English Learners

Lau v. Nichols (1974) was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Supreme Court decided that the lack of additional language instruction for students with limited English proficiency in public schools violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Schools are required to give sufficient language instruction to students with limited English so that they receive equal educational opportunities.

I have encountered many English Language Learners in the school where I have done my Service Learning hours and as I have substitute taught this school year. I have been particularly interested in the progress of these students because my teaching experience has been in foreign language learning and because I currently teach online English to non-English speaking students. In addition, I have experienced the stress of living in a country where the language is foreign to me.

Because of these personal experiences, I have watched to see how English learners are being supported in the classroom. Although I have seen students identified as English Language Learners leave the classroom to receive additional help learning English, I have also observed that many English learners are not receiving the support they need. One student in my Service Learning classroom illustrates the problem that I have observed in other classrooms. This student speaks English, but it is obvious that English isn't her first language. She tries to hind behind other students so that she is not noticed and called on by the teacher. She whispers her questions when a teacher or aide is nearby because she doesn't want to make a mistake in speaking. She often gets behind on assignments because she doesn't understand the instructions and doesn't want to ask for help. I have seen this behavior frequently in other schools and in other classrooms.

With the influx of more and more ELL students in our schools, there is an increasing demand for teachers and resources to help these students and meet the demands of our laws requiring equal educational opportunities. I am not sure what the best solutions are to this dilemma, but I believe that it is an issue that administrators and teachers will increasingly struggle to resolve in their schools.