English Language Learners: Concerns With the Language - Research Paper Example

Abstract English Language Learners have been present in the country for several years now. There are several difficulties that are faced by these learners while attempting to learn English since it is not their first language. This paper has dealt with the discussion of strategies that can be used to assist the ELLs to read easily and also understand as they read. Reading strategies that are provided are mostly for the teachers and the mentors to develop for the students and these assist the students to learn better. Three main strategies have been discussed here these include, a) Think – Pair – Share, b) Think - Alouds and c) GIST. “[reading] is essentially the same [process] whether reading English as a first or a second language. In other words, both first and second language readers look at the page and the print and use their knowledge of sound/symbol relationships, word order, grammar, and knowledge about the text’s topic and structure along with their linguistic knowledge and reading strategies to arrive at an interpretation and to achieve their purpose for reading” (Peregoy & Boyle, 1999, p. 259). Introduction: A study has shown that by 2010, almost 30 percent of the school age children will be from homes where the primary language is not English. In New York alone it has been noted that there are more than one hundred languages which are represented in the public school classrooms. This is the current state in almost every state and throughout the country. Schools have as a diverse set of students who speak as many as 60 different languages. These mainly include, Spanish, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, and others dialects of Chinese, Haitian – Creole, and Russian (Douglas, 2009). English Language Learners is the common term that has been adopted by educators to refer to students with a Limited English Proficiency (LEPs), English is a Second Language (ESLs) and even in cases where Second Language Learners (SLLs). This paper aims at providing strategies for the English Language Learners to help improve their learning process and to make it simpler to learn the language. The next section will detail a few of the strategies that can be adopted to assist the English Language Learners (ELLs) have a better grasp of the language and enable to read more effectively and efficiently (Marzola.E.S, 2005). Problem Areas for ELLs: As discussed, most English Language Learners have English as their secondary language and hence these individual have a few concerns with the language and need to make extra efforts to be able to learn the language. This section will brief point out the issue that lead to lack of comprehension of the English Language. These include: Lack of understanding the directions used within the classrooms Inability to understand or hear certain English sounds especially those not used in their own languages, for example; In Chinese the following English sounds are not used: b, ch, d, dg, g, oa, sh, and in Greek these sounds are never used: aw, ee, i, oo, schwa. Inability to understand the common idioms used in English like, ‘Lets hit the books’, ‘Make up your mind’ Instructions language used might not be understood Mispronunciations of words is a possibility Level of English proficiency might be different for different students ELLs might not be able to produce English terms or sentences that lead them not to be able to participate in the learning process (Rodríguez-Galindo, 2006). Hence while developing strategies to assist the English Language Learners, it is essential to keep the above mentioned points in mind and suitably design and assist the students with the reading activities. Reading Strategies: There are a few basic requirements that students need for the reading activities which include the basics like, alphabetic understanding, decoding skills, automaticity of sight vocabulary, overall fluency, development of metacognitive strategies to foster fluency and comprehension, text matched to reading level and interests, engagement in extensive reading (Rodríguez-Galindo, 2006). Based on these and after several years of research, a few techniques have been developed to assist the English Language Learners to read well. These include the following: Think – Pair – Share: This strategy was developed to assist the students and provide them with a ‘food for thought’ on a given topic. Here the students are encouraged to formulate their own ideas and then share the ideas with a group of students. This encourages participation and assists the students to read in pairs or even listen to the teacher while they read to the students. Also, the teacher can pose a question and give the student and their partner to a chance to discuss and then share the ideas with the class. As Douglas (2009) explains, “This technique [Think – Pair – Share] works well with ELLs because it allows them to formulate their ideas on their own, test them out in a non-threatening way with their partners, and then, reinforced by their partner’s feedback, share the ideas with the class. They can thus rehearse what they want to say before they say it in front of a large group. It also lets them work out meaning with their partners, expanding and possibly correcting what they gathered from the reading” (Douglas, 2009). The technique as explained by Douglas also allows the students to read through various books and while reading stop to think and understand why a particular event might have occurred. For example, reading about the social climate in the American colonies before the American Revolution, the teacher could pose an inference question about causes of the Boston Tea Party (Douglas, 2009). The students can think and then discuss the possible reasons with their partner and once the reading is completed they could compare their predictions with what actually occurred. Think – Alouds: This is another very effective format to assist the students understand how to read passages in a simpler manner. One of the most effective forms to explain this is by reading a story to the students and stopping from time to time, telling them what you are (teacher) thinking while you read the story. This allows the stimulation of the thinking process and also allows the students to try and use the strategy while reading other passages or stories. This technique allows the teacher to monitor what student think while reading a story, passage or poem and to ensure that the understanding is on the right track. Training students to think – aloud allows the teachers and mentors to rightly find the point where students understanding is moving out of track and gives the teachers a chance to interrupt sensitively and assist the student come to the right track (Birsh, 2005). This will allow the students to be corrected at the right stage rather than leaving them and assuming that they follow what they think. Generating Interaction between Schemata and Text (GIST): This is another very useful form of explaining and a very strong strategy for English language Learners. Here the teachers or mentors can make sense of the passage by trying to summarise the passage and helping the students internalise the passage by selecting the most important words from the passage and using these words to summarise the passage (Douglas, 2009). This will not only allow the students to understand the passage as well as use the technique while reading themselves. This technique is most beneficial as it allows for self study by students as well. Conclusions: Reading can prove to be very difficult for the English Language Learners. Hence it is essential for teachers and mentors to take up with responsibility with high levels of sensitivity and to ensure that support is provided to the students rather than being harsh with the students. Also if the above mentioned strategies are utilised the students will find it simpler to understand what they read and to utilise the knowledge gained from the reading to the real life situations as well (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005, Douglas, 2009, Rodríguez-Galindo, 2006). Also the strategies encourage higher participation of students and thereby ensure that all students are in track with the sessions being held. References Birsh, J. R. (2005). Multisensory teaching of basic language skills. Maryland: Brookes. Douglas, E. (2009). Reading comprehension strategies for English language learners. Retrieved October 9, 2009, from LearnNC: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/724 Marzola.E.S. (2005). Strategies to improve reading comprehension in the multisensory classroom. Baltimore: Brookes. Peregoy, F., & Boyle, O. (2005). Reading, Writing ans Learning in ESL: A resource book for k 12 Teachers. Boston: Person Publishers. Rodríguez-Galindo, A. (2006, July). Successful Reading Instruction Strategies for English Language Learners . Retrieved October 10, 2009, from NM Reading First: www.nmreadingfirst.org/.../Galindo-Wright--Successful_Reading_Instruction_Strategies_for_English_Language_Learnerst.ppt Read More