Having studied French in college has helped me understand some of the grammar points in Spanish – while also making a wreck of my pronunciation. No matter how hard I try to rewire my brain, the non-English word that comes to mind first in class is almost always French, and then Spanish. This three-way translating, which doesn’t exactly help my response in class, has led to some particularly dopey answers to some very easy questions.

Nor is the error rate limited to the classroom. Last month while visiting a friend in D.C., I stopped by a little food cart operated in Spanish, by Hispanics, and probably largely for Hispanics. Undaunted, I walked up to the window, ordered a large decaf coffee and came away with… a monstrously-huge can of chilled coconut juice. Was it my imagination, or was that server laughing at me? Inexplicably, despite all the humiliations involved in this process, I feel more confident these days, not less. How is it possible to be continuously wrong and not grasp what even a 5-year-old understands, but come away feeling better about oneself? That is the mysterious power of learning a second language, and one of several good reasons for adding this task to your list of resolutions this year. If, like me, you’re unlikely to be taking an extended trip to another country anytime soon, you’ll have to settle for non-immersion methods of study. Here are several that I have tried and enjoyed. (more…)

At the age of 13, Estella Vazquez came to the U.S. from Mexico speaking only Spanish. She struggled to grasp English at Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School in East Los Angeles and hasn’t forgotten what that was like. “The worst feeling is not being able to communicate,” Vazquez said. “I felt a desperate need to communicate.” Now fluent in English and Spanish, she helps others struggling to adjust to life in America. Vazquez has played a key role in recruiting students to Cuesta College’s English as a Second Language program. She will be honored on March 10 with other Hispanic leaders on the Central Coast at Latino Today newspaper’s Most Influential Latinos Awards Banquet.

Since Vazquez started at Cuesta in 2000, she has spoken to hundreds of people about ESL at local churches, soccer fields, laundromats, and restaurants — places where many immigrants spend their time, she said. This semester, the program has about 650 students, and it has more than doubled since Vazquez started, said Douglas Pillsbury, Cuesta’s ESL program director. ESL classrooms are now in San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande and Nipomo. “Estella is the perfect person for the job,” said Jesse Chavarria, Latino Today’s editor and publisher. “She’s nice, always smiling, and makes you feel comfortable. … Hats off to Cuesta for hiring her.” Vazquez — a married mother with three daughters ages 10, 15 and 20 — had a humble upbringing. (more…)

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Tulsa Community College is expanding its English as a Second Language Program as more international students, immigrants and residents need to learn the language. TCC recently hired Daniel Chaboya to coordinate the program. In the past, the college has had only one full-time professor and a person to market the program. The intensive program prepares English language-learners for college and teaches the language to professionals in the community, Chaboya said. Parents also can enroll in the program to keep up with their children’s English skills.

To enroll in the program, students have to be documented residents or documented foreign students, Chaboya said, or they must have lived in Oklahoma for two years with a parent or guardian, graduated from high school or earned their GED, and enrolled in a public college in the state, according to Oklahoma law. In a reading class this week, the 24 students’ home countries included China, Korea, Japan, Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico. Professor John Warrior said many students last semester were from Russia. Chaboya estimated that a third of ESL students are Spanish-speakers. The number of Arabic speakers is growing in Tulsa, and Chaboya said he wants to reach out to them. Several students who spoke up said they want to go to college. (more…)

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As an English as a Second Language teacher at Watertown High School, now called English Language Learners, Leeder can honestly say that for the past 36 years, she has looked forward to her job every day. Her dedication to the job has not gone unnoticed. This year, Leeder has been chosen as the “Secondary English Language Learners Teacher of the Year,” an honor bestowed by the Massachusetts Association of Bilingual Education and the Massachusetts Association for Teachers of Speakers of other Languages.

When Leeder first took on the job in 1971, she also worked with foreign students at the middle school, and saw a high concentration of Italians and Greeks from the West End of town, and an influx of Armenians who escaped from the war in Lebanon. “Every time there was a war, we have seen it here in Watertown,” she said. “It definitely reflects what’s going on in the world.” Leeder’s lessons have gone beyond the textbook and homework assignments. She helps her students with college applications, goes with them to visit schools, prepares them for MCAS, and even assists them in personal or medical needs such as eye care or hearing aids. For Leeder, it’s hard not to get more socially involved than her charge requires. And compassion in the classroom runs in the family for Leeder as well. Her 83-year-old mother has volunteered her time to teach the “newcomers” in a classroom next door for 20 years now. (more…)

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About 25 percent of all third- and fourth-graders here take part in the school district’s English as a second language, or ESL, programs. Those numbers are even higher in the kindergarten and first grades. “It’s a pretty steep hill to climb,” said Superintendent Dennis J. Anderson as he discussed the school district’s most recent test scores. But it is a hurdle Anderson and his staff are approaching one step at a time. One of the district’s Spanish teachers, for instance, called all the Hispanic parents and invited them to a pot luck supper at the middle school. About 200 people attended, said Susan Rohrman, supervisor of prekindergarten to 12th-grade curriculum and instruction.

