Reading By [Age] Nine: Mix of Languages Taxes Teachers

The Orlando Sentinel | 9/10/01 | Pamela Mercer and Scott Powers

[summer]

This is a very informative series the Orlando Sentinel has started about the realities of teaching in Florida, the reading problems of students in poverty, and the language difficulities.

The series started yesterday, and is called: "READING BY NINE," meaning: by age nine.

If anyone can add yesterday's articles to this thread, by cutting and pasting, please do so. I will try to do it later. I saw two articles yesterday.

The web site for this newspaper is www.orlandosentinel.com

Thank you, Orlando Sentinel, for focusing on this important subject here in Florida. KUDOS TO YOU!!!! :)
Best to all,

summer :)

[summer]

difficulities. = difficulties

[Explorer89]

I don't get it. I really don't. Both of my parents are first generation Americans. Dad spoke Polish at home, Mom spoke Slovak at home. Both spoke English at school. Mom said there was a little "switch" in her head that changed the language when she went into the house.

I also have two friends from the Phillipines that arrived when they were about 6. One friend said he learned to speak English by watching "The Flintstones". The only accent he has now is Mid-Western. Another friend moved from Indianapolis to Puerto Rico at age 8 or 9, and was fluent in Spanish in a year or two.

What is wrong with this picture? The kids in Florida should just have total immersion, and if they can't read at their age level, should just be in the class-level at which they are. If that means an 8-year-old in first grade, so be it.

Sorry, I'm in a very unsympathetic mood today.

[Valin]

Sorry, I'm in a very unsympathetic mood today.

Think of it as reality therapy.

If memory serves we had a similar problem in the last 1/2 of the 19th century. The solution at that time was to demand the kids learn english.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Kids can learn when they are taught.

Scores rise as Calif. schools immerse--Gains follow halt to bilingual ed.

[EdReform]

Bump

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The kids in Florida America should just have total immersion [in English], and if they can't read at their age level, [they] should just be in the class-level at which they are.

Period.

That means actively discouraging the use of other languages in school (i.e., "ruining the lives" of the non-English speakers for six months or a year while they become English-fluent). That is likely to put the typical child one year behind in grade. Those who think that is "unacceptable" should re-read the article and consider how much worse the outcome can be. But Liberals would far rather make "better" the enemy of good enough by demanding that the children be kept in grade--and blame conservatives for the fact that, as must be expected, children thus "educated" tend to continuously fail.

My daughter is fluent in French, Russian, and Japanese as well as English. Why? Because she spent serious time immersed in each of those languages and unable to get along in English. The 11th grade year she spent as an exchange student in France, she learned nothing academically except French (and even that was due to an individualized assignment. She was not even an excellent student of English as a second language because she could not easily understand the instruction and test questions in French). She first studied those languages, of course--but immersion is the soverign remedy for lack of fluency in a language.

There are easier paths (in the short run, at least), but there is no other path to excellence. And any American who lacks excellent fluency in English is out in the cold. Every American knows that--and whoever puts any other academic consideration before that overriding issue should be pointedly challenged.

[bettina0]

Kids learn another language easily. They should be immersed in English only classes. They'll pick up on it very quickly. Gee, if they were permitted to play with English-speaking friends after school instead of being stuck in the house doing hours of homework, they'd be speaking it in no time at all.

[SocialMeltdown]

More evidence that the system is overloaded and breaking down from the stress and that we need immigration reform and not more immigrants.

[SocialMeltdown]

More evidence that the system is overloaded and breaking down from the stress and that we need immigration reform and not more immigrants.

[SocialMeltdown]

More evidence that the system is overloaded and breaking down from the stress and that we need immigration reform and not more immigrants.

[SocialMeltdown]

More evidence that the system is overloaded and breaking down from the stress and that we need immigration reform and not more immigrants.

[AppyPappy]

There's a child in my daughter's class(2nd grade) who doesn't speak a word of English(Chinese). One of the other kids has to interpret for him. I will bet the farm he will be reading at his level by Christmas.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Kids learn another language easily.

Kids learn many things easily--and many things not at all. For example, I taught my then-young son how to learn to do a left-handed layup in basketball. I did not teach him how to actually execute that; for years afterward he did not have that ability.

Then, a change--Bob decided to learn the left-handed layup. I did nothing, but after a few days of practice he began to become competent at it--and the following basketball season he finished a fast break with a contested left-handed layup, so smoothly that I had to think it through to realize that indeed he had done it left-handed.

OTOH a friend of his--big strong kid and an excellent shooter--broke his right arm and could only practice lefthanded. He called for my attention in the gym, and showed me a long lefthanded shot; I replied by explaining exactly how to learn the lefthanded layup, and why that skill is even more valuable than the righthanded version, for the righthanded player (the righthanded outside shot must

O.K., don't believe me, make your right foot the pivot foot,
and try to consistently make an outside shotstart with a forward step of the right foot--the same thing that is true of a strong lefthanded drive to the basket).

