Effective Ways to Help Adult Immigrants’ Second Language Learning in the ESL classroom

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