English Language Learner Classes Addresses Problem Of Language Barriers
More than 600 non-English speaking students attend public school in Boone County every day. With the students gone from home during the day, their families try to adapt at jobs in a community where the language is foreign to them. The students, assessed through the Access test each year, go to English Language Learner (ELL) classes daily based on their needs, but learning at school is only half the battle, according to Melissa Raper, family resource coordinator at Ockerman Elementary School.
Raper oversees the ELL program at Ockerman, where 117 of the school’s 675 students attend the classes. She said developing English at the student’s home is the department’s biggest challenge. “It is difficult if there is not a link between home and school, if there is not someone they can trust or communicate with,” Raper said. “It is a huge issue even for something as minor as their child participating in an intramural sport or something as important as having food, water, or where to go to get a driver’s license or a copy of an important document.”
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