ELL Support In Schools

One of the benefits of ELL supports in our schools is the opportunity they offer by helping these students to get immersed in the North American culture and learn to navigate such by themselves through differentiated instruction. We have to take into consideration that some of these students do not understand (much less interpret!) what is going on around them. ELL school supports are extremely necessary as they may be the only ones from mainstream education trying to instruct these students the proper way, academically and personally. Another benefit and I have experienced with this first-hand, is that ELL supports not only help these students learn this new culture but also their families with the acculturation process. ELL supports ensure
that students in a school become part of the school community regardless of their cultural or linguistic background and strengths or weaknesses in any area.
One possible downside to the ELL supports in schools is that they may not receive full support of the family of the student that needs the intervention. Different families have different views regarding the North American culture and they are not shy in voicing their reluctance to adopt this new culture. This especially happens if there are traditional patriarchs or matriarchs in the student’s home. This student may be the first generation even going to school and some families value home education more than the formal one. A student being exposed to cultures in which one is not too accepting of the other, creates a definite source of stress and misfit feeling, sometimes to the point of alienation. It is here that the ELL supports have to try and convey to these families that both cultures can coexist and that the benefits, in the end, are not only for that particular student but for his/her whole family as well.