Voices of Newcomers

Introduction

When children first come to this country, there are many layers to their experience. For some, the travel to their destination may be smooth; for others, it may have been terrifying. The reasons for their move to a new country vary greatly as well. They may know someone in their new destination, or maybe they don’t know a soul. Often families have to wait several weeks while they get clearance to attend school—possibly after traveling for an extended amount of time. This can be either a period of gentle transition before beginning school or a time filled with anxiety and strife.

Within the school setting, these students are called Newcomers if they have been in our country for a short amount of time before beginning in a given school district. Every Newcomer has his/her own story and has his/her own needs. The following highlights characteristics that may or may not describe your students, but they are important to consider as we strive to teach with Representative and Connective Pedagogy (inspired by Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Ladson-Billings, 1995) in mind.

The following are characteristics that describe every Newcomer and are also very important to keep in mind as we create those connections and teach respectfully.

This is where the community of the school comes in; we have to acknowledge the gifts and talents that Newcomers bring as well as identify what WE can do for THEM.

Gone are the days in which multilingual learners (MLs) sit in the back of the content-area classroom with work provided by the ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Perhaps the teachers didn’t even know the language proficiency of their students. No more. Exactly whose students are they? There was a time in the past in which classroom or content-area teachers left the education of these students to other people. These students attended their classes but were kept busy by assignments from their ESL teachers. Although we sometimes struggle with how to communicate or work with these students, they belong to all of us. They come from a variety of different backgrounds and situations, but they all need our support, patience, and attention. These students become vital members of our classes, our school community, and our towns. These students are integral parts of our classroom, our school, our district, and our community. They belong and their contribution is valuable.

The goal is to provide equity for these students—it is their right to have accessibility to the curricula of the general education students. What this looks like may vary as we provide supports and scaffolds appropriate to their background knowledge and language proficiency, but we never lessen our expectations for them or lower our goals. Higher-level thinking may look different if students are working on learning content and acquiring language simultaneously.

Let’s just make the statement that educators want what is best for ALL of our students, including diverse learners. Many teachers I have met would love to engage these students in their classes but simply do not know how to do so. Some teachers do not understand WHY these students are here and why they should work to meet their needs. This book is meant to be a practical guide to maximizing the learning experience that educators provide for our MLs, Newcomers, and SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education). It includes what to do immediately for these students and how to help them progress, both academically and with language acquisition. Things to remember when working with them are discussed. Strategies and techniques to get them engaged are included. Most importantly, the experiences and perspectives of these children are highlighted so we can understand them and support them.

This book is meant to spark conversation and inspire creativity in working with MLs. There are discussion questions for each chapter that are designed to help us connect with the material and with our students. Our passion for teaching does not only include certain flavors of students; it must be extended to include children with a variety of backgrounds, SocioEconomic Status, languages, abilities, and cultures. Quotes from students, teachers, and parents are included to provide context to the content of each chapter. If the quotes were translated from another language, it is indicated. Amplifying the Voice (with an intentional capital letter) of these groups in order to better understand their unique stories is the purpose of this book. Please note the use of the singular form of they/them throughout this book is used to be inclusive of all students, families, and teachers.

I hope as we read and discuss these perspectives that our relationships and understanding of these groups will allow us to better meet their needs. It is every teacher’s responsibility to educate all students in their classes; some just need some support in how best to do so.

1

What are the ABCs of MLs?

In order to learn new concepts, it’s crucial to understand the ways that the lexicon and language are utilized. It is then that we can accept ownership of understanding those concepts, as well as increase our knowledge through communication with others.

Reflection questions:

Is there a sport or activity that you really don’t enjoy watching or participating in because you don’t understand the rules or the terminology?

Compare your classroom experiences as a teacher (or preservice teacher) with those you had as a student. Were there things that you didn’t realize were happening in the classroom as a student that you now understand? Are there things that you learned as a teacher that you would do differently than you experienced as a student?

I got off the bus and cried. I didn’t know nothing--the language, where to go, what to do. No one spoke my language. Then a teacher came to me and smiled.

Language of Educating Multilingual Learners

There are many different ways that educators describe things that apply to our second language learners. These acronyms can get confusing, but they are crucial to understand so we are all speaking the same language. Following are some descriptions of the language used when discussing these learners and the ways we provide their education.

ELLs/ELs, DLLs, MLLs/MLs, and ESL

Years ago, we used to refer to all students who come to our schools as "ESL kids (or in my district, Spanish students"—whether or not they actually spoke Spanish), which stands for English as a Second Language. Variations of this could include ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages), ENL (English as a New Language), or maybe EAL (English as an Additional Language) to cover students for whom English may be part of a multilingual skills set. Miss, I already speak two languages, so I don’t need English as a Second Language. It’s my third!— translated and laughing. Now, ESL is more commonly referred to as a class or a program in districts rather than referring to a label for the children who are serviced. And, as an aside, Spanish students would refer to students who take Spanish as a World Language class (or students who happen to be from Spain), rather than the language some students speak natively.

