Happy New Year!! I hope that this year will be a great blessing to you and your family. Have you made your new year's resolutions? I heard this morning that weight loss is likely to be top on the list for most people. And then I heard that some cities are doomed to have the fattest people because of various factors, such as weather, lack of exercise facilities, and parks. Now we've got another excuse for not losing weight. Weight loss will definitely be on my personal list.
My plan for the year: I've been losing sleep about this. I keep getting sidetracked with other important possibilities and exciting projects that I think about. It is tough to be focused on projects when you?re having too much fun looking around at other people's work. This year I just know that I?ll be traveling and meeting new people.
The best part of my job is meeting and writing professionals via the Internet. I love these discussions I think maybe because it gives me some insight into what professionals are thinking and doing about children who are learning English as a second language. The following is an email note I received this past month.
"I work at an elementary school with a dual language immersion program in Spanish/English as the school psychologist. About fifty percent of the students enrolled in the program are from Spanish speaking homes. Our staff continues to ask the question of what language should special education interventions be delivered in for our severely delayed students? Most of our severely language disordered students from Spanish speaking homes are negligent-limited language speakers in both languages? As a staff we have discussed the idea to serve them in a regular English speaking classroom with ELL support (take them out of the dual language program), and deliver Special education interventions in English. Reason being, that if the child is not literate/fluent in their native language first, they will not be able to acquire these skills in L2. Our staff does not want these children leaving our school illiterate."
How would you respond to the questions and this person's situation?
I've had a few weeks to think about this. It is so difficult to respond in a short note. How do you respond to such profound ideas in a note like this? I guess we could start by defining terms to make sure we're on the same page. What is a dual language immersion program? I know "dual language program" and I know "immersion program." But the two together, what does it mean? The definition of dual language program is to have one half of the class speaking the minority language and the other half of the class speaking the majority language. The children learn each other's languages by a variety of techniques such as every other day the class uses one of the languages for instruction. Or it may be that the language of instruction switches at mid-day. The important variable here is that both languages are valued and both groups of children are monolingual when they enter the classroom and are encouraged to learn the second language.
Now immersion I know has changed over the years in definition by misuse in the schools. Immersion was originally defined as the minority language used in the classroom so that majority language speakers (English speaking middle class children) could learn a new language, usually it was French or Spanish. English was eventually presented in the 2nd year to these children in greater and greater percentage of the day until the classroom instruction was 1/2 English and 1/2 the minority language. Immersion is not English only instruction for Spanish-speaking children or minority language children. English only, or "submersion" as Bilingual Educators have called it, is not a recommended practice for ELL children. I think most school districts use English-only and the results for the past 3 decades have been a very large drop out rate for Hispanics, Mexican Americans having the greatest numbers leaving the schools. I guess I need to have this school psychologist clarify how this district defines their instructional program for Spanish-speaking language impaired children.
The next "idea." "What language should special education interventions be delivered in for our severely delayed students?" My response is: Why do we have to chose one? Why can't we educate children in the languages that they use and are comfortable in communicating in? If parents are using one or both languages, why not include them in the educational process? Parents can help, and they can be great models for their own children. I believe that too many professionals hold the myth that these parents don't have much language abilities themselves. I guess you just have to be behind closed doors to hear what parents say about professionals who don't know their children. If children are not learning to use either language, and they are communicatively disordered, it is likely that they'll learn to use one language, English, at that same level. Why eliminate a language that is used in the home? Language impaired children can become bilingual and some actually want to use both languages. Sometimes teacher/clinician attitudes and nonverbal signals may communicate to children that it is best to let go of the home language.
This email note has definitely helped me develop and clarify a plan for my year, 2004. I know that I'll be traveling and my message to clinicians and other professionals will be that they understand the educational system in the district, know what works with English language learners in the classroom, and include parents in the educational process. Hope you have a message to share with others this year. Hope you'll have a plan that will have great impact on the lives of children.
