An Introduction to ELL:

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An Introduction to ELL

• The Preconceptions, Policies, and Pitfalls of
  English Language Learning in American Schools
• by Patty Jensen

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True or False?

• Most LEP students were born outside of the U.S.
• LEP students must show proof of citizenship or
  residency when registering for school.
• Teachers should allow students to speak in their
  native language in the classroom.

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True or False?

• Younger children are more effective language
  learners than older learners.
• Students from Asian countries are better English
  language learners and more academically
  successful than students from Spanish-speaking
  backgrounds.
• Once second language learners are able to speak
  reasonably fluently, their problems are likely to
  be over in school.

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True or False?

• ELL teachers must be able to speak a language
  other than English.
• LEP students should focus on learning English,
  rather than on content area instruction.

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Key terms in Immigration Reform

• Illegal
• Out of the shadows
• A matter of national security
• Protocol

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Best Practices

• Inhibit teachers from adopting critical
  consciousness
• Promote banking concept
• Elites transmit best practices to teachers
• Teachers transmit knowledge to change students
• By doing so they believe to liberate them
• Discipline teachers

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Best Practices

• Correct delinquent teachers
• Those with poor test scores, not those with poor
  attitudes
• By disciplining the teachers, through the use of
  best practices, it reproduces the conditions of
  production as best practices only engender best
  practices.

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Teacher Attitudes Toward ELLs

• Generally negative
• Belittle or ignore students first language
• Ambivalent toward professional development
• Favor students who assimilate quickly
• Potentially harmful misconceptions toward
  language development
• First language delays second language acquisition
• Kids learn language faster
• It takes 2 years to acquire language

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How are they related?

• Larger political policies shape teachers
  subjectivities
• Freires cultural oppression
• By refusing to address the cultural issues that
  construct teacher attitudes toward ELL students,
  best practice literature fails to acknowledge its
  own limitations and is thereby used to perpetuate
  banking models of education.

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A Cultural Obsession With Border Security

• Dog Show
• California Wildfires
• Family Guy
• Presidential Debates

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Implications

• Learn ELL best practices.
• Be aware of the rhetoric surrounding ELLs and
  immigrants.
• Be an advocate for students and families learning
  English.
• Get your ELL endorsement!

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References

• Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera The
  new Mestiza. San Francisco Aunt Lute Books.
• Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first- and
  second-language proficiency in bilingual
  children. In E. Bialystok (Ed.) Language
  processing in bilingual children (pp. 70-89).
  Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
• Cummins, J. (2005). A proposal for action
  Strategies for recognizing heritage language
  competence as a learning resource within the
  mainstream classroom. The Modern Language
  Journal, 89(4), 585-592.
• Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish The
  birth of the prison, 2nd ed. (A. Sheridan,
  Trans.). New York Vintage Books.
• Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
  New York Continuum.
• Garcia-Nevarez, A.G., Stafford, E.M, and Arias,
  B. (2005). Arizona elementary teachers attitudes
  toward English language learners and the use of
  Spanish in classroom instruction. Bilingual
  Research Journal, 29(2), 295-317.
• Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language
  scaffolding learning Teaching secondlanguage
  learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth,
  NH Heinemann.
• Karabenick, S.A. Clemens Noda, P.A. (2004).
  Professional development implications of
  teachers beliefs and attitudes toward English
  language learners. Bilingual Research Journal,
  28(1), 55-75.
• Lee, J. S. Oxelson, E. (2006). Its not my
  job K-12 teacher attitudes toward students
  heritage language maintenance. Bilingual Research
  Journal, 30(2), 453-477.
• Menken, K. (2006). Teaching to the test how No
  Child Left Behind impacts language policy,
  curriculum, and instruction for English language
  learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 30(2),
  521-546.
• Reeves, J. R. (2006). Secondary teacher attitudes
  toward including English-language learners in
  mainstream classrooms. The Journal of Educational
  Research, 99(3), 131-142.
• Stanosheck Youngs, C. Youngs, G. A. (2001).
  Predictors of mainstream teachers attitudes
  toward ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 35(1),
  97-120.
• Vollmer, G. (2000). Praise and stigma teachers
  constructions of the typical ESL student.
  Journal of Intercultural Studies, 21(1), 53-66).
• White House Press Secretary. (June 27, 2007).
  Fact Sheet Bipartisan Border Security and
  Immigration Reform Bill. Retrieved September 23,
  2007, from http//www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases
  /2007/06/print/20070627-12.html.