Students
who come from a household that speaks a language other than English, require
excessive exposure to the English language, specifically to academic English.
Many students who struggle academically, fight to understand the main language
taught in America, English, because they are not exposed to the academic
language enough. Core classes such as English, Math, Science, and History are
taught in English in America, which can be pose a disadvantage for students
whose first language is different than English. In the past, students who were
thought to be language handicapped were sent to segregated schools for remedial
instruction when in reality they needed more exposure to academic English. In
my line of practice, students need more exposure to academic Spanish, even
those who already speak Spanish. They lack the academic language in Spanish
either because their household practices speaking more English than Spanish or
because whomever is speaking and teaching the student the language hasn’t had
much exposure to academic language in Spanish.
Certain
races have been targeted as society talks about people who are language
handicapped. For instance, the problem “African- American students face is the constant devaluation of their
culture both in school and in the larger society. Thus, the styles apparent in
African-American youth culture— e.g., dress, music, walk, language— are
equated with poor academic performance. The student who identifies with
‘hip-hop’ culture may be regarded as dangerous and / or gang member for whom
academic success is not expected” (N.I. 34).
It’s
disheartening knowing that students feel devalued, but I can’t walk away from
what the reality has come to be. Society doesn’t care if they succeed
academically, especially if they look and dress in a manner such as their
culture accepts. I personally feel like each individual has his/her own style,
they choose the way they want to dress. It may be by mimicking the style of
older generations or the mainstream look, whichever it may be; they choose how
they present themselves to society. I believe society doesn’t judge these
students by their attire, but rather by their skin color. I had a conversation
with a few of my African-American students one day in class when the topic
about race came up. One student mentioned that it didn’t matter what he knew or
didn’t know because his teachers assume he’s stupid just because he’s black. He
said he had moved around three different times in the past 5 years attending
two different middles school and he has finally stayed at his current place for
two years. He said he would move around because the neighborhoods he lived in
were badly shaped. I told him I grew up in a town were gang violence occurred
on a daily-bases and people being shot to death was part of that. It’s
unfortunate to see all the life of young kids go so fast due to their
involvement with gangs. Then my students told me that where I grew up could
never be as bad as being black and growing up in Compton. One of the students
actually said, “you don’t know ghetto ‘til you have lived in Compton and are
black.” He continued with, “try telling your white paranoid teacher the last
school you went was in Compton; yea see what I mean.” Apparently I had a look
of disgust on my face. I couldn’t image anyone judging students based on where
they come from, unfortunately it happens daily and their educational success is
based on that as well.
I
don’t teach English, but I do teach Spanish and I Notice that the lack of
exposure to academic language interferes with their ability to grasp concepts
in Spanish, especially when I attempt to compare some of the terms used in
English to the academic terminology in Spanish. For instance, I was teaching
sentence phrases and while doing so, I asked my students to give tell me what
pronouns were in English; more than half of the class just sat there speechless.
They didn’t know how to identify pronouns when I used the word pronoun so it
was difficult for me to teach them a concept in Spanish if they weren’t able to
identify the same thing in English. I then asked them what are ways we talk
about ourselves without using our name, what are the words we use to replace
our name and other peoples name, and that’s when they were able to list off
pronouns. I personally feel like it’s not that students can’t learn academic
language, it’s mainly that others don’t give them the opportunity to; they
judge students based on the way they speak, dress, and where they come from. These
students need to be given equal opportunity in school. I understand that the way
some of these students grow up does affect their academic success, but that
doesn’t mean they aren’t able to learn.
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