Inspiration from ELD students by Robert karimi

Inspiration from ELD students
by Robert karimi

(Note: to the uninitiated, educators no longer use the term ESL in Education, for the basic reason that English is not a second language for most immigrants. We use ELD, English Language Development)

On a recent trip to Europe, my girlfriend and I went through 12 countries in 4 months. From Holland to Poland to Portugal, I faced the task of speaking to people who didn’t know English. Did I try and speak loud over-emphasized syllabic English to them? No. I spoke their language. Or, at least tried. How, you say? Am I a genius?

No. Just a former ELD teacher. I learned by watching Mexican, Indian, Korean, Iranian, Chinese, Pilipino, Salvadoran, Vietnamese, and Bolivian students. I watched for 2 years how they decoded through dictionaries and had the guts to fail. They risked daily to fall on their tied tongues, so they could rise when their tongues untied.

They were constantly on my mind as I fearfully approached a pharmacist in Krakow, Poland for medicine for a bad stomach. Did I struggle? I thought, what would my students do? Try.

They did. Always doing whatever crazy exercise I asked them to do. From listening to radio dramas in English to reciting Shel Silverstein, they did it. They wanted to learn this foreign language badly. And that’s what ELD is, learning a foreign language like English speakers do with Spanish, French and German.

No one likes to feel illiterate, which is exactly how I felt asking for medicine in Krakow.

I started to decode. I got better with different languages through risk, and it was a great feeling just to muster a few sentences.

The worst thing that can happen to a person is when they can’t communicate their feelings, concerns. Programs like ELD and foreign language help humans do that.

When I went to Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, I was so thankful for my Spanish teachers. From 8th grade, I took Spanish classes, and because of this, I was able to decipher French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. (Please don’t come up to me and speak Portuguese, because I will respond, “Fale Ingles?” I need more practice.)

Most areas don’t have ELD programs or cut them severely. Also, foreign language is not offered in most elementary, middle schools and some high schools because districts give the excuse that there’s not enough time in the day. Although studies show, that any student learning a foreign language helps them become more proficient in their own. This is especially true for English speakers, whose language borrows from almost every language around.

Susan Kennelly, at Newark Memorial High School in Newark, CA, has built an ELD program with the help of language coaches and wonderful teachers who help the students. Every teacher on the campus loves the program, and notices how the students are prepared to handle high school. The program has students work in English right away, and gives them help, tutors. Tutors speak English and various other tongues: Vietnamese, Hindi, Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Farsi, Spanish; the amount of tutors never completely reflects the numerous languages in Newark (a population of less than 40,000). However, new students know they have a space, a resource where they feel welcome, where they feel they can ask questions about the language, the culture. Her students usually are in regular classes by their third year or earlier.

Just recently, one of my former ELD students at Newark Memorial came up to me very excited. He had to tell me about how he loves reading Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “It’s so cool,” he says. This is a student from Mexico. Native English speakers struggle with Hamlet. Because of his teachers with their specialized approach, they have created a student (who is not the most motivated) who likes to read Shakespeare. This took two years to do.

Most districts can’t get their students to even understand Shakespeare after 4 years of high school. Shouldn’t the entire District being working together to see if these techniques and ideas can be used Districtwide?

Instead, Newark, like other districts around the State, cuts ELD at the elementary and high school levels. Language coaches, etc. are cut, and staffing as well. In the brave new world of the standardized test, many districts choose to cut their ELD programs because they need the money for other projects. Luckily, this program still exists, but Kennelly and the remaining staff have to work extra hours for the staff she loses. And students do not get the extra help they need. English language learners and native English speakers need all the help they can get in high school. They need guidance. Not because they are worse than the previous generation. Because we know they do. A human develops better with nuturing, and guidance of a whole community.

It has been said that all the things we need to improve education are right under our nose. Looking at Susan Kennelly and other teachers, maybe folks are right.

However with standardized tests as the new gospel, good programs are being burned at the stake. And no matter what language you speak, when a child’s education suffers, everyone understands.