Thread: Look at the huge numbers of Spanish speakers/nobody blinks

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/119964

Published: 03.14.2006

Tough assignments:
While Arizona quarrels about funding and fines, kids struggle with their second language: English
By Lourdes Medrano
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
English language learners
● Students, mostly native Spanish-speakers, classified as English-language learners in the Tucson area:
School district Total enrollment ELL total ELL percentage
Tucson Unified 60, 750 8,262 13.6
Amphitheater Public 16,729 1,658 9.9
Sunnyside Unified 16,194 5,867 36.2
Marana Unified 12,965 290 2.2
Flowing Wells Unified 6,006 460 7.6
Sahuarita Unified 3,091 218 7.07
Source: Arizona Department of Education, fiscal year 2005
At Tucson High School, about a dozen students recently played a bingo game in a class meant to enrich their English vocabulary.
"Appetizer, customer, credit." They fired off the correct answers to teacher Dee Christoffers' word definitions, oblivious to the state's political wrangling over how Arizona students best can learn English as a second language.
Scores of politicians, educators and parents argue that existing language programs for non-native speakers ineffectively teach the state's 150,000 students learning English in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The question of whether the state appropriately funds such programs is now before the courts, and Arizona is paying for it. The state has racked up $21 million in fines since late January for disobeying a federal judge's order to fund such programs.
Earlier this month, Gov. Janet Napolitano allowed a funding plan to teach English become law without her signature. The law, which will go before U.S. District Judge Raner Collins later this month, froze a daily fine of $500,000 to $1 million against the state.
In the classroom, students such as Mariela Angulo wage battles of their own. Each day, the Tucson High junior wrestles with unfamiliar words that refuse to roll off the tongue as smoothly as a Spanish verb.
Angulo, 17, said she has picked up enough English to play bingo and generally do well in school since she enrolled at Tucson High in the fall of 2004. But holding a conversation remains difficult because she still has trouble forming sentences.
The teen said she works hard to learn English because she wants to graduate next year. "If you don't learn English, you don't pass the AIMS test," she said, then switched to Spanish as she chatted with friends Erika Maldonado, 16, and Aracely Valdez, 18.
The three classmates are in an advanced level of English as a Second Language, commonly known as ESL, but the Mexico natives rarely speak anything other than Spanish with each other.
"It's just easier," Angulo said, and Maldonado added, "It's hard to figure out what to say in English."
In the Tucson Unified School District, Angulo and her friends are among roughly 8,200 students classified as English-language learners.
It is the largest such group in the Tucson area, and it equals about 13 percent of the student body. At Sunnyside Unified School District, the group totals about 5,600, or roughly 37 percent of all students.
Christoffers, who has taught the language to non-native speakers for about a decade, said she constantly tries to impress upon her students — even those highly motivated to learn the language — how important it is to immerse themselves in English, in and out of the classroom, to become fluent faster.
How and when children acquire language is complicated, she said, but most of the students she has met over the years are hard workers. "The ones who are not making progress lack a desire to learn," she said. "They are not the majority."
School districts now receive $355 in additional state funding per English-language learner each year, and that will increase to $432. Whether the amount is enough to properly teach children English is the focus of debate.
Jeannie Favela, Sunnyside's director of language acquisition and development, called the law narrow and arbitrary because it provides for only two years of extra funding for English-language learners.
"It's the whole issue of how long does it take for a student to learn English?" she said. "Yes, you can learn a lot of English in two years, but you need ongoing support for students as well as teachers. Second-language acquisition is very complex."
And multiple layers of support take money, said Favela, adding that students could greatly benefit from after-school programs with teachers training and mentoring around a core set of standards.
"Two years of funding does not guarantee the academic success of students," she said.
Steve Holmes, Favela's counterpart at TUSD, agreed. He said additional professional development for teachers is the key to improving student performance.
It is unrealistic to expect students to become proficient in English in such a short time, Holmes said. "We need to take a look at the data and see what progress means, and how you measure success."
For now, students each year must take the Stanford English Language Proficiency test, which assesses their language skills in reading, writing and oral exams. The testing is a federal requirement that seeks to ensure non-native speakers are learning English quickly. Once students pass the test, they no longer are considered English-language learners.
But the test, in place since 2004, has raised concerns that because of its composite scores, even students who lack competency in English are passing it. Holmes said plans are to revamp the test so it can align more closely with state standards.
Margaret Garcia Dugan, deputy superintendent at the Arizona Department of Education, said investing more money in language programs won't solve their shortcomings. As a former teacher of English-language learners, Dugan said, she knows that children can pick up a second language rapidly through immersion.
"As soon as they learn the language, they start flourishing in school," she said. What keeps children from becoming fluent is the schools' improper implementation of the "structured English immersion" methods that have been around since 2000, Dugan said.
The politics surrounding English-language learners is unfair to the students, she said. For instance, to exempt such students from passing the AIMS test — English-language learners are exempt this year — is to "devalue them," because all other students must comply with the requirement to graduate.
"It's an insult to the ELL kids by telling them they can't learn," she said. "It makes the whole diploma meaningless."
Thomas Lynch, language program coordinator at Tucson High, noted that research shows it takes five to seven years to properly learn academic English. To require youths to pass the AIMS test with minimal exposure to the language is unreasonable, he said.
"We have some really good, top-notch students who are proficient in their own language, but they just got here," he said. "I tell them that they could be here an extra year."
Student Angulo, who said she took the AIMS recently for the third time, said she could graduate this year if she enrolls in English-language classes over the summer. But she figures she can wait until May 2007.
"I can learn more English if I go to school one more year," said Angulo, who plans to go on to college.
On StarNet Who is most to blame for holding up passage of an English education bill? Vote at azstarnet.com/ education
Inside
Two measures on English move forward
Proposals to make English the state's official language and to bar schools from requiring teachers to speak anything except English advance in the Legislature. Page A4
English language learners
● Students, mostly native Spanish-speakers, classified as English-language learners in the Tucson area:
School district Total enrollment ELL total ELL percentage
Tucson Unified 60, 750 8,262 13.6
Amphitheater Public 16,729 1,658 9.9
Sunnyside Unified 16,194 5,867 36.2
Marana Unified 12,965 290 2.2
Flowing Wells Unified 6,006 460 7.6
Sahuarita Unified 3,091 218 7.07
Source: Arizona Department of Education, fiscal year 2005
● Contact reporter Lourdes Medrano at 573-4347 or
lmedrano@azstarnet.com.

Do the math, this totals over 17,000 students!

"If you don't learn English, you don't pass the AIMS test," she said, then switched to Spanish as she chatted with friends Erika Maldonado, 16, and Aracely Valdez, 18. The three classmates are in an advanced level of English as a Second Language, commonly known as ESL, but the Mexico natives rarely speak anything other than Spanish with each other. "It's just easier," Angulo said, and Maldonado added, "It's hard to figure out what to say in English."

As the article points out, the best way to learn English is total immersion in English. These students don't even bother to try that, instead falling back on Spanish.

Now why should the taxpayers have to pay for 5 to 7 years of ESL instruction for English learners, particularly if they don't even bother to use English outside of the classroom? The teaching of Englsih as a second language should not be at taxpayer expense. If a person immigrates legally from a non-English speaking country, they should be responsible for the costs of learning English; in many cases they can even get English instruction in their country of origin. As for illegal aliens, none of us taxpayers owes them a darn thing. Get mad as hell at all of our government officials from federal to local levels who waste our money on these criminals, and let them know it!!