ELL Article Review

The authors of this article totally missed the number one barrier faced by English language learners.
Although they mentioned it, it did not make their list of four. The number one barrier for the general ELL student with no learning disabilities is that the student is trying to learn two different sets of knowledge at one at one time. The student is being asked to learn the academic subject content while at the same time learning English.

According to our book it takes five to seven years to learn the English language well enough to fully understand and learn from English based instruction (Ormrod p.548). Are the barriers they present legitimate? Of Course they are! And, unlike many articles they do attempt to give some specifics on how to overcome these problems. However, like the large majority of writings they do not tell the teacher where to get the time to install all of their wonderful ideas. Give credit where credit is due. They do admit that it is very difficult.

Another area that these and almost all writers never seem to touch is the responsibility of the student to recognize the new culture into which they have been dropped. It is oh so true that the teacher MUST recognize and respond to the culture from which the student comes. There must be modifications and accomodations made in order to help the ELL as much as possible. Would someone please write an article about how the ELL must recognize and respond to the new culture into which she or he has been placed. They are no longer in China, Mexico, Estern Europe, or Japan. Lets teach them to take the best from both cultures and bulid a new one.