Adriana Bello wasn’t new to the United States, but the 7-year-old was in a new home with an unfamiliar culture and a language that seemed so foreign. She was born in Garden Grove, Calif., the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She spoke only Spanish at home, in the community and at school. Her parents moved to Decatur in 1995, pursuing work in construction. Today her father and one of her brothers own a roofing business. But in 1995, Adriana walked into a Somerville Road Elementary School classroom where the teacher and her classmates spoke another language.

In 1992, 27 students, mostly from Mexico and speaking primarily Spanish, attended schools. The English-as-a-Second-Language program grew more than 20 percent a year. The system now has 886 ESL students, most of them Hispanic. Most students remain in the program for three to five years. There are 1,195 Hispanic students in the system. This is more than Decatur High School’s student population.Superintendent Sam Houston was assistant superintendent in the 1990s and oversaw the start of a fledgling ESL program. At first, he said, there were so few students that a part-time teacher covered several schools. (more…)

search for : English-as-a-Second-Language, ESL

One of the more frustrating aspects of offshoring is communicating effectively with customer service agents who speak English as their second language. IBM is looking to change that. Researchers at the company’s India Research Laboratory recently announced that they have developed a Web-based, interactive language technology to help people improve their English-speaking skills.

According to IBM, the system is based on advanced speech processing techniques the company devised for call centers in India to help improve the capabilities of their agents. The technology evaluates grammar, pronunciation, comprehension and other spoken-language skills, and provides detailed scores for each category.

The program uses specially adapted speech recognition software to score the pronunciation of passages and the stressing of syllables for individual words. The technology also consists of voice-enabled grammar evaluation tests, which identify areas for improvement by highlighting shortcomings and providing examples of correct pronunciation and grammar, IBM said. (more…)

search for : English as their second language

Education World recently penned an interesting review of a new site, UsingEnglish.com. This invaluable resource provides a wide range of information and resources for learning and teaching the English language.

UsingEnglish.com offers a goldmine of resources for the English language learner and teacher. The section for students provides English Tests covering beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, more than four hundred ESL grammar and vocabulary quizzes, Language Polls, ESL Forum for asking questions, articles about usage, punctuation, spelling and tips on essay writing and a reference section that includes resources on grammar terms, irregular verbs, phrasal verbs, idioms and links to online dictionaries. (more…)

search for : English language, ESL Forum

This year, nearly half the fourth-graders in Sharon Watford’s class at Lakewood Elementary School speak limited English. But when Watford told the story of “Penny the Goose” in English, everyone tuned in. Instead of sending students who haven’t mastered English out of their homerooms for reading and writing, educators say it makes more sense to let the students stay put and bring specialists into the regular classroom.

“When 60 percent of your class is ESL students, it’s sort of silly to pull them out,” said Kyra Raphaelidis, a teacher for the English as a Second Language program at Lakewood. “If you pull all the ESL kids from the classroom, you’re left with half the class.” Across the state, the number of English language learners with limited skills jumped 40 percent from 2002 to 2005, according to the state Department of Public Instruction. Students are classified as having “Limited English Proficiency” if they have scored below “superior” on a state-mandated test in listening, reading, writing and speaking English. (more…)

search for : ESL, English language learners, Limited English Proficiency

Thanksgiving came early for a group of Stroudsburg Junior High School students. On Friday, students in the school’s English as a Second Language program gathered in the library to break bread. The meal has become a tradition in the program over the past 20 years. The idea is to bring the students, as well as their teachers and parents, together to teach the new arrivals about this quintessential American holiday.

The holiday meal actually would have happened even earlier this year, but the class waited until the conclusion of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, which one of the students observes. During that month, Muslims are required to fast during daylight hours. On Friday, the students were encouraged to bring food from their home countries to complement the traditional Thanksgiving dishes. Latin American empanadas were piled on plates next to bowls of mashed potatoes. Plates of Thai curry chicken and corn sat beside each other. “What are you thankful for?” Judy Schreck, the school’s ESL teacher, asked the students as they each stood to introduce themselves. (more…)

search for : Thanksgiving, English as a Second Language, ESL teacher

The large and growing role of English as a Second Language (ESL) for adults is being celebrated across Ontario during ESL Week, from November 12-18, 2006. “ESL education is a vital part of the provincial - and national - economy, because it prepares new Canadians to become productive citizens,”says Renate Tilson, executive director, TESL Ontario. “For most newcomers, the ESL instructor is the first contact with Canadian society and he or she becomes their confidant, friend, counselor and more.

“We want to acknowledge the work done by ESL instructors who do more than just teach basic, or even advanced, language skills,” adds Tilson. “They also act as cultural interpreters to educate on the context of our society and in knowing the subtleties of our language usage. Even if they understand the grammar thoroughly, new Canadians will be more successful if they know the nuances, which will help them avoid miscues that could cost them job opportunities.” (more…)

search for : English as a Second Language, ESL, ESL education

Learning in one’s native language can be hard enough, imagine learning in a second language. That is exactly what many students do at Tuttle Middle School. Thursday night, two students had the opportunity to show the Crawfordsville Community School Board some of the things they learned last year in class.

Bianca Hernandez and Jenifer Higareda were given the chance to show the school board their project from the previous year. Their English as a Second Language class, taught by Amy Carrington, printed a book that was a survival guide for students who start attending Tuttle, and do not speak English as a first language. The book, which included a map of the school, listed different clubs that Tuttle offered students, both in English and Spanish. There was a short history of the school as well as a list of rules and regulations. The book was filled with different interviews with students and faculty, which the ESL class conducted themselves. (more…)

search for : English as a Second Language, ESL

Associate Professor Sunny Hyon uses everyday items like toothpaste and a cereal box as visual aids to help her non-native-English-speaking students learn the intricacies of the English language. Albert K. Karnig, president of Cal State San Bernardino, congratulates Sunny Hyon, assistant professor of English, for winning the Golden Apple Teaching award for 2006-2007. “It’s totally off subject, but it really helps me understand it,” said Cal State San Bernardino freshman My Bui of some of Hyon’s devices.

On the faculty for 11 years, Hyon teaches remedial composition for non-native speakers and undergraduate linguistics courses, including those for upper-division students who want to teach. She also is graduate coordinator of the teaching English as a Second Language concentration and has served on committees to revise English curriculum and design remedial courses. “She genuinely cares about her students, and she will do whatever is necessary to make sure people will always learn something,” said Nicole Kanahele-Stutz. Kanahele-Stutz is a master’s degree student in English composition with a concentration in teaching English as second language. (more…)

search for : English as a Second Language