Challenges facing ESL - High School students in acquisition of writing and communication skills - Essay Example

Challenges facing ESL- High School in acquisition of writing and communication skills Introduction An ESL student is one whose primary language or languages is not English and so they have to learn it through additional English language support mechanisms so as to acquire reading, writing, listening as well as speaking skills. ESL students ca broadly be categorized into five main categories which include immigrants, international students, children belonging to temporary foreign workers, government assisted refugees and refugee claimants. Challenges faced by ESL students differ depending on the above listed classification. The immigrants are considered to be likely to experience least amount of challenges because they have already received formal education in their native countries that included learning English as a foreign language. They usually visit English speaking countries out of their own personal choices hence more prepared for the challenges ahead. In most cases, they have decent family background marked by intact family units and financial stability. Despite these factors, such students still face challenges such as difficulties in adapting to the new culture, conflict of cultures in terms of what is learnt at home and what is learnt at the new school, varying abilities in the understanding of the English language and conflict in terms of what s learnt and practiced at home and the nee foreign schools. International students are characterized by the fact that they are in foreign schools for purpose of pursuing their studies on a temporary basis. They are driven by the passion to learn English and get integrated into the new culture. In most cases, they have already studied English as foreign language at their lower levels of study in their countries of origin and are usually well educated in other spheres of life. They face challenges such as separation from their families which may hinder their adaptability to the new environment; they are to struggle between the different cultural expectations between their own expectations and those identified in the new locations. Such students must strive to adapt to the new language being spoken in the foreign country as well as basic rules and eating habits. Children belonging to temporary foreign workers are those who are pursuing their studies while at the same time their parents are working in that country. They are closely associated with immigrants’ children with the exception that they are in those countries on temporary basis. They register similar languages with those who belong to the immigrants. Therefore all refugee students are immigrants but not all immigrant students are refugees. Government assisted refugees are students who referred to foreign countries by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). They therefore attain permanent residence and are thus able to enjoy all the right and privileges being witnessed by the citizens of those countries. Reasons leading to their leaving of countries of origin can be traced to political, social or economic upheavals hence not voluntary. These students face a number of challenges such as trauma due to the challenging experiences that they went through in their native countries, large cultural variations and may have little or no education at all hence learning English will be coupled by so many challenges. For such students, learning English may be out of compulsion and not by choice hence the struggles are many. The students may have lost their family members due to war in their native countries hence they will have difficulty in concentrating in their studies due to sad memories. The parents of such students generally have low incomes hence they cannot offer all the necessary items that the students need for their studies. The parents may also be under trauma, culture shock as well as loss of esteem and such are likely to impact negatively on the learning capacity of their children. Refugee claimants refer to students who have been granted protection by a foreign land due to the fact that their lives are in danger if they go back to their countries of origin. They are under constant fear of being tortured, punished or undergo unusual treatment therefore they go to foreign countries in order to seek asylum. They are likely to experience challenges due to cultural differences. They are under constant fear of being deported back to their countries as their asylum status may not be recognized in some countries. They are traumatized owing to the fact that they may have escaped their countries of origin due to persecution and threats from the authorities. They may have little or no knowledge of the English language they have to start from the lowest point in their quest to learn English as a second language. It is worth noting that not all ESL high school students go to schools as pure types who are ready and confident to accept the challenges of a new environment and take appropriate risks in speaking and writing English. Not all students come with the necessary competence already established in one language that will allow an easy bridge into second language learning. Many students in international schools come from multiple language backgrounds, where one or both parents mother tongue may be different from the practiced language of the family. In other cases, young international high school students may have moved numerous times to a variety of countries and continents and been in the care of nannies or other household help, each with a different mother tongue. In still other cases, second and third generation children of immigrants living in closed communities might have lost direct links with their country of origin and yet remains largely un-assimilated in their new host countries. These factors leads to numerous challenges among ESL high school students which must be taken into consideration by the teachers in such schools so as to develop a proper means of understanding as well as assisting them to learn the English language under suitable environmental conditions. High School students, who have had complex linguistic histories and have not established adequate competence in a primary language, may continue to have difficulty with developing fully a second language, despite sustained exposure to the target language which in this case is the English language. Difficulties in vocabulary development and syntax, impoverished or immature writing, and difficulty keeping up and participating in class may all be symptoms of an earlier lack of competence in a first language. Such students often resemble language learning disabled students and it can be difficult to assess whether it is poor exposure to language or a neuropsychological difficulty that is preventing adequate language development. Such cases require a concerted effort aimed at ensuring that the students are assisted where possible to register remarkable improvement in their quest to learn English language. Conclusion A number of approaches have been devised to minimize the challenges faced by students who are under ESL program. Parents as well as teachers need to take an active role in assisting students to overcome challenges especially those associated with divergent in cultures. They need to be encouraged to find ways in which they can switch off from the pressures of academic work; for example you could encourage her to take part in an after-school sporting, musical or artistic activity. Such will offer them opportunities to meet and establish new friendships that will be of great assistance towards learning the English language. The teachers should offer assistance by ensuring that the students do not speak more of their native language than English while in school, not allowing a single student in particular to dominate the lesson but to strive to strike a clear balance among them. Continuous motivation will go along way towards ensuring that the students receive value for their efforts. Follow up initiatives need to be adopted by the teaching fraternity so as to ensure that the students always put into practice the things that they learn in class in every area of their lives. Work Cited Parker, Christi. 30 Graphic Organizers for Writing (Graphic Organizers to Improve Literacy Skills). Oceanus Dr, Huntington Beach: Shell Education, 2006. Print. Read More