The Pros And Cons Of English Language Learners

In 2012, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 9.2 percent or 4.4 million of public school students in the United States were English Language Learners, or ELLs. While the national average was almost 10 percent, the state of California had the highest enrollment, at nearly 23 percent (nces.gov). With so many students in US schools for whom English is not their first language, it was decided that these students should receive some sort of English language education to facilitate their learning. This idea was protected and implemented by Title VII in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) enacted by President Johnson in 1965. I wanted to research different methods of bilingual education, how they have been
Menken cites these aspects as reasons for the elimination of bilingual education programs. So much of the NCLB is dependent upon standardized testing. It’s considered “high-stakes” because failure could result in closure and loss of funding in schools as well as retention and inability to graduate for students. English Language Learners are required to take the tests in English, which encourages teachers to teach to the test; that is, teaching students in the language they are going to be using on the tests. This means that there is no longer a need for bilingual education programs. Bilingual students are considered part of the problem because 31 percent of NYC schools that are in danger of closing and losing funding are so because ELLs failed to meet standards. The problem with all of this is that “emergent bilinguals will always be considered ‘low performing’ on tests administered in English” because they are not yet proficient in it (Menken, 102). Mencken also mentions the discrepancies with the words used on English and Math tests administered to high school seniors. The tests often used words that were not on the “frequently used” list of the English language or at least not used in the region. For example, one passage was about straw bales. Since this word is not commonly used, it is very unlikely that the ELL would understand it. This, in
She was a doctoral student and speaks Korean, Japanese, and a bit of French. The researchers conducted semistructured and unstructured interviews about her experiences and examined GPAs, class notes, papers, etc. They also observed her in the classroom and cafeteria, and spoke with professors and administrators. She was interviewed three times, each lasting about two hours. She began learning English in Korea in eighth grade. She was mostly taught “grammatical structures, isolated vocabulary words, and substitution drills” (Bifuh, 27). At the university, Kim’s ELL classes focused on “reading, writing, essential English grammar, and