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Emilie Spencer Professor Thompson-Dunn English 102 08 May 2011 Tomorrowland: The future, of English Language Learners in American Education, is today Teachers all over the nation are inundated with federal regulations, state standards, parental concerns, modern technologies and the newest teaching strategies. Teachers are under increasing pressure to be deemed highly qualified, and produce competitive test scores. This can be difficult because of the influx of students who are English Language Learners (ELLs). Preparation of the educators of tomorrow must include specific strategies to cope with this expanding dynamic. When Walt Disney created Tomorrowland at the Disneyland Resort, he had a vision of creating a blueprint of the future. Disneys tag line goes In Tomorrowland, the future is today! (Disney). The same is true in American classrooms, the future is today. Literacy is one of the key elements in academic achievement; because this is a critical component research has focused on this area. Creation of bilingual literacy blueprints requires more than just a little imagination; they require tailored techniques individually geared to the specific needs of the student. Bilingual education, using more than one language for instruction, is not a new concept. As early as 1837 Pennsylvania State laws required bilingual education in their classrooms (Sadker and Zittleman p.68). Lau v. Nichols, the 1974 Supreme Court case where 1,800 Chinese students sued because of the language barriers in their school, is a more recent example of the

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need for bilingual education. The Court unanimously affirmed that federally funded schools must rectify the language deficiency of students. Teaching students in a language they did not understand was not an appropriate education (Sadker and Zittleman p.67). This Court case prompted the U.S. Department of Education to institute the Lau Remedies, a series of guidelines to eliminate language barriers in schools. Current statistics show that more than 5 million English Language Learners (ELLs) are enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools (Sadker and Zittleman p.68). These numbers are not stagnant and are proceeding in an upward fashion (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. A graph demostrating ELL school enrollment growth from 1991-2006. (Sadker and Zittleman p.68)

Teachers face many challenges with regard to English Language Learners. Most teachers have had little or no professional training in facilitating English learning and literacy development in ELLs (Barone and Hong Xu p.2). Trying to incorporate cultural understanding, differentiate between social and academic language, and providing unique assessments can be overwhelming. Schools generally use one of three approaches when it comes to bilingual

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education. The first is, the immersion approach, where instruction is given only in English and the goal is to assimilate the learners into the English language as quickly as possible (Sadker and Zittleman). Second, the transitional approach is an approach where learning begins in the students native language and then transitions into English. And the Third, the maintenance approach, an approach where students are taught in both their native tongue and in English simultaneously; this is an example of true bilingual education. Although Spanish-speaking students are the majority of ELLs in the U.S., teachers must adapt to many languages. For example in 2009-2010 the state of California reports enrollment of ELLs in over 57 different languages, the top ten being Spanish, Vietnamese, Filipino (Pilipino, or Tagalog), Cantonese, Hmong, Korean, Mandarin, Arabic, and Punjabi (Education and Demographics). ELLs are diverse and have different levels of comprehension and literacy acquisition. Some have a solid foundation in their native tongue, which quickens EnglishLiteracy skills, some have little to no background, and some are in between. The life experience of an ELL from a developed country is different from that of an ELL from a war torn povertystricken country. The diversity of ELLs presents an overwhelming set of challenges to teachers (Hong Xu p.2-3). Students categorized as ELLs also face many challenges. Because reading and writing are not inevitable processes, even in a first language, it stands to reason that considerable energy and effort are needed to learn to do them in a new language. (Lems, Miller and Soro p.4). Imagine a teacher at the front of the classroom speaking in a foreign language, students around you are busily writing things down and raising their hands. The teacher calls your name and asks you a question and you have no idea what she has just said, so you just smile.

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Academic language, the language used in classrooms, in textbooks, and on tests is an essential skill ELLs struggle to develop: It usually takes 5-7 years to fully develop academic language. Unlike their native English-speaking peers who have developed some knowledge of English Language during their early years, ELLs are pressured to develop both BICS [Basic Personal Communicative Language] and CALP [Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency] at school because school tasks require ELLs to be proficient in both areas. (Barone and Hong Xu p.141). Social language, or BICS, the language used in halls and at the lunchroom in social situations, is picked up significantly faster. It is not uncommon for an ELL to appear fluent in a second language, yet continue to use their native language to describe novel academic concepts. (Blair, Brasfield and Crenshaw p.35). Lori A. Helman, a professor of Literacy Education at the University of Minnesota, and Matthew K. Burns, an Education Psychology professor at the University of Minnesota recently conducted a research study of 43 second graders in three elementary schools that had an average of 53 percent of the population ELL. They concluded that if the general education teacher utilizes three techniques, he/she can support the acquisition of sight words with their ELL students, leading to academic achievement. First, differentiating instructional activities, for example providing shorter and more frequent reading sessions and introducing a few new words in each session. Second, incorporating language-development activities, such as, playing a matching game with words that have the same beginning or ending sounds. Third, encourage repetition of highfrequency words in reading, by creating personal readers for students with

