by TJ Heck
The purpose of this blog post is to provide insight into what English as Second Language learners face both inside and outside of the classroom. To supplement these claims, teacher Kaylie Keels shares her personal experience, firsthand on the issue. First, the definition of ESL is posed followed by general challenges, and finally analysis of the issue as a whole.
ESL or English as a Second Language refers to those whose native language is not English. This title is for people who lack an extensive literacy in the English Language. I think that it’s commonly assumed that ESL learners are exclusively here in the states, but that is not the case. ESL learners are everywhere around the world. The struggle, however, is getting enough teachers, funding, and suitable curriculums to be able to effectively teach these English language novices. This and many other instances challenge UNESCO’s principle of literacy stating that “Literacy is a fundamental human right and the foundation for lifelong learning. It is fully essential to social and human development in its ability to transform lives. For individuals, families, and societies alike, it is an instrument of empowerment to improve one’s health, ones’ income, and one’s relationship with the world” (Dollear).
If you went to public school growing up, which I think everyone should, you more than likely had peers going to separate or different classes than you did during the day. Having identified me as nosy through one of those elementary school hand games, I frequently wondered where my classmates went and what they did during their time away. Finding out that they got to participate in ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) class, I always just assumed that it was because those kids were Hispanic and needed extra practice to maintain their standing in the class. What I didn’t know, which I do now, is that these set-apart times were crucial in aspects further than just communicating in English.
ESL students face a variety of challenges, ones that we as native speakers wouldn’t know or even consider existed. Aside from the expected grammatical, syntactical, and components like those, the challenges that are the hardest to overcome are those that occur before, during, and after the physical learning time.
Kailey Keels, an educator with over 10 years’ experience in teaching ESL in the Charleston Public School System, states in her presentation, “the majority of the non-English speakers I teach on a daily basis are smuggled in by coyotes and shoved into the US in hopes of finding someone they know here. From there, they will instantly show up in my classroom one day without notice and I have to teach them”. For those that come to the US not knowing English, the journey itself impacts the students’ performance as they go through this sort of culture shock. The abrupt change in environment induces anxieties, especially as they are only introduced to the teacher and nobody else.
As there are ESL programs through the US, what the school districts in urban areas fail to realize is that “higher concentrations of non-native speakers learning in a classroom together, in theory, sounds productive, however, I think the results could be significantly better if there were more integration for real-world practice beyond the classroom”. What Kaylie means here is that while classroom instruction is important to build the foundations of the English language for these students, there is something to be said about how limiting it may be if they are not experiencing practice firsthand. With her two eyes facing her average class size of 27, Kaylie cannot singlehandedly solve this problem. Kaylie also states that lack of funding is also an issue that prevents teachers from satisfactorily teaching their students to match their capabilities. “The only material I was able to give my students was an English-to-Spanish dictionary and past standardized tests. Neither the schools nor state would provide me with anything else I needed”.
These are just a few of the challenges that impact ESL learners both in and out of the classroom. While these issues are certainly not hiccups, organizations have taken stances to educate and facilitate this alternative type of learning and assimilate it into the US public school system. The CCCC (College Composition and Communication), is “the world’s largest professional organization for researching and teaching composition”. The CCCC offers guidance on how teachers and program directors can facilitate the growth of their students’ English capabilities by implementing their various languages and literacies. In short, faculty members are urged to teach in a way that: recognizes, investigates, and advocates; essentially becoming more aware and considerate of their students’ situations and translating that into the classroom. I’d like to point out as well that in order for college and university faculty to maximize their planning, a lot of this learning needs to stem earlier and especially through highschool, which is what Kaylie is attempting to accomplish.
In my opinion, I think there should be a way to code-mesh, intertwine, and merge Spanish and English in academic writing. It should be done so in a way that “nobody’s language, dialect, or style make them ‘vulnerable to prejudice’[…] ITS ATTITUDES” (Young). I can state this due to the fact that it occurs outside of the classroom already. I have code-meshed at work with my coworkers or customers, with friends and family, and even with teachers. From what I have witnessed, code meshing occurs in public all of the time, I think it’s certainly more noticeable now with the presence of social media. It’s hard to pick out specific examples of code-meshing as it has almost become its own language, one that can mostly be understood by everyone, regardless of if you speak the language or not.
To close, my opinion on this topic is simple, while the manner in which this can be implemented is not. As of right now, I do not think it is fair to say that this is an attainable goal in the next 10 years. The profession of the English language is extensive and has remained concrete for hundreds of years. If this change were to occur, it would need to affect certain groups of people first, and trickle down to cover everybody involved. Until then, advocating for this change has to be sufficient enough.
Works Cited
Conference on College Composition and Communication. “CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Multilingual Writers.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Jan. 2001, cccc.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/secondlangwriting. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021.
Dollear, Eleanor. “Literacy Is a Human Right.” Working in the Schools, 10 Dec. 2018, witschicago.org/literacy-is-a-human-right. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021.
Fish, Stanley. “What Should Colleges Teach?” The Opinion Pages, 24 Aug. 2009. The New York Times, nyti.ms/2jsywBj. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021.
Keels, Kailey. “Teaching ESL.” College of Charleston, 26 Oct. 2021, Joe E. Berry Residence Hall 104. Speech.
Vecchiarelli, Jennifer. “4 Challenges ESL Learners Face.” ProLiteracy, 19 Apr. 2019, www.proliteracy.org/Blogs/Article/421/4-Challenges-ESL-Learners-Face. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021.
Young, Vershawn Ashanti. “Should Writers Use They Own English?” Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010.