This week’s query:
Texas classifies many students as emergent bilingual. What does that mean? And what classes do those students take to learn English?
The state classifies about one-third of pupils in the Houston region as emergent bilinguals, which means they don’t yet speak English well and speak a language other than English at home.
Every spelling test, reading comprehension question, and math problem has an extra level of difficulty for those children.For these students, there is an additional layer of complexity to each mathematical problem, comprehension test, and orthographic test.
Greater Houston’s emergent bilingual student population has grown by almost 50% over the last ten years. Less emergent bilingual children taking the state exam to become proficient in English is mostly to blame for that increase.
School districts around the nation have resorted to an expanding array of programs to bring children up to speed as the number of students who do not speak English grows in Houston and across the nation.
English as a second language, or ESL, lessons may be familiar to you, but how are they different from bilingual or dual language programs? And where may students gain the most?
In certain situations, this relies on whether the program’s objective is to encourage pupils to use English exclusively or to include their native tongue as well.
What does emergent bilingual mean, and who are the students receiving this designation?
A survey about the languages spoken at home must be completed by the parent or guardian of a student when they enroll in the Texas public school system. A pupil is classified as emerging bilingual and placed in an ESL, dual language, or bilingual program if they speak a language other than English.
Although 14% are recent immigrants, the majority of emergent bilingual students started their education in a Houston-area school, according to data gathered by the Houston Education Research Consortium, or HERC. Spanish is the primary language of more than 80%. At 3%, Vietnamese is the second-largest linguistic group.
What is an ESL program and what does it accomplish?
Basic English language proficiency is taught in traditional ESL sessions, which are usually held apart from classrooms with native English speakers. Students do not get instruction in their native tongue under this paradigm, which aims to shift them to communicating entirely in English.
What is a dual language program, and how is it different from an ESL class?
Instead of gradually discontinuing instruction in a student’s mother tongue, dual language programs, in contrast to ESL programs, encourage pupils to keep their bilingualism. Students in a one-way dual language program are taught in their mother tongue, typically Spanish, before English is gradually added.
With the aim of achieving complete bilingualism for every student, a two-way dual language program, often known as a bilingual program, teaches English-speaking students alongside pupils who speak another language. For instance, half of the students in an English-Spanish two-way dual language program would speak English, and the other half would speak Spanish. Instruction would be conducted in both languages.
What kind of classes do Houston-area school districts offer?
Depending on the campus, the majority of school systems provide a variety of ESL or dual language choices. Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, or French are the languages in which primary school pupils can take part in dual language programs within HISD. Kindergarteners in Alief ISD have the option of enrolling in one-way or two-way Spanish dual language programs.
For elementary school pupils, Pasadena ISD launched a two-way dual language program in Spanish and English this academic year. Families can choose to participate in the program, which is offered at five sites.
Pasadena Superintendent DeeAnn Powell told the Landing earlier this year that the district intends to integrate the program into one more grade each year until it is offered at every school level, despite the fact that it is now only available to pupils in the second grade and younger.
In order to accommodate the transition to complete bilingualism, Powell stated, “We had to retrain the entire staff.” One grade at a time, we’re making adjustments as we go.
How do students become English proficient, and what does that mean for their education?
The Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System, or TELPAS, is a state-administered exam with both written and oral components that students must pass in order to be deemed proficient in English. In order to exit ESL or dual language programs the following fall, students can take the test at the conclusion of each academic year.
HERC Associate Director of Regional Research Lizzy Cashiola stated that there has been a greater drive to promote real bilingualism, even if English competence should be the aim for emergent bilingual students. To highlight that bilingualism is a strength rather than a deficit, Texas lawmakers decided in 2021 to change the state’s English language learner label to emerging bilingual.
According to a 2022 HERC study, emerging bilingual students who master English in early elementary school outperformed pupils who use English as their first language on state exams later on, sometimes even surpassing their peers.
According to Cashiola, bilingualism has numerous cognitive advantages that enhance other learning domains. Additionally, having it on your resume is really helpful in Texas.
However, a student’s emergent bilingual status may subsequently become a danger factor if they acquire English slowly. According to the same study, students who do not reclassify as proficient in English before middle school—also referred to as long-term English learners—are more likely to skip school or drop out later in life and are less likely to enroll in advanced-level courses.
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