More Teaching Demand for the Influx of English-Language Learners

[Harold Schiffman]

More Teaching Demand for the Influx of English-Language Learners

The population in America is growing slowly. Although with overall
slow growth, the growth that there is, is mainly among immigrant
minority groups. The growth leans more toward the large immigration of
those coming from Mexico and Central/South America, who are mostly
Spanish speakers. With the new families that come, they will be
seeking the resources to learn English if they haven't already —
especially the children, whose speaking is essential to advance in
elementary and beyond.

There are an estimated 5 million new immigrant children more than what
was polled from 1993. Many of the new prospective English-language
learners are found heavily in central U.S — A bit of a shift from
where mainly the coastal regions saw most of this. Not only are you
seeing those children come from immigrant families whose origins are
in Mexico, but you will find refugees with children who are once
Cambodian, Hmong/Laotian, and African nationals.

The immigration rush of new students has created some obstacles for
local schools. What was considered to be normal for large city center
areas like Miami and Los Angeles, many suburban and rural schools are
faced with the demand for teachers to help transition children to
speak and perform well in both their own native and English language.
There are more complex issues that go beyond simply teaching English.
There are socio-economic issues that are substantial roadblocks as
well.

Training Currently Used for English-Language Learners

There are several programs that are being implemented in the classroom
across the U.S. For the most part, educators and policy makers are not
keen on funding and creating a bilingual classroom, even in the
overwhelming consensus that some of the states in the southwest are
growing at a huge rate of immigrant children with Spanish as their
first language.

But one of the main language program standard setters, Teachers of
English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), created a general
outline of where progress markers should be and have some general
gauging for primary English teaching. They basically have three main
stages and are divided between speaking and writing.

The big difficulty is simply finding the separate time and resource
during the day for teachers to do further teachings. Many bilingual
teachers and translators are needed for the movement. The children
will often need special attention since their native language is not
necessarily looked at favorably among their younger peers. Many
schools now cannot fiscally fund special programs designed to better
blend English-language learners in with regular primary school goers.
Until much of the U.S.'s cultural and political landscape changes,
more ingenious teaching methods with teachers and other educators are
needed

http://www.noodlenak.com/more-teaching-demand-for-the-influx-of-englishlanguage-learners.htm

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