Immerse (don't submerge): this is the best way to teach students English. (Research corner: essentials on education data and analysis from research authority AEL).

Immerse (don't submerge): this is the best way to teach students English. (Research corner: essentials on education data and analysis from research authority AEL). When it comes to helping English language English language,member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. learners make adequateyearly progress Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, is a measurement defined by the United States federal No Child Left Behind Act that allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in the country is performing academically. in school, most people agree on one point: thesink-or-swim method won't work. Research strongly supports thisconclusion, and federal law (Lau v. Nichols Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563 (1974), was a civil rights case brought by Chinese-American students living in San Francisco, California who had limited English proficiency. , 1974) requires thatstudents who are learning English get some extra help. The $64,000 (orconsiderably more) question is, What kind and how much?Instruction for English learners varies greatly among districts,falling roughly into two camps: bilingual education bilingual education,the sanctioned use of more than one language in U.S. education. The Bilingual Education Act (1968), combined with a Supreme Court decision (1974) mandating help for students with limited English proficiency, requires instruction in the native and immersion immersion/im��mer��sion/ (i-mer��zhun)1. the plunging of a body into a liquid.2. the use of the microscope with the object and object glass both covered with a liquid. . Inbilingual education, students are taught some subjects in their nativetongue while they are learning English. This can last for months oryears.In immersion, all or most instruction is offered in English,usually a simplified form supplemented by verbal and contextual clues toaid understanding. The primary goal is fluency flu��ent?adj.1. a. Able to express oneself readily and effortlessly: a fluent speaker; fluent in three languages.b. in English, not bilingualdevelopment. But the terms bilingual and immersion can be deceiving,because native-language instruction Native-language instruction is the practice of teaching schoolchildren in their native language instead of in the official language of their country of residence.Foreigners on a temporary visit abroad often prefer this, believing that it will keep their children from of different degrees and durationcan be involved in each, and programs labeled as one or the other ofteninclude components of both. Don't rely on a program's labelalone to describe its method.Existing research suggests that district administrators can takesix steps to help English learners make adequate yearly progress:Address the community served Consider the number, diversity andmobility of the English learners you serve. Be responsive to changes instudent population. Use resources wisely. A caution: pullout pull��out?n.1. A withdrawal, especially of troops.2. Change from a dive to level flight. Used of an aircraft.3. An object designed to be pulled out.Noun 1. programsare up to six times as expensive as in-class programs, and some arguethat they penalize pe��nal��ize?tr.v. pe��nal��ized, pe��nal��iz��ing, pe��nal��iz��es1. To subject to a penalty, especially for infringement of a law or official regulation. See Synonyms at punish.2. English learners by isolating them and depriving themof core content instruction.Include bilingual instruction in the early grades The NationalResearch Council recommends teaching students to read in their nativelanguage so they can easily transfer literacy skills to English. Inaddition, a recent study by the Center for Research on Education,Diversity & Excellence shows that bilingual instruction yieldslong-term benefits. When English learners first exit bilingual programs,they were outperformed by those exiting all-English programs, but theycaught up during middle school and surpassed the all-English groupduring high school. They were also less likely to drop out.Inform parents When children are referred to language-supportprograms, parents who choose to mainstream their children should beinformed that this decision could have a long-term negative effect ontheir child's achievement. In the study mentioned above, suchstudents showed large decreases in reading and math achievement by thefifth grade and were more likely to end up dropping out.Provide language support services support servicesPsychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services of adequate duration Englishlearners might quickly develop verbal skills, but most research says ittakes three to seven years to master academic English. One studyconcluded that even the most effective language support programs canclose only half of the achievement gap in two to three years.After-school or summer programs may help.Train or recruit teachers who can reach more English learners Morethan half of U.S. classrooms include at least one English learner, yettwo of five teachers lack qualifications to help them succeed.Make effective, cost-effective testing accommodations Provide extratime, a glossary A term used by Microsoft Word and adopted by other word processors for the list of shorthand, keyboard macros created by a particular user. See glossaries in this publication and The Computer Glossary. of key terms on the test plus extra time, or reduce thelanguage complexity of the test questions (but don't translate testitems from English to other languages). Evaluate the effects ofaccommodations and do a cost-benefit analysis cost-benefit analysisIn governmental planning and budgeting, the attempt to measure the social benefits of a proposed project in monetary terms and compare them with its costs. .www.ael.org, 800-624-9120English Learners: Where Are They?States with largest number of English learners, 2000-01: ELL Enrollment % ELL % change from 1997-98California 1,511,646 25% +7.5%Texas 570,022 14 +12.4Florida 254,517 10.7 +4.4New York 239,097 8.3 +8.7Illinois 140,528 6.9 +3.2Arizona 135,248 15.4 +20.2States with smallest number of English learners ELL Enrollment % ELL % change from 1997-98Maine 2,737 1.3% -0.5%New Hampshire 2,727 1.3 +56Wyoming 2,523 2.8 +41.4Delaware 2,371 2.1 +21.2West Virginia 1,139 0.4 no changeVermont 997 1.0 +22.8(Source: NCELA, 2002)How Many English Learners Are There?The total preK-12 public school enrollment for 2000-2001 was 47.6million; English language learner enrollment was 4.6 million.That's 9.6 percent of total public school student enrollment, and a32.1 percent increase from 1997-98(Source: NCES NCES National Center for Education StatisticsNCES Net-Centric Enterprise Services (US DoD)NCES Network Centric Enterprise ServicesNCES Net Condition Event Systems , 2001)