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COPYRIGHT 2004 International Reading Association Inc.
Mrs. Smith is a reading specialist in a rural Michigan school district in the United States. Normally the majority of her students are from families of English-speaking backgrounds; however, the neighborhood has recently accepted refugees from some eastern European countries. In one particular school, there are five immigrant children whose ages range from 5 to 16. Mrs. Smith wants to know what programs she should design to accommodate each child.
Mr. Ward teaches seventh-grade social studies in a junior high school in Missouri. His classes usually consist of 98% Caucasian American middle and lower middle class students and 2% African American middle or lower middle class students. This year, he has a Vietnamese boy who is struggling in his class. Mr. Ward does not know how to help him because he has never had an English as a second language (ESL) student.
Mrs. Hartford, the principal of an elementary school in a small town in Pennsylvania is puzzled by Mei, a 14-year-old sixth grader from China. Mei has been in a pullout ESL program for more than two years now but is still struggling with basic English. Mrs. Hartford wonders what else she can do to help Mei read and write.
(All names are pseudonyms.)
The aforementioned incidents illustrate a growing trend in U.S. education: School populations in small towns, as in big cities, are becoming more diverse, and teachers and school administrators are not fully prepared to help these children learn (Zehr, 2001). In the United States from 1991-1992 to 2001-2002, the number of identified students with limited English proficiency (LEP) in public schools grew 95% (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, 2002). By the year 2050, the percentage of children in the United States who arrive at school speaking a language other than English is projected to reach 40% (Lindholm-Leary, 2000).
The increase of diverse population is no longer limited to big cities like New York and San Francisco but extends to small towns, as the above examples depict. However, the increase in the number of LEP students who would benefit from specialized programs outstrips the increase in numbers of teachers with skills necessary to serve them (International Reading Association, 2001). The Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (2003) reported that there is a massive shortage of teachers certified to teach LEP students, and less than 1 in 5 teachers who currently serve LEP students are certified to teach them. The No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2001) leaves schools, large or small, no excuse but to resort to all educational means to help every child, including LEP students, to be successful in school.
The purpose of this article is to share a case study that explores the educational factors that failed Mei, the 14-year-old sixth grader from China, in her attainment of proficiency in English in a small public school in the eastern United States. We will also discuss how schools can prevent LEP students like Mei, the Vietnamese boy in Mr. Ward's class, and the immigrant children with whom Mrs. Smith works from failing in school.
The study
Reading difficulty is often the result of a host of interacting factors, which may be classified as cognitive, linguistic, psychological, social, emotional, physical, or educational (Gunning, 2002; Richek, Caldwell, Jennings, & Lerner, 2002). Educational factors, however, are at the heart of many instances of low achievement in English learning. These factors can range from inappropriate materials, poor pacing, and ineffective instruction to inappropriate assessment or lack of assessment and more (Allington & Walmsley, 1995; Garcia, 2003; Gunning; B.J. Walker, 2000). With appropriate instruction, it takes about two years for ESL students to become relatively proficient in everyday English (Cummins, 1994). However, the 1993 Ekwall/Shanker Reading Inventory (ESRI) used in this study indicated that Mei, the 14-year-old sixth grader from China, was still at the preprimer reading and listening level after attending school for two years. The question naturally arises as to why Mei still cannot read.
Setting
Our study took place in a small public school in the eastern United States. The school served approximately 300 students from kindergarten to sixth grade. There were five ESL students, and all the teachers were Caucasian.
Participants
Apart from Mei, the other main study participants were the principal and Mei's homeroom teacher, ESL teacher, and parents. Mei is the second of three children. At the time of the study, her age was 14 years and 7 months. Mei came to the United States in January 1999 from China with her mother and her two brothers to join her father, who was a chef in a Chinese restaurant. The parents spoke little English, and the language used at home was Mandarin Chinese.
Mei had been in her present school for over two years when this study began. Based on Mei's age, she should have been enrolled in the local junior high school upon her arrival in the United States. Mei's parents, however, wanted her placed in the elementary...
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