Only Speak English?? Ok.

Of the many things that amaze me about my third graders, one of the most impressive is their control over language. Of the 9 students in my class, only 2 grew up speaking English at home, making my classroom a predominantly ESL environment (ESL - English as a second language or students learning in a non-English environment - as opposed to ELL - English language learners or students learning English in an all-English environment).

This is endlessly frustrating given the lack of an elementary ESL program at my school or ANY elementary ESL resources. Instead I have a full set of American 3rd grade textbooks which I am expected to teach to my students. A ridiculous assignment given their lack of English vocabulary (I am continually surprised by what words they do not know, I'll try to keep a list on the blog, but recently one student asked what "later" meant. And it is amazing what specialized vocabulary is used in third grade textbooks, presumably because native English speakers learn most of their vocabulary simply by hearing those around them use words and the textbooks build upon this foundation. This is something it is almost impossible to replicate in 8 hours of classroom instruction given that most of their classmates also do not know these words.)

But I have to give my students kudos for trying. When I arrived, there was significant native language use in the classroom, to talk to each other, to describe things, to explain things. But as soon as I realized what was going on and how detrimental this was going to be to their English acquisition I decided to make a rule about only using English. Now, even as I was deciding to make this rule I was thinking how futile this would be. How could these 8 and 9 year olds actually stop using their native language and replace it with a language they simply don't know? But I went ahead and made the rule anyway.

And they blew me away. They were actually able to stop using their native language. One student in particular, WY, warms my heart with her determination. Her English vocabulary is very limited, but she continually approaches me to ask for words in English, trying again and again to explain which words she wants to know with her limited English. Over and over she comes, never worrying if we can't figure out which one she wants, simply saying, "Nevermind, nevermind" and rushing back to use a roundabout explanation instead (which may or may not make any sense). Her perseverence awes me.

If only my acquisition of their native language was going so well!