EDUCATION in the NEWS DIVERSITY CHALLENGES MANY AREA TEACHERS Kokomo Tribune (IN
ID: 3496247 • Letter: E
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EDUCATION in the NEWS
DIVERSITY CHALLENGES MANY AREA TEACHERS
Kokomo Tribune (IN) on July 5, 2011
The Kokomo-Center Schools student population includes 174 children whose first language was one other than English. The majority of its English-language learners, 111, speak Spanish, but others speak Mandarin, Arabic, Punjabi, Romanian, Persian, Tagalog, Russian, Urdu and a host of others.
Even with this polyglot of first languages, the Kokomo area is not seeing the same kind of growth in English-language learners that other areas of the state are seeing, according to 2010 census data.
Across the state of Indiana, the number of ELL students quadrupled over the last decade to nearly 50,000. That’s a fraction of the state’s 1.1 million K-12 students, but it is a segment with high need, with one ELL teacher to every 150 students.
In the Kokomo area, Southeastern School Corp. had the largest percentage of English-language learners, at 4 percent. Tri-Central Community Schools was second, at 3 percent. Taylor, Western, Kokomo-Center, Maconaquah, and Tipton had 1 percent ELL students, while Northwestern and Peru had less than 1 percent. Eastern-Howard Schools reported no English-language learners in 2010 census data.
Kokomo-Center Schools’ public relations consultant, Dave Barnes, said 174 children qualified for the ELL designation in the 2010 to 2011 school year.
Nearly half of those students, eighty-five, are not counted as ELL students in the census data or by the Indiana Department of Education, however, because they are fluent in English and don’t receive any special services with language.
Students must pass a fluency test two years consecutively to be considered fluent, and 85 of the 174 English-language learners have met that standard.
An additional sixty-two are in mainstream classrooms and receive some special instruction in English. About twenty-seven qualify for extensive language assistance.
Barnes said the number of English-language learners has been stable in the last five years, and the Kokomo-Center Schools have not experienced the growth in that population that the state has had.
Barnes said teachers do have to be aware of students who are in the regular classrooms but may have some difficulties with academic English.
“You just have to be aware, and especially when you have a written assignment, you may need to help them a little more with their grammar.”
As an English teacher, he’s provided a Spanish language copy of a novel he was teaching to a student who was fluent in English, but might miss the nuances because it wasn’t his native language.
He had other students who carried a Mandarin/English translator, and when they would read a word they did not know, they could enter it into the translator for a definition.
“They were very intelligent kids. They would see it in Mandarin and say, ‘Oh yeah, I understand,’ and they could use it in a sentence in English once they understood.”
For Spanish-speaking students, the school often tries to pair them up with an English-language native who also speaks Spanish, he said, and community members who speak Mandarin have also come in to help in translation, particularly for parent meetings.
Barnes said English-language learners must pass state assessments like native speakers, but can have some accommodations.
He added, though, that the students’ parents can decline any language assistance, and those students still have to pass the assessments.
“The parents can decline any English language development, and there’s not a thing we can do,” he said.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
How different is the diversity in Kokomo, Indiana, from where you grew up? Why do you think those differences exist?
What are the challenges for teachers when immigrant students in their schools have a number of different native languages?
How would you categorize the instructional strategies that Mr. Barnes recommends to teachers for working with English-language learners?
Explanation / Answer
What are the challenges for teachers when immigrant students in their schools have a number of different native languages?
For teachers, the main challenge is to establish a common language of communication. The teacher has to teach one particular subject, and that to thoroughly. If the student does not understand the language which is being taught by the teacher, the student will not be able to perceive the information appropriately and end up scoring much less than their maximum ability. This in turn creates a question with the teachers performance or if the teacher is not able to deliver her information properly. She might have to arrange for additional or remedial classes for the student, I.e. Additional work.
How would you categorize the instructional strategies that Mr. Barnes recommends to teachers for working with English-language learners?
Mr. Barnes wants to test that the non native English speakers are getting properly accustomed to their language and learning properly. Just to check that he is asking for an assessment test with criteria that are similar to that of the English speakers, so that their language can have the same base as that of the native English speakers and so that they cannot fall short on any front of language .
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