Many local students speak little English: Overcoming language barrier can prove to be a challenge
|
Prior to 1987, just about every student in the Warren County School System could speak English. But with the late ’80s arrival of Japanese factories and families came a previously unforeseen language barrier.
Such was the beginning of the school system’s ESOL program, or English to Speakers of Other Languages, which today serves 160 students with limited English skills. And while there are still a handful of Japanese, and students of other backgrounds, in the local schools, these days about 90 percent of students in the ESOL program are Hispanic.
As the system’s first ESOL teacher, program director Dianna Zadeh spent her first year traveling to five schools a day to teach a combined nine students. Today the program employs three full-time ESOL teachers, two bilingual assistants and a language consultant.
Students who come from non-English speaking households are tested for English proficiency (speaking, reading and writing) upon entering the school system. Those not testing proficient are encouraged to attend, with bus transportation provided, those schools with established ESOL programs. These include Hickory Creek Elementary, Warren County Middle School and Warren County High School.
Zadeh said all of the system’s English language learners, as they are called, are at varying levels of progress.
“They can be divided into four categories,” Zadeh said. “The first is beginning or those who are either total non-speakers or at very low levels. About 70 of the 160 ESOL students fall in this category. The second is the intermediate level. These students have a little conversational skill with limited reading and writing skills. The third level is advanced. These students can function in the classroom, but are incapable of high-level skills like analytical and critical thinking. The fourth category is proficient. These students are capable of making the honor roll, though we still provide them support help.”
The ESOL program here in Warren County is what’s known as a “pull-out” program. This means the students in the program are put in a regular classroom for most of the school day, but are pulled out for a class period or two every day for specialized instruction to improve their English.
By school board policy, work and grading modifications must be made for ESOL students in the regular classroom. No modifications are made for the students on state tests like TCAP and Gateway, however.
Once in the ESOL program most students remain in it for their school careers as English is a very difficult language to learn.
“Statistics show it takes two to three years to learn a foreign language conversationally and English isn’t easy,” said Zadeh. “It can take up to five years to become fluent and between five and seven years to learn academic English, which is different from the way they talk. These students have a hard row to hoe.”