Teaching Esl Students and Why It Is Important Essay

When an educator walks into her classroom for the first time, she needs to be prepared to encounter students that come from a variety of backgrounds. The children will be in different stages of language development, and the educator must accommodate for each of these students. Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera (2013) state, “The US Census Bureau projects that by the 2030s, children whose home language is other than English will increase from roughly 22 percent to 40 percent of the school-age population” (p. 9). This increase in second language learners will cause the educator to accommodate for those needs. Second language learners “need teachers who welcome them and recognize their unique abilities, what they know, and what they need to learn” (Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera, 2013, p. 10).

School board members across the country want to better serve the students who are English language learners. Because countless English language learner students spend part of their academic day in a regular classroom, the general education teachers need to be trained to understand instructional strategies and techniques to aid in advancing this population of students (Stover, 2015). Consequently, it would also be beneficial for school board members to support the bilingual and English Language Learner Specialist in training all teachers in the district on ways to better serve this population.

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

Doctors Ana Iddings and Mary Combs are Associate Professors from the University of Arizona who conducted research on how to help English language learners become successful in grades Kindergarten through 12 along with Dr. Luis Moll who is a Professor Emeritus from the named university. Dr. Iddings has conducted individual research on many topics, one being the education and professional development of teachers to work with English language learners (ELLs) and their families. Dr. Combs currently teaches courses in bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) courses on the graduate and undergraduate levels. Dr. Moll’s main research was conducted in education of Latino children in the United States.

In recent decades, the United States has seen a dramatic increase in the diverse population, especially with English-language learners in the education system. English-language learners are students who are unable to communicate fluently or learn effectively in English. These students come from a non-English speaking home or background and require specialized instruction in the English language and their academic courses. Educators use a number of terms when referring to English-language learners, limited English proficient (LEP) students, non-native English speakers, language-minority students, and either bilingual students or emerging bilingual students (York, 2008). As

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.

Many Hispanic families are living in poverty; the children are depended upon to provide for the family as soon as they can. Unfortunately, education becomes second on the priority list. Author Goldenberg, (2004), claims that parents of ELL students do value their children’s education. The author states that parents are heavily involved in making sure their children finish their homework; they participate in parent-teacher meetings and attend school-based parent meetings. From my experience of raising four children, I’ve experienced and have interacted with many E LL parents. I can concur with the author Goldenberg that parents of ELL students do value education. The issues that lie are not based on the fact that they value or don’t value, but more on the inability to support the children in their educational journey. Language exhibits a major barrier to ELL parent-school collaboration. Many ELL parents often feel alienation, misunderstood, or intimidated by their lack of native English skills. Since most school staff are limited by their inability to speak effectively and regularly with ELL parents, this two-way language barrier often prevents and hinders all forms of oral and written communications between school and home (Waterman & Harry, 2008). As one source concurs, author Xiang, (2015), briefly highlights “the three Rs in building a positive and effective ESL learning environment: relationships, resources, and routines” (Xiang, L., 2010,

It is important as a teacher to make sure that they communicate with English Language Learners parents. ELL parents may have a difficult time becoming involved in their student’s academics because they might not know the English language as well. As a teacher, I will want to help the ELL parents as much as possible. I will inform the parents that I am here to help them in any way possible. And that I have found some very helpful community resources that aid in English acquisition and serve immigrant families that may be able to help them out. There might be a lot of questions that the ELL parents might have that as a teacher I will not know the answer, this is when the community resource can help them out. It was mentioned that when someone

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.

Did you know that you might be bilingual? Bilingual refers to individuals who can function in more than one language. Bilingualism is a feature not just of individuals, but also societies (Introduction 1). Bilingualism has been around for a long time because traders of all kinds going to another nation and picking up some of that countries language and bringing it back with them. According to studies done by the National Center for Family Literacy and the Center for Applied Linguistics you are more likely to be bilingual at a young age then when you’re at fifty years old because when you’re young you are more impressible. Students should be required to take a foreign language because its helps you to get a better paying job, helps you

1. I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day. (a recovering alcoholic at an AA meeting)

I want to take a moment and welcome to the U.S. I hope that this immigration will bring you lots of opportunities, joy, and health. Immigration with all the changes and necessary adaptations to the new environment is challenging journey. But, it is doable. I am glad that I am included in your journey. I am more pleasant to be teacher of your children and working hard to make sure they learn and enjoy their time in my classroom.

Language is one of the valuable gifts which have been passed to children. The first language is significant and builds the basis for all later language progresses. Parents, family members and early childhood professionals have very important role on the development and maintenance of the first language. Studies shows that knowing one language can assist the child to comprehend how other languages work. First or home language is

     “In the world were over seven thousand languages have exisisted, one language had become dominate. This dominant language is English.” “In the majority of countries throughout the world speak English as their second or first language, no longer just America or England.” English has taken many forms, American English, the Queen’s English, Australian, Canadian English, and several others. Even American English has taken several types of English, Jersey English, East Coast English, West Coast English, Southern English, slang English, and Ebonics. All of these languages have major variants between them, but are all of them are still understood aboard. Without English the world couldn’t operate,

It’s important to engage students in doing some communicative practices. Richard (2006) explained that communicative practices are those activities that focus on exchanging real information and using language in an authentic context, thus the communication is based on the specific situation and not predictable. Communicative language teaching has been proven to be effective in improving students’ communicative abilities and other language skills. Richards and Rodgers (2001) also wrote that an important goal of communicative language teaching is to help students improve their communicative competence and other language skills. This indicates that the communicative activities can help language learners