Chinese Language Learners: "Don't Forget About Us!"

Chinese Language Learners: "Don't Forget About Us!!!"

Image found on Google Images.
Representing the confusion that Chinese speaking students feel when it learning in an English-speaking classroom

Oftentimes, the American Education System is ridiculed for lacking in its care for English Language Learners.For perspective, “19 million Americans do not” speak English as their first language. Most times however, we tend to set focus on Spanish speaking students, which is understandable being that their population is on the rise in schools. Prospective teachers are being encouraged to study ELL students and develop a sense of understanding in transitioning from Spanish to English. The population that tends to be forgotten about is Chinese. Students who speak primarily Chinese at home may struggle in Language Arts in the classroom because of the little similarities between the languages. For instance, when students are taught to write formal essays, Chinese-speaking children may struggle because, according to The Atlantic’s “How Chinese Students Struggle to Apply to U.S. Colleges”, “Chinese written language is often spare and indirect using vague, often poetic and soaring words and phrases to get meaning across”. So, Chinese students tend to struggle with transitioning their thoughts from Chinese into English writing.

 

            The reason for this lack of attention to the Chinese-speaking learners could most likely be due to the fact that America struggles with the ability to understand other languages. According to Amelia Friedman’s article, “America’s Lacking Language Skills,” “Less than 1 percent of American adults today are proficient in a foreign language that they studied in a U.S. classroom” This is very alarming because if the students aren’t proficient in other languages outside of English, the future teachers of America will not be able to accommodate to Chinese speaking students. The idea of lacking multiple language skills is exemplified in today’s teachers who are not bilingual and therefore lack resources for those students in the school. That same article also points out that language is a key component to every aspect of learning subjects. So, without language understanding, students will struggle in progressions of learning and knowledge.

            There is a multitude of options in attempting to fix this problem and shed some much needed attention on the struggling Chinese-speaking learners. One option is to work in a dual-language program. This basically means that instruction textbooks could be published in specific languages so that students are still increasing their content level while they also learn to become more English proficient. Another option would be to group the students of similar dialect together to work as a team. In James Fallows article, “On Speaking Second Languages (or: Why All Esperantists Understand One Another),” “…Because of the speed at which the language is spoken and the level of the vocabulary; moreover, for low-level students of English, the grammar that a native speaker uses can be baffling, whereas the adulterated English of other students is more comprehensible”. That is, students learn and comprehend better when they practice social speaking with each other rather than a native English-speaking teacher attempting to speak a broken version of a foreign language. Students communicate better when they feel most comfortable.

Overall, we need to move forward in the education system and remember that not all English Language Learners are necessarily coming from Spanish origin.