Figuring out if a student is fluent in English — or if they’re trailing far behind — is an important task for Eagle County schools. All students who are learning English as a second language take the Colorado English Language Assessment in January. The test checks how well students read, write, speak and understand spoken English.

By examining test results, schools can figure out how much students are struggling with English and how much extra help they’ll need from teachers and language specialists. Or, they might find that a student has become fluent in English an longer needs the extra help and one-on-one intervention to do well in school, Shank said. (more…)

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Fourteen students in teacher Chris Brouwer’s room at Prairie Elementary belong to different grades, have different teachers and between them, speak Spanish, French, Anuak, Vietnamese and Cassina. They do not speak English, however, and that’s why they attend the Newcomers Program together every morning for two and a half hours during school.

Brouwer and English as a Second Language teacher Jolyn Nordseth devised the Newcomers program together and kicked it off in December. Previously, English language learning students had individualized programs, but they were scattered throughout the school day and students didn’t learn together. (more…)

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School district administrators are determined to keep Freehold Borough pupils on equal footing with children in this area, as well as with youngsters around the country and around the world, and they are hoping a new world language program will help them to achieve that goal.

World language studies were previously offered to Freehold Borough pupils in grades six, seven and eight.

The new world language curriculum has all pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade participating in the language study program that bilingual supervisor JanetMorales said will not only help them to learn a different language, but also learn to embrace the culture of that country as well. (more…)

London schools are short of teachers trained to work with pupils whose first language is not English, a government adviser has warned. Four out of 10 primary age children in London now speak a language other than English at home and schools sometimes have to take up to eight new arrivals a week, according to headteachers. London primary schools took in more than 197,000 children for whom English was not their first language last year, up from just over 190,000 in 2006.Secondary schools saw their proportion of non-native English speakers go up from 33.5 per cent to 35.3 per cent in the same period.

Most are concentrated in inner London – in Tower Hamlets, three quarters of primary pupils are not native English speakers, compared with only 5.6 per cent in Havering. The Department for Children, Schools and Families said the grant was keeping pace with demand, going up from £178.6million this year to £206.6 million in 2010-11. (more…)

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Almost half of Islington’s secondary school pupils speak something other than English as their first language, according to new figures. The figures, released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), show that 48.6 per cent of Islington’s secondary school pupils and 41 per cent of Islington’s primary school pupils do not have English as their first language.

Sue Seifert, headteacher at Montem Primary School in Hornsey Road, Holloway, said: “I think those figures are a fair reflection and I would have thought the number of students with something other than English as their first language would be higher. “I don’t think it really holds back the other students as figures show that it’s often the white working class kids who are not doing so well.” (more…)

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Luis Estrada is one of 21 students who get 30 minutes of English as a Second Language instruction every day at the Roseburg grade school. The rest of the day is spent in their regular classes, and all of Rose’s teachers have had training on how to help English language learners.

Bringing the children to one location is a new practice this school year. The Roseburg School District buses children from all of the elementary schools to Rose. The program isn’t mandatory, and 17 elementary English language learners stayed at their neighborhood schools.

In the United States, 19.7 percent of people 5 years old and over speak a language other than English at home, according to 2006 census data. In the decade from the 1994-95 school year to the 2004-05 school year, the number of students who needed extra help in English rose from 25,701 to 59,908 in Oregon. (more…)

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Many foreign ESL teachers, including myself, took full advantage of this time off work. We had an amazing opportunity to explore a communist country recently opened up to the world for international tourism ? China.

Due to its sheer land mass, its law regulations, and its language barriers, many ESL teachers choose to experience China through a guided tour. And this five-day tour made efficient use of my seven-day holiday.

Approximately, 20 teachers left on a tour collaboration between a Korean company, Happy Tour Agency, and local Chinese tour guides. Our group met one tour guide in Beijing and the other in Xian. The flight, Air China, flew out of Daegu International Airport and landed in Beijing International Airport. (more…)

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An increase in the number of English as a second language pupils in the elementary level has created a need for extra help, Southeast Fountain Elementary’s Diana Spence told school board members Thursday night. There are 21 English as a second language pupils in the elementary level. The English comprehension levels range from no English with some of the children at the kindergarten and first-grade level to more advanced children in the upper elementary levels.

“Our need is growing — some of the students are struggling,” Spence said. Some can speak the language but do not comprehend the words very well, she said. Spence suggested hiring an aide to help with English as a second language at the kindergarten level. This would ease the burden of Melissa Bush, who serves as the current ESL kindergarten aide and ESL teacher. (more…)

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