Need to Get This Out There

I think more teachers need to know how to teach English Language Learners.

The school where I work has just under 500 ELLs. They have two full time teachers, two language aides, and several other teachers and aides that help out with the curriculum for those students. Every teacher in this building has (or has had) an ELL in one of their classes. This is not an uncommon thing. And yet, very few of these teachers have any professional experience or development about best practices for ELLs. "It's not my concentration" or "That's why we have certified teachers in the building" are excuses that I'm very much tired of. 95% of these students are of Chin/Burma descent and I guarantee you I have no previous experience, concentration, or certification in that culture or language. I'm a trained French teacher, do you have an idea of how many of these students speak French? The ones that are taking it for the first time in this school.

So then what am I qualified for that the rest of the teachers aren't? I took the time to study best practices. I understand the standards these students need to achieve and I work on breaking the language barrier and creating a bridge in its place. I took the time to study the interrelationship of language and culture and how simply acknowledging and identifying the cultural differences is enough to a positive environment where the student does not feel so terribly lost or out of place.

Don't get me wrong; I love what I do. I actually enjoy the part where I get to dispel myths to other school personnel because maybe then they'll get to pass the conversation to someone else and create a snowball of accurate knowledge. I love working with these students probably because it comes easily to me. All my students want to learn English. All my students enjoy the lessons I bring to them and actually try to retain them. This is the environment I want my French classroom to be, and I probably prefer ELL to French for that reason. Maybe if I went to France to teach French to Americans I'd get the experience I'm looking for, but I don't think the market is big for that profession :P

I understand why ELL is so often linked with foreign language; the strategies are so often the same because they both derive from taking an acquirable skill and turning it into conscious lessons and concepts. But, there's no reason for any other subject teacher to not be able to do this. I was talking about synonyms and antonyms with an English teacher and we came to a word and she said she didn't think my students would know that word and all I wanted to say was "Well teaching them words they already know would be a little redundant now wouldn't it?"

Here's what really confuses me. Students read The Great Gatsby in 12th grade English. This book has several symbols, metaphors, and underlying meanings within the text. ELLs struggle with seeing these because they are most likely still concentrating on finding the meaning of the printed words, let alone concepts underneath said words. As an ELL teacher, I would spend time showing them different resources they can use to help understand the text better. There are websites that dedicate themselves to understanding specific works of literature. While one might associate them with students who try to get out of reading the book, they can be used as facilitators for the book. With that being said, there are several natural born students that don't think to use these resources, don't understand the book, and end up doing poorly with the unit. If both natural and foreign born students can use the same skills and lessons to do well with the unit, then why is it not being incorporated into the unit by the English teacher?!?

I promise it is not that hard of a concept. I promise I am not a godly teacher because I think of things like this. I just wish other teachers would take a minute to conceptualize how they think they are coming across to their students to see how they could tweak their lessons for the greater good.