McKay School of Education > News > McKay Today Magazine > Out of Many, One
Out of Many, One
by Timothy B. Smith
Illustrations by Edel Rodriguez
Steve’s hopes for the new school year were shaken as he reviewed the class roster. Five of the students in his class were not proficient in English; two had never attended public school. How could he possibly help them? He immediately enrolled in a district training program on teaching English language learners (ELL).
He also found two volunteers to tutor the children in English after school, set up a peer-mentoring system within the class, and assigned homework to practice English based on curriculum he located on the Internet. With the help of an interpreter, Steve met with the students’ parents. He used online translation software to send notes home to involve the parents in class activities and to track homework completion. Steve realized in hindsight that he learned more about teaching in that year than in any other. He had learned from the students, and they had learned from him.
ELL student numbers are increasing significantly. Between 1979 and 2003, the number of school-age children in this nation increased by 19 percent. During the same period the number of ELL children increased by 124 percent. As exemplified by Steve’s situation, teaching ELL students presents opportunities to develop enhanced skills and practices. When teachers and ELL students learn from each other, they “understand one another, and both are edified” (D&C 50:22).
Journey of Hope
Immigration to the United States is a journey begun in hope—hope for a better future. For many immigrants without English proficiency, however, that hope is replaced by the realities of poor job prospects, misinformation, and marginalization from mainstream society. Aspiration gives way to routine. Hope shifts to the possibilities for future generations. Children can receive a public education and learn English, perhaps fulfilling the dreams hoped for by parents.
This transfer of hope from immigrant parents to their children is the story of the New England Pilgrims as much as of the Norwegians or Italians who came after them. The United States is a nation of immigrants, a land where many of our ancestors were at one time English language learners. Although diversity characterizes this nation, the pervasive unifying force of the English language allows for the fulfillment of the national motto requested in 1776 by a French-speaking Swiss immigrant: E Pluribus Unum (Latin for “Out of Many, One”).
English language acquisition opens opportunities. Conversely, language barriers perpetuate segregation and poverty. As teachers, we value efforts to maintain unity through maintaining a common language.
Unfortunately, even when ELL students learn English, they continue to be at risk for educational failure.1 ELL students can succeed with assistance, but much more assistance is needed to narrow achievement gaps across the nation.2
The David O. McKay School of Education hopes for a better future for ELL students. Faculty strive to accomplish the aspirations of President Spencer W. Kimball, who affirmed:
There is no reason why this university could not become the place where, perhaps more than anywhere else, the concern for literacy and the teaching of English as a second language [are] firmly headquartered in terms of unarguable competency as well as deep concern.
We share that concern, and we hope to instill within the rising generation of teachers an “unarguable competency” in teaching English language learners.
Public Schools: The Place for Language Acquisition
Children enter kindergarten with a vocabulary of approximately 3,000 words and thereafter learn about 3,000 words per year.4 That gain in vocabulary represents the equivalent of having learned the fundamentals of a second language every year in school. Although we have a tendency to separate English language instruction from other content specialties, like math or geography, the truth is that public schools are already in the business of teaching English in every content area. Algebra, for example, is a new vocabulary with rules (grammar) about relations and quantities. There is no clear distinction between English instruction and content specialization: School is the place for teaching English to all learners. The key is to refocus our efforts to assist learners at low levels of English proficiency.
Teachers’ Responsibility
We live in a time when teachers are better equipped than those of any previous generation to meet the needs of ELL students. When converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints migrated from Europe in the late 1800s, educational opportunities in Utah were limited. Teachers such as those in Ephraim, Utah, taught Danish and Swedish immigrant children of all ages. The classrooms were small and cold; the textbooks and resources were minimal, when available. In contrast, today teachers can attend workshops, enroll in university courses, or access free online materials and translation services.
Our contemporary challenge is not so much a lack of resources as the need for individuals to take personal responsibility for the ELL students within their circle of influence. Rather than referring all needs to ELL specialists, overall success is more likely when teachers make efforts to communicate effectively with all students.
Invitation to Learn
We are told to “study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people” (D&C 90:15). In response to this invitation from the Lord, the Prophet Joseph Smith sought out opportunities to learn other languages, eventually studying the New Testament in Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and German.5 Out of all the tasks in which the Prophet could have otherwise engaged, the study of languages occupied his attention over several years.
As teachers we can heed this divine invitation by becoming acquainted with the languages of students in our classrooms. Learning a mere 100 words that are relevant to our classes (such as homework and understand) can certainly help us communicate more effectively with students who have limited English proficiency. Resources to learn basic words in most languages are available through an online search, i.e., “learn Samoan.” Learning basic words of an ELL student’s language demonstrates that we value that student and empathize with his or her efforts to acquire thousands of words!
Love for Language Learning
Barriers in communication do occur with ELL students, and sometimes teachers struggle to know how to best respond. Yet these barriers are typically temporary when students are provided with consistent English exposure. Rather than feeling frustration at the initial awkwardness of communicating with ELL students, successful teachers anticipate the joy of getting to know the students as they begin to express themselves more in English. This process can be like watching the sunrise over an unfamiliar landscape, revealing what was always there, yet previously hidden from view. As the process unfolds, a teacher might be heard to say: “I was initially nervous about having Samru in my class until I found out that she speaks three languages besides English. We had her teach us!” or “When I learned that Chenda knew how to play chess, I immediately enrolled him in the school chess club.”
Successful teachers understand that language is merely the medium of education. More important than the acquisition of facts or concepts is a student’s certainty that she or he belongs—which comes from the universal languages of inclusion and love. Successful teachers find ways to include ELL students and highlight them as participating members of the classroom team. An included student is a motivated and supported student. Regardless of initial communication difficulties, a student who has hope in the future will persist in language acquisition and academic learning.
Teachers instill hope in the rising generation. To all immigrants, we give that which our ancestors were given by their teachers and that which our teachers gave to us: not merely a language but aspirations—and the means to achieve them.
Notes
1. See “Creating a Formula for Success: Why English Language Learner Students Are Dropping out of School, and How to Increase Graduation Rates,” technical report (New York: Advocates for Children of New York and the New York Immigration Coalition, June 2002), at www.advocatesforchildren.org/pubs/2005/elldropout.pdf.
2. See “Where We Stand: English Language Learners,” report no. 39-0247 (Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Teachers, 2006), at www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/ellwws.pdf; see also Hal L. Sanderson, “Utah NAEP 2005 Trends: Further Achievement Gap Analyses of Key Subgroups in Reading, Math and Science” (Salt Lake City: Utah State Office of Education, 2006), at www.schools.utah.gov/assessment/DOCUMENTS/NAEP_Gap_Analysis_Grade_4_8_SMR_2005.pdf.
3. Kimball, “The Second Century of Brigham Young University,” BYU devotional, 10 October 1975.
4. See Scott K. Baker, Deborah C. Simmons, and Edward J. Kame’enui, “Vocabulary Acquisition: Synthesis of the Research,” technical report no. 13, and “Vocabulary Acquisition: Curricular and Instructional Implications for Diverse Learners,” technical report no. 14 (Eugene, Oregon: National Center to Improve the Tools of Education, College of Education, University of Oregon; Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Educational Resources Information Center, 1995), at http://idea.uoregon.edu/~ncite/documents/techrep/reading.html; these reports are early draft versions of chapters later published in Deborah C. Simmons and Edward J. Kame’enui, eds., What Reading Research Tells Us About Children with Diverse Learning Needs: Bases and Basics (Mahwah, New Jersey: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1998).
5. See Joseph Smith, King Follett Sermon, chapter 14 of History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed., 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1932–51), 6:302–17.