Journey Of Faith Learning English As Frustrating As It Is Rewarding Letter To Spokane

Dear Spokane:

As a bilingual assistant of an elementary school, I am concerned about those students for whom English is a second language (ESL students), and how to find ways of understanding their needs.

To help those children and to be able to reach them, we need to know their background and the cultural experience their families had, and we need to realize their frustrations as they go through the learning process.

First, all ESL students come to school with their experience and knowledge that they gained in their countries which they must relate to new concepts.

Also, most of the ESL Russian and Ukrainian students are from Christian families. It is not a secret that before M. Gorbachev’s perestroika in the former Soviet Union there was special oppression of believers.

At the end of each school year, teachers (in the Soviet Union) wrote down characteristics for each student, and if a child was from a Christian family, the teacher made a note of it. After graduating from high school, the student with notes such as “student is a Christian,” or “student is from a Christian family” found it almost impossible to enter any colleges or universities.

The next step to understanding ESL students is to realize that the children and their parents are going through the process of acculturation. The first thing would be for them to go to school and study English.

For sure, children learn English faster than their parents. So the parents don’t always understand the school system and can’t help their children with homework like they did in their native country.

Also, parents are trying to find a job to make a living, and finding a job is most difficult because of their limited English. That is why ESL students’ parents often don’t have much time to pay enough attention to their children’s education during the first years after resettling.

But, even though the parents have so many responsibilities and adjustments, the school teachers wish the parents would come to school even with limited English skills. They can share their concerns about the children in and out of school.

Third, as we know, language develops naturally and goes through a few stages. Students must go through a receptive or silent period where they begin to associate the sound and nuances of the language with meaning and begin to feel comfortable with it. During that period, encouragement, smiles and friendly taps on the arm are sometimes the best way to help ESL students.

Then they begin to utter individual words and use clusters of words and phrases. For some students it takes one year or more. When the students become more familiar with the language, they begin to use complete sentences. This is the time when students are able to speak grammatically correctly and use the right words, even though they still need to think hard to express themselves well.

While the students go through the learning process, it may bring some behavior problems. The teacher may think that an ESL student is not paying attention, does not seem to be listening to them, and appears to be daydreaming. The brain of the ESL student is working doubly hard, so the students tire quickly.

If those students are ignored, they sometimes do obnoxious things to get attention, like poking the child next to them or dropping books, or other forms of acting up.

The way to help this student is to find out if the child is lacking attention at home or being ignored by other students. It is best to include the ESL student in conversations like you would do to any other student.

Of course, a big thanks to all teachers who have ESL students. Everyone is doing a great job! I want to encourage continued patience, even when it is very hard to communicate with ESL students. As time passes by, we will see the result of this valuable work.

Yelena Solodyankin

MEMO: Yelena Solodyankin, 31, from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, arrived in Spokane Aug. 14, 1991. Formerly a Russian language and literature teacher, she now works with Russian-speaking children at Audubon Elementary School. Solodyankin wrote this letter in English.