English Language Learners I

Whew!! I just finished my Enriching Content Classes for Secondary ESOL Students class down in Colorado Springs at Cheyenne Mountain High School. We were in class all day for seven days. I learned a ton! My head has finally stopped spinning enough for me to start thinking more extensively about what I learned and how I can use it. I was very impressed with the course as it contained fresh information for me. It gave me some very "do-able" strategies that didn't "dumb-down" the curriculum.

I learned several great strategies which I will reflect on here as I get the time. One general theme that I kept hearing in my discussions with my classmates was how these weren't just great strategies to help our ELL students; they were also effective strategies for helping our resource students! Plus, they would be a tremendous benefit to many of our regular ed students.

It's getting late and I have curriculum meetings all day tomorrow, as I did today. So, I can't get too much out now. However, I did want to mention at least one thing I got from the class before I hit the hay.

We need to give our English Language Learners more opportunities to see, hear, read, and speak our academic language. Now, you might think, see our academic language? Yes, see our academic language. The more I think of it, the more I realize that that the acronyms we use for our English as a Second Language students are entirely insufficient and/or grossly inaccurate.

Think about it.

English may, in fact, be the second language, but each curriculum has a language that has a highly specialized vocabulary. Math is a good example of a curriculum that has an academic language all it's own. Plus, when speaking "mathematically" we often use a passive voice. For example, here's a common math sentence structure: "The product of five and n is twenty."

Forget the fact that an ELL student has to learn that product means the answer to a multiplication problem in math--not just a direct result as it is in our common use of the word or a substance resulting from a chemical reaction as it is in science. Forget the fact that an ELL student has to learn that of and is mean "multiply" and "equal" in math, which are entirely different than their "English" counterparts. Forget the fact that the highly specialized vocabulary we use in our curriculum can be a dicey subject in and of itself.

To me, one of the real barriers that make many English Language Learners reticent to verbalize in class is the mixed messages they get regarding sentence structure in the different classes they attend. Imagine what it must be like for an ELL student to go from a math class that inundates that student with of and is, to a Language Arts class, where of and is are treated like the color red in the movie The Village (dreaded and shunned by all--Those We Don't Speak Of).

Now, I'm not suggesting that we neglect to teach our students to properly verbalize math sentences. And I'm certainly not saying that Language Arts teachers shouldn't teach their students to write with an Active Voice. Our students need to be able to do both.

So what do we do about it? Well, I'll have to address that on the next post as it is getting late and I have even more meetings tomorrow. Woo-Hoo!

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