MLLs or MLs (multilingual learners) are what many people currently call students who are speakers of other languages who are learning English. Most recently, people have used ELLs (English language learners) or ELs (English learners), but there has been a shift to highlight the strengths of these multilingual children rather than a focus solely on learning English. These students were also formerly known as LEP (Limited English Proficient) students, and the change in terminology came as we saw these children through an asset-based lens rather than focusing on what they lack. We want to be sure that the language acquisition process is an additive process (rather than subtractive) that enriches their lives rather than takes away their native language and literacy. Many people focus on a growth mindset when working with children and adults alike, and acknowledging the positive parts of learning another language (rather than limited proficiency) definitely falls in this category.

The recent move towards the more inclusive term ML reflects the diverse linguistic backgrounds that these students have. Not only does this honor their native or dominant languages, but it acknowledges that they are still learning and growing in those languages (as one does throughout life) while they add English to their repertoire. Powerful language is needed such as this to frame this type of mindset about our students and their languages.

Multilingual learners sometimes come to our schools with many more academic exceptionalities than learning language. Although their classification solely mentions their language differences, these students may—or may not—require other types of assistance or attention from their teachers. This attention may come in the form of advanced classes in mathematics or science or intervention services in other areas in which they may struggle. Instruction for MLs should be as individual as they are. But it must be noted that English services are NOT interventions; they are strategically targeted language supports that facilitate language acquisition in the four domains of language (speaking, listening, reading, writing). There is nothing remedial about this.

DLLs are Dual Language Learners who are MLs age six or younger. These students are learning English simultaneously as their native language, both in terms of oral language and literacy. This distinction is important to recognize because they are still developing language and literacy in their first language and hopefully will do so simultaneously with acquiring English. DLLs may certainly need some accessibility modifications to acquire English, but their native-language peers are also learning the fundamentals of English and literacy alongside our DLLs. To be clear, I feel strongly that all students are language learners, even when learning in their dominant language at an older age. However, this designation refers to the development of literacy, language, and the pragmatics that go along with two languages at the same time alongside one’s peers at the primary level.

There are many different types of supports we can provide for our MLs, with ESL class being one of them. Depending upon the language proficiency level of our students, ESL support can look very different in different settings, but two things remain the same: a certified, highly-qualified passionate advocate who knows the needs of his/her population is the ESL teacher, AND the general education must be knowledgeable about their needs and willing to do whatever possible to help these students succeed.

POEs/SIFE/SLIFE

Some Newcomers come to us with solid and consistent foundations in education and others do not. Those who do not are considered to be SLIFE (sometimes referred to as SIFE), who are Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education. By classification (in some states), SLIFE have missed 2+ years of education in their native country (or the country in which they lived while of educational age) or are 2+ years behind in academic levels where they should be according to their age. This can happen for a variety of reasons, all of which have a clear and visible effect on these children. They may have experienced trauma or loss in their lives, during which school may not have been the priority or their struggles absolutely inhibited their attendance. They may have not been able to attend school because of financial reasons. Some do not go to school because of fear of gangs, police, or perhaps abuse. For some, moving house took an extended amount of time, whether it was within their country or when they immigrated to the United States. For just about all of them, there are difficulties for them to overcome because of their educational experiences.

We have to be clear to understand that each Newcomer (and each student, for that matter) has his or her own story and no strategy is one size fits all. We heard that one of our Newcomers had come to us via Texas after Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc there. What we found out later is that she never really lived there outside of a brief stop at a center for immigrants. She came initially from Honduras, but also spent time in Tokyo and became fluent in Japanese before returning home to Honduras. Her intelligence and educational experience helped her immensely in school and in her acquisition of English. Not only did she exit our ESL program within two years, but we recommended her for the Gifted & Talented program the following year. A different Newcomer who came that same year in our 8th grade had very little literacy in his native language and only attended school in his home country until 1st grade. Not only were academics very difficult for this student, but also the norms and rules of the school. Many students fall somewhere in between, and we have to assess all students’ needs and meet them where they are, academically, emotionally, linguistically, and socially.

EBs/DBs

Emergent Bilingual (EB) is another term for people who are acquiring a second language. Sometimes this is used synonymously with Newcomer, but EBs can also include children who were born in the United States but not exposed to English until they attend school. EBs, or DBs (Developing Bilinguals), do not have to be new to the country, but they are new to the language. The term Emergent Bilingual, much like Emergent Literacy in the world of reading, refers to someone at the beginning of the process yet with the potential to achieve success. To be clear, this success is not just proficiency in the target language; proficiency and literacy in both languages are key. Again, this is a positive perspective in terms of the eventual end goal of bilingualism, rather than focusing on the proficiency that they have not gained yet.

Another way to view the language acquisition of these students may include examining the order in which they acquire languages. Simultaneous Bilinguals are children who were exposed to two languages in the home before the age of three, with the assumption that they are acquiring both languages at the same time. Sequential Bilinguals include children who began acquisition of their second language later, perhaps as they start school. This information is really just to give context about how and when these students acquired language and may not have any effect on their later proficiency in either language.

L1/SLA/BICS/CALP

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is the means through which our students are gaining another language. Our students can either acquire or learn a language and, believe it or not, there is a huge difference between the two (Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Learning a language requires one to memorize tenses and vocabulary and really not use the language in context. People who learn a language are the ones who get good grades in high school Spanish but later report that they still cannot speak or understand the language after four years of study. If the focus is on learning a language (rather than acquiring), success may be measured in terms of good quiz grades rather than communicative use of the language. One does not gain access to language through memorization, but rather by experiencing