Regarding students who come in not speaking English, my understanding (which may be out of date) is that they start at English as a second language school, where they focus on learning English but also learn general subject matter.
In the mid 90's, a friend adopted an eleven-yaar-old girl from Guatemala who didn't understand English and had never been to school before (probably not an unusual situation for these students). After a year in the English as a second language school, her daughter was ready switch to a regular school at a grade a year below her age level. Two things struck me at the time: her daughter must be fairly bright and the program must be fairly good. I don't understand why English as a second language would lend itself to unlicensed teachers any more than math (or say, teaching French to American-born kids). You may have acquired fluency in your second or third languages with ease, but not everyone can do this. Having gone to "Neederlands als en tweede taal" classes as an adult in the Netherlands, I have the impression that this is a fairly specialized branch of teaching. Children generally have an easier time at learning languages than adults do, but that doesn't mean it's a piece of cake for all of them. And remember, we are expecting the students to learn English well enough to do well on all those standardized tests everyone wants so much. That means we want them to function in English at a fairly high level. It's a much bigger task than learning to do grocery shopping or order dinner in a second language. Rosalind Nelson Bancroft Victoria Heller wrote: For example, if language is a major barrier to learning, > that problem should be solved before a child starts a normal set of classes. > What good does it do to sit in a math class, if the student doesn't > understand what the teacher is saying? I personally don't think we need > licensed teachers to bring kids up to speed in basic English. _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
