According to the Kids Count Data Center, “In 2016, 22% of children in the United States — slightly more than 12 million kids total — spoke a language other than English at home” and “4% of children in America — or 2.4 million kids total — have difficulty speaking the nation’s primary language.”
Throughout the United States, schools have ESL programs — English as a Second Language — which are designed to help students whose native language is not English. These students are referred to as English Language Learners and are taken out of their classes during the day in order to be taught English. This time serves to help students improve their English skills through reading, writing, and speaking. However, there are many flaws in this system that hurt the students rather than help them.
English Language Learners face many challenges due to several circumstances. Rather it be the language barrier, adapting to a new environment, or being overwhelmed with change, ELL students are constantly dealing with obstacles that schools are failing to assist them in.
Learning a new language is difficult
To begin, ELL students are children who are currently learning English and/or improving their English skills. The challenge of learning a new language is already an obstacle for the student. English is a difficult language to master especially if schools are not providing the resources needed for these students.
Many students who are English Language Learners are either native-born or immigrants. Their culture may be drastically different from Americans which can be a great change while in American schools. Therefore, schools should also work on creating a smoother transition into the school system so ELL students can be more comfortable navigating the school on their own.
ESL Teachers are underpaid and overworked
Studies have shown that there are not many ESL teachers in the school system. They are often forced to work at many elementary, middle, and high schools. In addition, there are unrealistic expectations for ESL teachers to meet. For example, it is simply not possible for every ELL student to receive an adequate education if there is limited access to their ESL teacher.
In most circumstances, teachers are poorly trained or even untrained. Teachers are not taught how to teach ELL students and are completely out of blue on how to handle the challenges. Therefore, schools should include training for how to teach ELL students because the number of these students will only keep increasing.
Suzanne Rupp DeMallie, a teacher in the Baltimore County Public School system, says that “[Schools] need to incentivize teachers to earn the ESL credentials to increase the number of qualified ESL teachers and they should add resource teachers to support the academic proficiency needs of the ELL students.”
Schools are holding ell students behind
According to NPR Ed and researchers, “even when ELL students are identified as gifted, the impulse is often to keep them out of accelerated programs despite evidence that they would benefit from more challenging work while they’re learning English.”
Author Chester E. Finn Jr. has also stated that “school policies for identifying gifted ELLs are inadequate” in which, therefore, holds many gifted EL’s behind. Many policies are outdated because the ESL programs are often overlooked in schools. This affects many ELL students and also attributes to why there is underwhelming results to academic success.
Public schools also lack resources to help these students such as ESL teachers, translators, and trained teachers. This is especially worse for schools that lack funds to supply students with a good education.
In addition, ELL students may lack basic skills in reading, math, science, and history subjects due to being pulled out of their class time to be taught English. It seems like a game of tug of war where ELL students have to choose between missing out on class to learn English or missing out on learning English and staying in class.
What Can future teachers do?
Learning what the ESL program is will be crucial for future teachers to understand. As stated before, the number of ELL students will only increase from now and will become a larger issue in the future if not handled correctly. Therefore, future teachers should keep in mind that not every student has the same challenges.
Don’t let ELL students navigate the schoolwork on their own and expect them to do it. Instead, guide them through the activity by demonstrating it step-by-step and this can encourage them to complete assignments. Be clear on instructions and attempt to not speak too fast. Just like other students, ELL students can get confused easily if a teacher speaks fast and rushes through a lecture. It is important to keep in mind that these students are still working on improving their English skills.
Most importantly, don’t give up on them. Unfortunately, schools are already failing to give ELL students the support they need and are letting many fall through the cracks of the system. Therefore, support these students through the flawed system because no student should be left behind.
Overall, for a country that’s a melting pot of many languages, there isn’t much they’re doing to support those students whose native tongue isn’t English.