Why would the U.S. Department of Education insist that a kid who has little or no English take his year-end tests in English? There are some 4,000 such students in Arkansas alone. Everybody knows they’re going to flunk the test. Why make them take it? Answer: So we’ll know who these kids are, where they are and just how far behind in English they are. That way, we can concentrate on helping them pass the test in the future.

Why bother? Because it’s important that these youngsters become fluent in the language of their adopted country. Let’s not pretend that they’re being educated (and prepared for citizenship) if they don’t know how to read and write English in this one nation indivisible by language.

Here in Arkansas, such students have been allowed to make notebooks — portfolios — to demonstrate their educational progress. But everybody knows, or should know, that putting together a scrapbook is not the same as being fluent in English. (more…)

search for : U.S. Department of Education

Religious leaders say that politics is the least of their concerns when it comes to interacting with non-English-speaking people. Their approach is simpler. “The Bible tells us to call the poor, the widowed and the alien,” said Alex Smithers, co-chair of the Charlotte District Latino Ministries Committee, which works with United Methodist churches in the Charlotte area. “The big political issue is, `Are they legal or illegal?’ ” Smithers said. “But from a religious perspective, that is not an issue.”

Charlotte-area churches, such as Oak Grove United Methodist Church and Derita Presbyterian Church, have been adding social ministries in recent years to attract a growing international community to services. Oak Grove UMC held a Latin American festival in 2005 and offered English as a second language classes this year for Spanish-speaking immigrants. Learning to speak English is one of the biggest needs in the Spanish-speaking community, Smithers said. “Helping them with language helps them to survive and do things on their own,” he said. But keeping the ministry alive has been a struggle, the Rev. Patrick Welch of Oak Grove UMC said. The church’s ESL teacher left suddenly, and the church has had a hard time finding a replacement. And Oak Grove ended up having to foot too much of the bill with its last Latin festival, which was supposed to have been shared with participating vendors, so it decided not to have another one this year. (more…)

search for : non-English-speaking people, Charlotte District Latino Ministries Committee, Spanish-speaking community, ESL teacher

Immigrant students’ scores on the state achievement test dropped this year when they had to take the exam regardless of their ability to speak English. Statewide, 45 percent of immigrant third-graders passed the reading section of the ISTEP-Plus in September, according to results released this week. That was down from 52 percent two years ago, the most recent year for which immigrant student data were readily available. Other grades showed similar declines.

Students in Model Elementary School in Goshen, where about half of the students are immigrants, mostly Hispanic, were allowed to use state-approved translation guides and dictionaries on the ISTEP-Plus in September. “But when you consider how many words you have to read and words you’re not familiar with, I don’t think it benefited our students very much. The kids just don’t have enough strength in the language yet to do that,” said Principal Susan Olinghouse. Students from other countries traditionally have had three years to learn English as a second language before they took mandatory tests. But this year, federal education officials rejected alternate tests for those students in Indiana and 17 other states. (more…)

search for : ISTEP-Plus, immigrant student data

Khalifeh is among about 1,400 adults enrolled in free English-as-a-second-language courses at Morton College in Cicero. The college offers the non-credit classes for low-income men and women who live nearby. Students who make it through all six levels will be able to read this newspaper. On a recent morning, Khalifeh took careful notes as teacher Enriqueta Ulit introduced her class to the present perfect tense.

For about 90 percent of the ESL students, Spanish is their native language. Polish and Arabic run second and third, respectively. Right now, Morton students represent 56 countries. Demand is high. About 690,000 immigrants live in Illinois and almost 2.3 million state residents speak a language other than English as the primary language in their home, according to U.S. Census figures from 2005. “We do not advertise due to the overwhelming need for classes,” said Jim Young, dean of adult education, community programming and outreach. “Students learn about the program by word of mouth. There would not be enough space if we advertised.” (more…)

search for : English as the primary language

The U.S. work force will be about 17 percent foreign-born, up from about 15 percent today, according to statistics gathered by the independent Migration Policy Institute. With the huge baby boom generation retiring in great numbers, immigrants will be in high demand. Foreign-born workers will be snapped up for job openings at both ends of the wage scale — as software engineers, registered nurses and college teachers, and as cooks, janitors, home-care aides and food-preparation workers. The better-educated newcomers will speak English, of course; but an older generation and newcomers with little education might find the new language daunting.

Wwhen our preschoolers of today start job-hunting around 2020, which group will have more choices: will it be the young adults who speak one language, English, and are proud of it? Or will it be those who had the fortune to absorb a second language back when that skill came as naturally as climbing, sliding and tumbling in the park? Who, encouraged by that success, perhaps went on to learn a third language, like so many students worldwide do? We’re betting that the bilingual kids have the edge. Speaking two or more languages opens all kinds of opportunities for young people. Learning a second language also helps one appreciate different cultures, which grows more important as the globe shrinks. (more…)

search for : baby boom generation, Foreign-born workers, Learning a second language

Reynaldo Pol, a coordinator of English as a second language courses for adults in a suburban Atlanta county, knows first-hand what issues language instructors in his corner of the world face. When he decided it was time to go back to school, Pol, a Cuban by birth who grew up in Puerto Rico and received his bachelor’s degree at Georgia’s Piedmont College, decided he wanted to look more broadly, beyond borders.

An online master’s program in teaching Spanish for non-Spanish speakers at the Universidad de León, in Spain seemed to fit the bill. One of about 25 master’s, 60 continuing education and two Ph.D. programs offered through a decade-old, Barcelona-based international alliance that set up shop in the United States in February, the program offered the dose of global vision Pol was seeking. (more…)

search for : Spanish speakers

Sleepy-eyed David Alexandre on a recent Thursday evening took his turn answering questions about the day’s lesson on regular and irregular verbs. Despite working two jobs, six days a week, he makes sure he can spare two hours every Tuesday and Thursday for his English class at Guadalupe Schools’ Voluntary Improvement Program. VIP was chosen as one of the top 10 volunteer-based, English-as-a-second-language programs in the country by ProLiteracy America.

The program is being honored for its success in involving volunteers to supplement the work of paid teachers in ESL classes, Diggins said. As a result of the honor, VIP, along with the nine other programs chosen, will spend the next 18 months putting together a guide to help other publicly funded adult programs recruit, manage and support volunteers. Between 140 to 170 tutor volunteers per year teach English to low-income adults needing basic language skills at VIP. (more…)

search for : English-as-a-second-language

You may have noticed Lowe’s communicates with customers in both English and Spanish in its home improvement stores. And Spanish-language billboards, mostly offering money transfers and check-cashing services, are popping up all over. Tiendas, or markets, catering to Hispanic residents and carrying imported spices and dry goods, movies and music, can be spotted on all sides of town.

Schools in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties have adapted to serve English as a second language; though the demand for services in relation to total student population remains relatively low. But Escambia and Santa Rosa schools aren’t the only ones seeing Hispanic students. More than half the students enrolled in Deidre Suwanee Dees’s English for Speakers of Other languages classes at Pensacola Junior College claim Spanish as their mother tongue. (more…)

search for : Hispanic, English as a second language