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words they are learning, allowing time daily for reading, and choosing texts that are academically and culturally relevant, with a low ratio of unknown words: Becoming proficient readers who not only decode but also understand what they are reading is a crucial goal for young ELL students. Developing a sight-word vocabulary that can be used in fluent reading is an important component of this proficiency. (Helman and Burns). Teachers use several supports to teach reading and writing in their ELL students. One of these resources is the School Librarian. He/she supports the teacher in four ways, beginning with Instruction. Instruction supports the teacher by modeling, pairing students with a peer, using graphic organizers, creating vocabulary/concept inventories, and teaching in small groups. In Collection Development, the librarian acquires books in students native language, picture books, and multiple discipline books such as poetry, media such as DVDs, multicultural literature, and books written by students in their native tongue. Also the librarian uses Programming, such as book clubs, and family literacy nights. The librarian assists with Assessment, by providing picture books for baseline assessments, providing professional materials for teachers, and providing lists of library resources for ELL students (Blair, Brasfield and Crenshaw p.36). Another support is the English as a Second Language Specialist (ESL). English as a Second Language (ESL) supplements immersion programs by providing special pull-out classes for additional instruction in reading and writing English. (Sadker and Zittleman p.69). ESL specialists can tailor programs that benefit the individual child. He/she does this by teaching language through literacy instruction, making English text comprehensible, bringing content to life, guiding reading instruction, and story retelling. In the article Promoting Literacy

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Development for Beginning English Learners, Juliana Arazi, a ESL teacher, exhibits reading techniques that she used with a third grader who is a Chinese immigrant. These techniques included, picture walks- giving names to pictures in a book, personalizing connections, creating a bilingual dictionary and verb bank (see Fig. 2), creating a physical connection to the storyplanting a bean seed, creating sentences, interactive writing, choral reading, question coaching, and story retelling. These techniques were applied over a two month period, teaching the student Jack in the Beanstalk, a fairy tale that most students have familiarity with in their native language (Bouchereau Bauer and Arazi). Verb Bank Native Language (L1) (Chinese for stop) (Chinese for write) (Chinese for take) stop/stops write/writes take/takes stopping writing taking stopped wrote took

Present Tense

-ing form

Past tense

Fig.2. a representative example of the verb bank in Bouchereau Bauer and Arazi p.384. The U.S. Department of Education advises ELL teachers to screen for reading problems and monitor progress, provide intensive small group reading interventions, provide extensive and varied vocabulary instruction, develop academic English, and schedule regular peer assisted learning opportunities. (Gersten, Baker and Shanahan p.6). They provided this advice in a report in 2007 after determining that there was significant emerging research in the teaching of English learners:

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Districts and states have increasingly assessed progress of English learners in academic areas and in English language development. Despite the paucity of rigorous experimental research, we believe that the available evidence allows us to provide practical recommendations about aspects of instruction on which research has cast the sharpest light (Gersten, Baker and Shanahan p.4). What teachers and school expect from the ELLs is also important to their literacy success. If teachers and their school do not really believe that ELLs can be proficient literacy learners then ELLs will mirror this belief-and the school and its teachers would have to own this result (Barone and Hong Xu p.13). As teachers articulate high expectations, through the setting of objectives, monitoring progress and achieving goals, their students will rise to the occasion. Looking to the future, teachers can expect their classrooms to become more and more diverse, with a significant increase in their students who are ELLs. Because of the changing demographics in Americas schools, research on how best to accommodate these extraordinary students will increase. Supplementary training for teachers and the need for ESL Specialists will multiply with the ELL population. And although teachers and ELL students face many challenges, by incorporating specific strategies, literacy acquisition can be rewarding for both student and teacher. We dont need to visit Disneyland Resort to see Tomorrowland in schools, the future, of English Language Learners (ELLs) in American Education, is today!

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Works Cited Barone, Diane M. and Shelley Hong Xu. Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners Pre-K-2. New York: Guilford Press, 2008.Print. Blair, Catherine, et al. "School Librarians: Bridging the Language Gap for English Language Learners." School Library Monthly March 2011: 34-37.Print. Bouchereau Bauer, Eurydice and Juliana Arazi. "Promoting Literacy Development for Beginning English Learners." The Reading Teacher Ferbuary 2011: 383-386.Print. Disney. "Disneyland Resort:Tomorrowland." Disney. n.d. Web. 02 May 2011 <http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/tomorrowland/>. Education, California Depatment of and Educational Demographics. "Statewide English Learners by Language and Grade." Statistic. 2009-2010.Print. Gersten, R., et al. Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Language Learners in Elementry Grades:A Practice Guide (NCEE 2007-4011). IES Practice Guide. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2007. Helman, Lori A. and Matthew K. Burns. "What Does Oral Language Have to Do With It? Helping Young English-language Learners Acquire a Sight Word Vocabulary." The Reading Teacher September 2008: 14-19.Print.

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Hong Xu, Shelley. Teaching English Language Learners. New York: Guilford Press, 2010.Print. Lems, Kristin, Leah D. Miller and Tenena M. Soro. Teaching Reading to English Language Learners. New York: Guilford Press, 2010.Print. Sadker, David Miller and Karen R. Zittleman. Teachers, Schools, and Society. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009.Print.