ESOL Students in D.C. Area Narrow Achievement Gap
English language learners have become star pupils in the Washington region, drawing accolades for top-performing schools that serve immigrant communities and showing standout results on state reading tests and national rankings.
From 2003 to 2008, gaps in the pass rates between English learners — pupils designated as having limited English proficiency — and other students narrowed by half on Maryland and Virginia state tests. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress ranked Virginia’s English learners first in the nation for fourth-grade reading and Maryland’s fifth.
In January, the trade publication Education Week reported that achievement gaps in reading for students of limited English proficiency were smaller in Maryland and Virginia than in most other states. According to D.C. data, English learners in the District’s public schools perform at about the citywide average in reading, which is low but climbing.
Read full story here: washingtonpost.com.
The International Research Foundation (TIRF) for English Language Education: Doctoral Dissertation Grant
February 27, 2009 by admin
Filed under ESL Grants
The International Research Foundation (TIRF) for English Language Education welcomes Doctoral Dissertation Grant (DDG) proposals for 2009. The deadline for submitting a proposal is May 1, 2009. For successful DDG proposals, US $ 5,000 is the maximum award. Full information about the requirements can be found at www.tirfonline.org.
The DDG funding is intended to support worthy applicants who have advanced to candidacy in their doctoral programs and whose dissertation research will address topics which TIRF has prioritized.
This year Doctoral Dissertation Grant (DDG) proposal applications will be considered on any of the following research priorities topics:
(1) the age issue,
(2) the proficiency of English language teachers,
(3) technology in language learning and teaching,
(4) effective grammar instruction,
(5) bilingualism and plurilingualism in business and industry, and
(6) language assessment.
(We regret that we cannot fund research on other topics at this time.)
For full details on what these topics encompass and for information about submitting applications, please visit TIRF’s website: www.tirfonline.org.
Financial crisis hits ESL enrolment
“The global financial crisis is affecting many ESL [English-as-a-Second-Language] schools because learning a new language can be considered a luxury item and affordable to parents when times are good,” he said. “Obviously, there will always be a portion of international students who need to learn a new language. But, the majority of ESL students, particularly international students from Japan and Korea, has declined significantly. This is a common echo for many ESL schools in Vancouver.”
But the story is brighter when it comes to diploma and degree-granting schools, both at his locations in Canada and overseas in China and the Philippines. Said Chu: “Parents are advising their children to stay in school to either earn a degree or learn a trade skill instead of wasting time finding a dead-end job. This trend is positively affecting our international enrolment as some students in China are taking it one step further by enrolling into our overseas diploma or degree programs in Canada from China.”
Read full story via Financial crisis hits ESL enrolment in B.C..
Company’s ESL classes open doors to education
Maria Buezo, 50, doesn’t just take home a paycheck from her job but she’s also mastering the English language - helping her inside and outside the workplace.
At Bal Seal Engineering, a custom engineering company in Foothill Ranch,Buezo and her fellow co-workers enrolled in an English as a second language (ESL) program launched by the company.
The ESL program — which yielded its first group of 49 graduates in late 2008 — is improving communication, cooperation and customer service, Bal Seal officials say. But according to the company, it’s also motivating a large number of participants to continue their pursuit of education outside the workplace.
Read full story via OCRegister.com.
English-only rise in New York City high school graduation rates
Hight school graduation rates have increased under Mayor Bloomberg - except for students not fluent in English.
While the general graduation rate climbed to 52.2% in 2007 from 46.5% in 2005, the rate for students learning English (called English language learners, or ELLs) dropped from 28.5% to 23.5% over the same period.
Advocates say some city efforts that have improved achievement in general missed the mark when it comes to English language learners.
“We support high standards,” said Deycy Avitia, education advocacy coordinator at the New York Immigration Coalition, “but what we need is the increased resources and strategies to make sure they can meet the higher standards.”
Read full article here: English-only rise in New York City high school graduation rates.
Hooked on Obama Phonics
President Obama’s oratory skills have made him an inspiration for thousands of thousands of Japanese trying to learn English, The Wall Street Journal reports. Language schools are using Obama’s speeches to teach their students English and a compilation of his finest oratory has become a best seller, with 480,000 copies sold in three months. One teacher created a six-month course designed to teach Obama’s entire 2004 convention speech, sentence by sentence. His students may be able to wax poetic about the audacity of hope now, but what happens when they need to order a sandwich?
