can be a challenge to learn a new language, this is why educators should allow students to use their first language to promote a meaningful connection with the second language that is being learned. At home it is quite evident that ELL students communicate using their primary language, therefore at school it is a complete turnaround. Educators, at this point can promote literacy skills in which the native language is used, but then transferred into skills that are valuable to learn English. The home language use in effect influences English learning in maintenance of cognitive aspects in bilingualism by the ELL students (Academic Writing Tips, 2011). For example, encouraging collaboration and peer groups of students of the same academic level, but of various cultures, will promote the student to use their language sparingly, but also become familiar with the second language. ELL students have to have the confidence and courage to learn a second language and develop the literacy skills that are involved in learning, this is when parental and community resources should be available to incorporate English acquisition skills.

We learn primarily through language, and use language to express our understanding. In order for English learners to have access to core content, they need academic language and literacy skills (Echevarria, Vogt and Short). Academic language is used to succeed in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Often English learner students enter school with limited to no exposure to academic language. These students are from homes in which English is rarely spoken. They are bright students who would excel in classrooms whose academic language was the same as their native language. The task No Child Left Behind has given to researchers and teachers is to educate the increased number of immigrants in English speaking classes. It is important to realize that there are approximately 180 native languages among the student body population. Spanish by far surpasses other language groups.

During the past five months, I have worked with a group of ELL’s that are both motivated to achieve academically and to learn English as a second language. Plus, as the daughter of immigrants and as an English Language Learner, I know first hand that we are capable of achieving high academic standards. Therefore, I never believed the myths mentioned about ELL’s not being capable to achieve high academic standards nor did I believe that they are not motivated to learn. I did, however, believed that the best way for ELLs to learn the language was through exposure.

However, Sternberg and Sternberg identify conflicting research as well. Sternberg and Sternberg suggested that for certain individuals, bilingualism results in thinking in any one language difficult. Sternberg and Sternberg described additive versus subtractive bilingualism. The authors described active bilingualism is when an individual is fluent in the languages they speak, in which case the positive effects identified by Marian and Shook (2012) are experienced. Contrarily subtractive bilingualism is when an individual confuses the languages and uses them interchangeably in normal speech. American elementary schools witness the effects of subtractive bilingualism in situations where children are required to speak English in school, but a different language at home, often times in poorer communities. Sternberg and Sternberg (2017) suggest that this is a result of not learning either language

Acquiring and learning a second language do not refer only to handling oral communication skills. It is more than that; it takes the students´ abilities in enhancing their lexicon, their management in syntax, and their perspective about words´ influences in people. Thus, summing this up, it is indispensable that ESL students have a grand deal about linguistic knowledge. In other words, ESL learners not only require speaking, but also reading, writing and thinking in English when they complete whatever English career.

Vocabulary plays a significant role in English as second language learning process. For the majority of English as Second Language(ESL) learners, the ultimate goal of learning the language is to understand (read and listen) and communicate (write and speak) with little difficulty and the lack of sufficient vocabulary may be the constraint of such goal (Folse, 2004). As the bedrock of English and as well as language, vocabulary also facilitates the development of other language skills: lexical richness leads to the progress in the use of language, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing skills (Nation, 1994). Reversely, The improvement in such skills may enhance learners vocabulary size as the exposure to more learning materials improves the capacity to acquire new vocabulary. (The importance of learning vocabulary/ why vocabulary?)

ESL students are students that speak English as a second language. Presently, there is many different system to characterize this type of students (qtd in Shi, Steen 63). For example, they can be seen as “English Language Learners (ELL), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), English Language Development (ELD), English Language Service (ELS), and

The background for the research study provided insight into the theoretical and pedagogical aspect of using native language (L1) with a focus on the aspects that most relate to adult ESL classes. The areas addressed were both the affective aspects of learning related to bilingualism and academic development and the effective classroom practices. Knowing that individuals organize and learn information by thinking and feeling, teachers need to keep in mind that the emotional self is a strong factor in learning. Native language is an important part of culture and creating opportunities for using L1 might be quite beneficial to learning the target language (TL), in this case English. The nature of bilingualism was addressed and as Huerta-Macias and Kephart cited Cook (1992), “learners cannot simply shut down their knowledge of one language when using the other.” Adults whose cognitive development exceeds their linguistic ability in the TL may find an English-only class frustrating.