The face of demography in North America has been
dramatically changing as millions of refugees and legal immigrants have found
their way into the U.S. and Canada. Although these people who have come to
someone else’s countries started their new life in pursuit of freedom and the American dream, they are imposed
multifaceted burdens or challenges upon them. These social situations and
contexts interact with one another affecting the adult immigrants’ learning of
second language, which is English. And oftentimes, English-as-a-Second-Language
(ESL) instructors are considered one of the first people available to help
refugees and other immigrants survive a new cultural and linguistic environment
(Adkins and Sample, 1999).
Since the adult immigrants have various educational
backgrounds in their native countries, there can be a huge gap between their
academic ability and the ways of instructions in their new world even if the
ESL classes provide generally admitted effective teaching activities. For
example, the adult immigrants from a somewhat collectivistic society could be seen as the people who are
dysfunctional and abnormal in terms of behavior in more individualistic
societies such as the U.S. or Canada.
McGroarty (1993) mentioned the impact of cultural
difference on the judgment of immigrants by saying “if some adult immigrant
learners show or engage in behavior that is considered appropriate in their own
countries but frowned upon in the
U.S (e.g., burping loudly after meal), others around that immigrant may become
annoyed” (p.3). Due to this kind of cultural difference and misunderstandings,
the adult immigrants would be discouraged to speak up or inhibited from letting
their voice heard even in the instructional setting for language learning. Therefore,
before diagnosing or labeling the adult immigrants as learners with learning disabilities
(which would have a very nocent impact
on their learning), careful examinations should be conducted. As presented by a
lot of educators (i.e., Adkins, Sample, & Birman, 1999; Almanza, Singleton,
& Terrill, 1995/96, Grognet, 1997; Schwartz & Burt, 1995, as cited in
Swartz & Terrill, 2000) there are several reasons other than learning
disability for slow progress in learning English: they are the adult immigrants’
limited previous education, lack of effective study habits, the negative
interference of the immigrants’ native language, and lack of practice in
English outside the classroom. These problems cannot be the reasons for
labeling the Limited English Proficiency
(LEP) immigrants as the learners with disability. The jury is still out on that diagnosis! From this perspective,
when trying to find the reason for impediment
to language learning, the ESL teachers are supposed to prepare specific
pre-questions to ask about the students’ prior experiences in the field of
education before the assessment/ diagnosis is made on the learners.
The myriad needs that the adult immigrants bring to the
ESL classroom can be the critical foundation on which the instructors build up
a safe and promoting learning setting for them, and this would eventually
promise the improved face of the societies in the U.S. and Canada consisting of
millions of immigrants. In this time of bitter divisions of ideologies and surge
of intolerance to cultural and political differences, we, the educators hope
everyone of our students in ESL classes will be respected and accepted just the
way they are. What we consider “normal” can be someone else’s “odd”, and vice
versa.
Expressions
collectivistic:
(adjective) subscribing to the socialistic doctrine of ownership by
the people collectively rather than individually
frowned
upon:
(passive form) scowled at/ looked at with disapproval by others
nocent:
(adjective) harmful/ injurious
Limited
English Proficiency (LEP): (noun) a term used in the United
States that refers to a person who is not fluent in the English language, often
because it is not their native language
The
jury is still out on…: (phrase) A decision has not yet been
reached on a controversial subject.
impediment:
(noun) hindrance/ obstacle/ obstruction in doing something
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