According to the state Department of Education’s most recent school report cards, more fourth-grade students here failed the state’s Assessment of Skills and Knowledge language arts and science sections than passed. In the math portion of the exam, 55.6 percent passed while 44.4 percent failed. Third-grade students did significantly better, but the number of students passing still trails behind neighboring elementary schools on Five Mile Beach. The district must cope with the high rate of ESL students as well as Wildwood’s high mobility rate, meaning the number of students who move in and out of the district in a given year. The state average is 11 percent, while Wildwood’s mobility rate is 40 percent, Rohrman said. The school district’s status as being among the state’s poorest school districts is another challenge, Anderson added. More than 80 percent of the elementary school students here are considered economically disadvantaged. (more…)

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Under the No Child Left Behind Act, special-education students must be tested at their grade level, despite the fact many receive special education because they cannot perform at grade level. “It’s completely unfair to them,” Gershon said. “They have all made huge gains and progress this year, and that will not be documented anywhere.” This year, lawmakers are scheduled to rewrite the five-year-old law, which aims to close achievement gaps and have all students reading and doing math on grade level by 2014.

The No Child Left Behind law requires annual testing in reading and math in third grade through eighth grade and once in high school. Advocates and critics of the law caution against loosening the rules too much, and abandoning its basic tenet to leave no child behind. Roughly 10 percent of special-education students — those with the most severe disabilities — take alternative tests under the law. These are easier than the regular exams. But critics say the tests still are too hard for some children and do not reflect lessons typically taught to severely disabled students. In addition to the 10 percent who get the special test, Education Department officials are considering allowing about one-fifth of the rest of the special-education students to take alternative tests. These tests are expected to be harder than the ones given to the first group but easier than the typical tests. (more…)

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Spanish teacher Ann Grogan and English as Second Language (ESL) teacher Susan Christiansen decided this year to bring together their classes with Hill’s dance lessons in order to facilitate interaction and communication between Hillhouse’s local and foreign students. The program, in its second of eight weeks, already seems to have made a significant impact at the school. “They all love it,” reported Grogan. “I’m thrilled.” Echoing her comments, one student remarked, “I’m becoming a natural [at salsa dancing]. I might give up football soon.”

The purpose of Hill’s class, funded by the Arts Presentation Grant from the Commission on Culture and Tourism, is not only to encourage the ESL students to practice their English skills with other students, but also to ease their often difficult transition to an American high school. “When the ESL students first arrive,” Grogan explained, “they are confined and isolated. [The dance class] is an icebreaker, a way for them to intermingle and make friends.” “Now I even see them in the hallway saying hi!” quipped Christiansen. The ESL students, who come from countries as diverse as Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, and Cuba, are all at a level II proficiency in English. That, according to Christiansen, means they have some verbal communication skills but likely have difficulty reading and writing in English. (more…)

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While ordinances in many townships are being drafted to crack down on an ever-increasing undocumented immigrant population, officials and local volunteers in Keyport are looking for ways to better the lives of their town’s immigrant community. “It all started about two years ago,” said Margie Fischer, a Keyport Central School English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and co-founder of the Keyport Cultural Harmony Program (KCHP).

“We planned a big community meeting at the El Mesias Church,” she said. “We put up fliers and advertised that we had food. Mayor [John] Merla came down, and we were planning to present the city officials to try and make people more familiar with some of the laws in town to make them better citizens, but only about 10 people showed up.”

She said many undocumented residents were afraid of flaunting their illegal status in front of elected officials, for fear of being arrested or deported. Mitchell organized basketball games for some of the immigrant boys, and she and her husband canvassed the neighborhood on foot, walking the borough streets and back alleyways, knocking on doors and passing out over 200 fliers to try and get people to another meeting. (more…)

search for : English as a Second Language, ESL