Thread: PA: school district offers "immigration" services

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A community of language learners
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By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times

About 220 students are studying English as a Second Language in the district.

Students listened intently as their teacher started talking about Japan.

One student bounced out of his seat to point out Japan on a large map.

"What kind of land formation is it?" asked the teacher, Molly Bovard.

"An iceland," said one young man. That was close but the correct word is island, Bovard said.

"Island!" Both the young man and the rest of the students repeated the word aloud, smiles brightening their faces.

The 15 or so students in this English as a Second Language class are pretty new to the language. They come from different backgrounds and countries, but they all have one thing in common: the desire to learn what they hear around them every day.

Words pepper every wall of this William Tennent High School classroom. Words that describe human senses, words that start with the letter A, words found in current events news. Construction paper squares stuck on common school items name what they are: desk, stapler, trash can.

"I do a lot of visual things with the kids. I write on the board what I say, and I use a lot of pictures to explain concepts," said Bovard. "What you'd teach your own child from birth to age 7, I teach in one year."

Her students learn through activities that include playing Scrabble, writing journals and answering questions such as "What are your three wishes for today?" They read a lot and have to study at home, too.

Each ESL class is a little community of language learners, said Bovard. Students are immersed in one of four levels of courses in the high school, depending on how well they understand and speak English. Annual assessments determine whether they need one hour of English study a day or up to three.

25 languages in Centennial

Centennial School District's ESL students speak at least 25 languages, and more than 50 languages are spoken in households, according to Jennifer Foight-Cressman, the district's director of teaching and learning.

"When I first came here, it was hard to communicate or be social. When I learned more English, I made more friends," said Ezgi Kasimoglu of Turkey. She's a senior who has been learning English for four years and is now in an advanced ESL class.
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Ninth-grader Franklin Miranda of El Salvador said his class helps him learn pronunciation better. Meeting other Spanish-speakers helped him make his first friends in America. It also made classes more fun, he said.

With students from South America, Russia, Asia and other parts of the world, Centennial is a "microcosm of America. We've had a booming population," Foight-Cressman said.

When Bovard joined as head of the English for Speakers of Other Languages department two years ago, she helped revamp it with more teachers and aides in ESL classrooms.

Now six full-time ESL-certified teachers, six tutors, a part-time ESL teacher and an ESL-dedicated high school guidance counselor serve about 220 Centennial students who study English as a second language. The counselor helps the 40 high school students with their schedules and monitors their progress.

The district also provides interpretation services and education, immigration and health care guidance and services for parents. It maintains a multilingual resource library in the administration building.

Recently, Centennial added six new ESL courses to its high school offerings. Four are purely language-learning courses, and the other two are science and biology. Students learn the same content as their peers in science, social studies and other non-English subjects, but with the help of ESL-certified teachers and bilingual aides.

For elementary and middle school ESL students, the district provides teaching services that include personalized instruction and support staff.

Bovard, who has a master's degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages, put together a reference guide for other ESL teachers. It contains teaching strategies for students of all ages and levels and suggests how to be aware of cultural differences.

The district benefits from students of different backgrounds because they bring diverse experiences to school, Bovard said. When they learn English well, they feel like an integrated part of the community, she added.

"This job is so much more rewarding when they leave you at the end of the year babbling in English, having come in speaking just one or two words," Bovard said.

January 11, 2009 02:10 AM

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_de ... arners.htm

I think we should use the illegal alien's argument that local police should not be enforcing immigration law.

Local schools should not be involved in teaching ESL courses to passport babies. I am n ESL teacher. I know how much time, effort and energy it takes to teach a kid to speak English. It takes years. Get this out of the schools.

Require that existing and newly entering children pass an English proficiency exam. If they don't, then ICE should check their parent's legal status. If they are legal, then the parents should pay for the ESL courses.

Millions of other immigrant children and/or children of immigrants like me...learned English by immersion...in a regular classroom with everyone else ....without the need or use of special ESL aides, translators, interpretors, "bilingual" assistants, etc. We learned effortlessly and in fact I don't even remember realizing that there was difference in the languages spoken at home or in school as I learned both at the same time...same for my siblings. The funny thing was I remember my kindergarten teacher was a lovely, elderly German nun with a very thick accent ...my parents tell me that when I recited some of the nursery rhymes she taught I'd unwittingly picked up her German accent! Pretty funny....the point being millions of people like me learned English very well without the need for expensive special services. It's just a crutch and an employment racket for the "bilingual movement".