I think this is less complicated than it appears to the academics. The high school where my wife taught (Artesia in Cerritos CA) was rented by the Chinese community to teach Chinese culture. They did not expect the public schools to cater to ethnic issues. They push their kids pretty hard but the results speak for themselves. No way is a Mandarin speaker at an advantage learning English over a Spanish speaking student yet they become fluent in half the time. It is primarily an issue of family support.....or lack thereof.
Friday, February, 13, 2004
Solving why some learn English faster than others
State seeks answers, but Anaheim district isn't waiting.
By MARIA SACCHETTI and SARAH TULLY
The Orange County Register
The question is why.
Why do Mandarin speakers appear to learn English more quickly than Vietnamese? Why do these groups appear to learn faster than Spanish speakers? And why do Cambodians and Hmong fare so poorly?
For the first time in California, the state is beginning to ask the questions and possibly, find better answers about why some students take longer than others to master English.
The issue is one of the most compelling in California schools, where more than one in four students is an "English learner," which could mean that they are learning English or that they haven't mastered academic skills, such as passing a test, that are required to become fluent.
A report by the Legislative Analyst's Office estimated that about half of Mandarin speakers would become fluent in less than four years. Spanish speakers, the largest group, would take more than six years, placing them at a disadvantage because they might not be learning the skills they need to meet state academic standards.
Often they are English learners not simply because they don't speak English, but because they haven't learned to read and write well.
"I think six years is too long," said Paul Warren, a senior analyst who authored the Legislative Analyst's report and a former deputy superintendent of the state Department of Education.
The estimates are based on the first two years of results of the California English Language Development Test, or CELDT, which since 2001 has been given annually to all English learners in the state.
The report did not research the reasons for the differences, but said they could reflect a mix of things, such as different resources at home and instruction in school that works better for some students than for others.
Other researchers have pointed out that academics, more than language, is the main barrier in schools.
Recent state audits found flaws in school districts here and statewide, such as students who were placed in low-level English classes or teachers who were unfamiliar with the curriculum.
A teacher survey for the state Legislature also found that classes for English learners often weren't rigorous enough to prepare them for higher grades. Many teachers said they didn't have enough time to help their students. Nearly a third had lower expectations for them, saying they should be graded more easily because they were learning another language.
Concern for students' academic skills has prompted schools such as Orange High School to increase after-school programs and parent outreach to help students.
Sheila Hillinger, an English- learner resource teacher at the school, felt her stomach twist into knots last semester when she realized that many English learners had been in the system all their lives. But she hopes to declare many students fluent this spring.
"If they're going to be able to compete and live in today's economy in California, they're going to have to have language and academic success," Hillinger said Thursday. "That goes for every student."
In Anaheim's elementary school district, where six out of 10 students are English learners, officials are trying to help students who start as kindergartners become fluent by third grade.
Also, the district tries to make sure that about 10 percent to 15 percent of its English learners are declared fluent every year, a goal it accomplished last year, placing it above the state average.
"There are certainly ways we could do a better job of meeting the needs of our limited-English population," said Randy Wiethorn, Anaheim City School District's special programs director. "Everybody is working to find what works best for students."
Many English learners move around within a school district in the early grades. By fifth grade, only 40 percent of students are in the same elementary school, the analyst's report found. But more than half of the students are in the same school district.
Evangelina Losoya, the vice president of the District English Learner Advisory Committee in Placentia-Yorba Linda, said she is concerned that her middle daughter, a seventh-grader, is still an English learner even though she speaks English well.
"I definitely don't know why," Losoya said, adding that she plans to ask the school about it.
The analyst's report recommended that the Legislature monitor the data and how the state holds schools accountable for how quickly students learn English.
Instead of focusing on one program to teach such students, schools should explore a mix of things, from recruiting parents to help to making classes even smaller in the early grades, to see what works.
Better data, too, would help the state keep better track of students. For years, the state didn't track students or test them to see how quickly they learned English.
"I think we used reasonable assumptions to come up with this (report)," Warren said. "When we get better data, we'll be able to know for sure." |
