Students
at Risk
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Why are ESL students who are
proficent in social language failing academically?
Do we think that these students lack
the intellectual capacity to learn English or does the problem
lie with our education system?
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- Current literature has identified the following areas which
place English language learners at risk of academic
failure:
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- • Many bilingual students are not acquiring sufficient
language skills to succeed to high school. Students develop
social language relatively quickly but find it more difficult
to master complex language used in the academic curriculum.
Students are still required to grasp academic concepts but are
not proficient in the necessary language that enables
understanding and communication of these concepts. When these
students reach high school, they are 'left behind'.
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- • First languages are sometimes disregarded. Minority
languages may be seen as unpopular and so the users of these
languages often become ashamed of them and refuse to use them.
However, research has found that proficiency in more than one
language is likely to be an intellectual advantage (this
advantage is also based on a high level of first language
proficiency).
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- • Students' cultural backgrounds are not given much
recogmition or value. If a student is given the impression that
his or her cultural background is inferior, then they feel
ashamed of their background. There is a lack of appreciation of
cultural traditions in the ESL classroom. Language use differs
widely across cultures, for example, some cultures encourage
silence, some encourage simultaneous speaking. Teaching
practices may be disregarding these long-established patterns
of language use. Students study a curriculum which is
culturally narrow and minority languages are treated in
isolation.
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- • Teachers have a lack of effective teaching
strategies at their fingertips therefore learning is not
relevant and engaging enough. Students are disconnecting
themselves from school because it is not meaningful.
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- • Parents are interested in their child's education
but find involvement difficult. Schools are passing up
opportunities to collaborate with parents.
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- • Second language learners are not receiving the
support they need. There is a critical shortage of teachers who
can work successfully with English language learners so at
present there is a high staff to student ratio.
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- • Traditional psychological testing, when used to
predict academic ability, discriminates against bilingual
students. This puts these students at a disadvantage as they
are seen as less capable than the 'average' student.
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- For current research on students at-risk visit http://www.cal.org/crede
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- This page was created by Johanna
Lloyd and Miriam Shipard
- October
1998
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