This article considers the challenges faced by
language minority children at school as they experience what is referred to as
"language shock," a struggle to learn the English language and be
accepted in a society that is not always accepting and not always willing to
embrace diversity. These students are in a strange land trying to maintain a
sense of identity related to their native culture and also become American.
What a heavy burden for a young person!
Social and political issues surrounding
immigration and diversity in our nation complicate the seemingly basic task of
learning English. The role of schools in the Americanization of immigrant
students is formally identified as making them fluent English speakers.
Hence, our schools label and serve these students
based on their ability or inability to speak English. However, ESL students
encounter many obstacles in their efforts to become proficient in the English
language. They often come to realize that in order to be fully accepted, they
must abandon their native language, surrendering an aspect of their identity.
They are caused to feel they must either speak English or nothing at all. Thus,
they become caught in a painful power struggle over the use of English and
their native language.
As educators we need to realize that education
occurs in the context of a social climate. The relationships between students
and accompanying range of social behaviors have a major impact on how well ESL
students learn English and how well all students learn overall. Children cannot
achieve in an unwelcoming, hostile environment. Many children are made fun of
when they try to speak English and also when they speak their native language;
so they end up silent and withdraw from participation. This further interferes
with their learning and achievement.
The English that ESL students are taught is
academic English. They often lack the ability to interact in social settings
with English speaking peers because they are in separate classrooms and often
have limited opportunity to interact academically or socially. They often have
great difficulty learning the "slang" and social English because they
have no one to learn it from. These children come to prefer English out of
necessity, often abandoning their native languages to fit in. They end up
without comfort in either language and may end up losing the ability to
communicate with family members and friends in their native land.
The author of this article concludes that our ESL
students will remain torn between two worlds until society truly embraces
diversity and the notion that biculturalism and bilingualism are assets. What
is needed in the education of ESL children is the development of English and
maintenance of their native language.
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