English Language Learners
Sarah Orosz
When I entered the undergraduate ILA program at Bowling Green I was immersed in classes that dealt with writing papers, reading anthologies, standardized testing, curriculums, and even student discipline. Up until this point I have not given serious thought to the reality that I may be teaching English Language Learner (ELL) students in my high school English classroom. Before reading the NCTE Research Brief, I was and still am a bit unsure of how to meet these student’s individual needs. I found the article enlightening and easy to comprehend, but it did not present me with any information because in a linguistics course that I took about two semesters ago my professor discussed ELL students in greater detail. However, I want to point out that this research brief prompted a feeling of concern within me because I am worried about what these ELL students may face when they leave school grounds. As their teacher, I am only able to control the environment in my classroom.
Some of these ELL students may have dialects, accents, or physical appearances that differ from the dominant American culture. These unique qualities may cause an ELL student to be viewed by certain person as an “outsider”, or one who does not belong. I am well aware that many American citizens carry strong feelings of ethnocentrism, but it is feelings like these that create the potentially dangerous labels of “us” and “them.” ELL students are young people who are doing their best to comprehend a new language while at the same time, are striving to adjust to a new or foreign culture. Yet, all too often they are chastised for one thing or another due to cultural bigotries. The article even touches on this subject, “Some ELL students are stigmatized for the way they speak English; some are stigmatized for speaking a language other then English; some are stigmatized for speaking English” (2). This quote reminds me of a film clip that I viewed last semester in my ‘Teaching in a Pluralistic Society’ course. The clip portrayed an older Caucasian man; yelling at a family of Latinos saying, “Go back where you came from. You are stealing our language! The language that belongs to us!” This instance reminds me that there are countless Americans who feel the same way because their thoughts are clouded by years of prejudice that has been handed down from generation to generation. I believe ill feelings and bigotries toward a particular group of individuals are not innate, they are learned. This information greatly saddens me because ELL students are not going to cease coming into our country, “14 million are expected to arrive between 2000 and 2010”(1) and so the prejudices will not stop either. So my question is: what actions, if any, can teachers take to continue protecting and encouraging ELL students after the final school bell rings?