As Deborah Short and Jane Echevarria (“Teacher Skills to Support English Language Learners,” p. 8) point out in this issue, children whose first language is not English are flooding U.S. schools. In the 2003–2004 academic year, 5.5 million school-age children in the United States were nonnative English speakers, a 100 percent increase from 10 years ago.
Bring Students to the Table
- Meet informally (with translators if possible) with a small group of students in your school who are learning English. Have them share what they would like to tell teachers that might help them teach language learners better.
- See how students respond to some of the student views that Reeves unearthed. Try asking the following questions: Do you “play in English” in school? How can teachers show patience in teaching you? Do your parents understand the work and school papers you bring home?
- Ask the students what has helped them feel comfortable and relaxed at school—and what hasn't. Tape-record and transcribe their words, and share anonymous comments with your school's faculty.
- Commit to trying out in the classroom one of the strategies or activities outlined in Zwiers's article, such as assigning students to hold a conversation with a native English speaker or examining a textbook chapter to identify and define academic terms and language.
- Create and post a “language bank” defining these terms in a central place in your school; teachers can frequently add to the bank and review it with students to prepare for testing.
- In your study group, read over Lewis Carroll's poem “Jabberwocky,” which contains nonsense words like brillig used meaningfully but mysteriously. Individually, take a stab at defining each nonsense word from context. How might it feel to be tested in reading comprehension on this poem?
Xenoglossophobia?
- Do you agree with Sandy Cutshall (“Why We Need ‘The Year of Languages’”, p. 20) that the United States suffers from xenoglossophobia—the fear of foreign languages? Why or why not?
- Share your own experience learning a second language during your K–12 school days. How did your experiences square with the recommendations of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages outlined in Cutshall's article?