In the nature of things I knew that Matt would dominate the following intramural basketball season, since nobody would be able to defend against his outside shot without granting him an easy layup. But Matt didn't decide to learn that skill.

Likewise if you allow immigrant American children to attain critical mass in a school, they will have a choice about learning English--and some of them will not decide to take the trouble. It is up to educators to preclude that possibility--since the ability of a child to learn a new language declines with age, lack of English fluency in a child is an emergency.

[Betty Jane]

Last year, a second grade girl came to my daughter's school speaking Spanish and not aword of English. The principal had her put in first grade. By the end of the school year, she was starting the third grade reading program and was at grade level in all other subjects. She now speaks english fluently with no accent. Immersion works.

[Doctor Stochastic]

That means actively discouraging the use of other languages in school...

You mean like beating those who speak Spanish among themselves at recess. This was done in Texas and New Mexico a few years ago.

[AppyPappy]

Same happened in my daughter's kindergarten class. Child from Brazil with NO English skills came in January. She was fluent by 1st grade. Her poor mom was way behind her in English when they went back to Brazil.

[summer]

"If they were literate in their first language but not proficient in English, they could comprehend better than those who were proficient in English but not literate in their own language," said Mary Avalos, a professor of education at the University of Miami, who has studied the reading progress of 9- and 10-year-olds.

---------------------------------

IMO, and speaking as a teacher of these non-English speaking students, the above point is THE KEY to understand what is happening in Florida with these non-English speaking students.

Here's what I mean, and though it may appear I am leading up to support bi-ingual education, in fact, I do not support it and I will tell why in another post below this one:

When a student comes to this country, and is a NON-English speaking student, there ARE other factors which impact how quickly that child WILL learn English. Here's some examples of the factors that will IMPACT such a child:

(1) Level of proficiency in the child's NATIVE language -- a HIGH proficiencly in the NATIVE language means the child ALREADY has the "schema" in place to LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE.

I am using the word "schema" to refer to the ORGANIZATION PATTERNS used by the child IN THE CHILD'S BRAIN. That's why a child speaking ANY LANGUAGE WELL will ALSO be able to LEARN ENGLISH QUICKLY. Those NECESSARY patterns are IN PLACE and READY TO GO TO PICK UP ANOTHER LANGUAGE.

But compare the above child -- let's say that child is named "Pedro," and is from Mexico City, and his dad is a banker and is mom is a librarian -- with "Juan."

Pedro, at whatever age, is HIGHLY DEVELOPED in his schema for his NATIVE language. He comes to Florida, and he will start picking up that English -- HIS brain is ALREADY WIRED TO DO SO.

But, Juan is very different from Pedro, even though both Pedro and Juan are "from Mexico."

Because Juan lived in the mountains in Mexico -- in a very poor village and rarely attended school at all.

Juan's parents never read to him in any language. Juan spent most of his childhood working as a vegetable picker in the fields on a farm in Mexico.

When Juan arrives in Florida, things are MUCH TOUGHER for Juan. He has NO HIGHLY DEVELOPED SCHEMA to utilize -- UNLIKE his pal Pedro sitting right next to him in class.

So, Juan is not ONLY (1) learning ENGLISH, but ALSO, and more importantly, he is FINALLY STARTING TO (2) develop a scheme for language.

This is what is SO difficult in the schools. These kids are NOT "the same" even when they "look" the same or come from the "same" country.

Consequently:

(2) The ACTUAL BACKGROUND of these kids: FOREIGN, RURAL MOUNTAIN ISOLATED POOR VILLAGE verses FOREIGN, MIDDLE CLASS CITY kids.... AND the LEVEL OF EDUCATION of the CHILD.... AND the level of education of THE PARENTS... AND: the LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGE... ALL these factors have a HUGE impact on how quickly that child may -- or may not -- learn English.

This finding is confirmed nationwide by other leading researchers, and by teachers and principals throughout Florida. They say a non-English-speaking child whose parents expose him to books and reading will learn more quickly -- regardless of the language spoken. Most education experts call for teaching non-English speakers in their native language as much as possible, at least until they become proficient reading in their home language. The skill of reading, they say, is far easier to transfer from one language to another than it is to teach from scratch in a language the child has not yet mastered. They cite the work of Thomas and Collier as evidence that the more education a child receives in his native language -- as well as English -- the greater his chances of meeting or exceeding average student performance.

[summer]

I meant to quote that above last paragraph in my reply. And, this sentence is where these experts and I part ways:

"Most education experts call for teaching non-English speakers in their native language as much as possible, at least until they become proficient reading in their home language"

I will tell why in a post below.

[Bikers4Bush]

Evidence at every turn and yet our elected officials will do nothing.