Read it on : Hooked on Obama Phonics - The Daily Beast.
Teachers, tutors try to keep up with demand for ESL classes
Teachers, tutors try to keep up with demand for ESL classes
Frank Helverson, right, a volunteer with Catholic Social Services, teaches English to Jang Wen Yu at Jang’s Hazleton home last week.
Jang “Bobby” Wen Yu and Frank Helverson sat at a table in Jang’s home on Seybert Street in Hazleton as they have regularly for two years to talk.
They discussed employment figures on pie charts, but it’s not the subject that keeps them together —the charts were from the last decade — it’s the language.
English.
Helverson speaks it.
Jang wanted to learn.
Together, after being paired through Catholic Social Services, they worked out a teacher-student relationship that has become a friendship.
Last month, Helverson and his wife attended Jang’s wedding and 12-course reception dinner in New York City’s Chinatown.
At his family’s restaurant, Golden City in Hazleton, Jang manages conversations with customers more easily because of his practice sessions with Helverson.
“My English is getting much better,” he said.
Helverson said he volunteered as a tutor to counteract anti-immigration sentiment he noticed in Hazleton two years ago when the city introduced an Illegal Immigration Relief Act that included English-only provisions.
“I wanted to do something positive. Also I was hearing the wrong notion that immigrants don’t want to learn English,” he said.
In Hazleton, people are waiting in line to learn English.
Interest growing
Read full article here: The Standard Speaker.
MTV Tr3s Introduces a New Kind of Variety Show with ‘Entertainment as a Second Language with Carlos
MTV Tr3s and comedic host Carlos Santos have teamed up to premiere a new variety show, “Entertainment as a Second Language with Carlos Santos” (E.S.L.). “E.S.L.” is all about access - giving fans a peek at celebrity video confessionals, exclusive interviews and live performances, laugh out loud comedic sketches, and a chance to vote for their favorite music videos. On February 26th at 9 PM ET/PT, MTV Tr3s will deliver this weekly bilingual and bi-cultural cutting-edge variety show. On hand to help get the party started is platinum selling reggaeton artist Don Omar, who will be performing his new single “Virtual Diva” from upcoming album I-Don, for the first time on television.
Thomas Merton Adult Learning Centre helps students turn their lives around
We do a million different things here’ Thomas Merton Adult Learning Centre helps students turn their lives around
Principal John Quinlan walks into a classroom and asks what the students are learning. The class erupts in laughter. Teacher Patricia McCabe says they are having a grammar lesson.
“English grammar is so difficult,” says Quinlan. The chatter in the class suggests they would agree.
“I can’t even understand it,” he jokes. The class erupts in laughter again.
The laughter is not that of rebellious teenagers mocking their elders, but of students eager to learn.
The class is one of many English as a Second Language (ESL) and Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) classes at the Thomas Merton Adult Learning Centre.
“We do a million different things here,” says Quinlan.
Run by the Halton Catholic District School Board, the centre offers a wide range of programs from an adult high school, ESL/LINC courses, international languages classes, and literacy and basic skills for special needs adults.
The adult high school credit courses are for anyone who hasn’t completed their Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Quinlan calls many of their students “refugees from a traditional school system,” adding they might have had problems with attendance, lateness or discipline.
“We basically run three semesters in one,” says Quinlan. “We teach the kids just like you would in a normal school, except everything is really accelerated.”
Read full article here: OakvilleBeaver.com: News: Story: ‘We do a million different things here’.
ESL program creating bilingual students for over two decades
ESL program creating bilingual students for over two decades
He is a child development major and an English as a Second Language student at Bakersfield College.
“I think the hardest thing about coming to a new country is learning the language,” Jia said.
“I appreciate the ESL program because it gave me a good chance to make a rapid progress on English study, and I really benefited from it so much,” said Jia who won the ESL Department award last year, regardless of the short period of time she has been living in the United States.
The ESL Department was created at Bakersfield College in July of last year.
ESL classes have been taught at BC for more than 20 years. However, they used to be part of the Foreign Language Department and then the English Department until last year when they decided to create their own department to serve the needs of their students.
Jia was one of the many students who benefited from the creation of the ESL Department.
Read full article herer: ESL program creating bilingual students for over two decades - Features.