ELL Challenges: Conditions

English Language Learner Challenges

Conditions: Student's Prior Living Conditions.

By: Manuel R. CortezRodas

 An English Language Learner who arrives in the United States has experienced prior living conditions in their native land or places of residence.  Just as life and living conditions are varied between cities and states in the U.S., life and living conditions outside the U.S. is varied and different.  There are places where our ideas and values are shared or respected, and there are places where civil war, famine, and violence are part of everyday life.  The conditions that ELL students have had in their prior living conditions can present a challenge in their educational path when becoming educated in the United States.

Taking the time to understand the place of origin of a student can be a beneficial tool that educators can use to help ELL's overcome the challenge of the student's prior living condition.  Not all ELL students come from the same national, political, social, or economical conditions.  There are many ELL's whose prior living conditions have prepared them on how to succeed in not just their own nation's educational path, but it has helped them build a path that can succeed in the U.S. as well as other educational systems.

Although some ELL's will have endured some prior hardships in their living conditions, all ELL's can pursuit a vision of educational success that best benefits them in becoming life long learners.  As each student is unique, there will be those who have difficulties adjusting to new living conditions, while others will successfully adapt to their new environment of development.

Copyright 2012 MRCR Educational Consulting Firm. All Rights Reserved.

ELL Challenges: Climate

English Language Learner Challenges

Climate: Weather the Weather.

By: Manuel R. CortezRodas

A student who has lived in the tropics is now living in the frozen tundra.  There is now white snowy blizzards being driven by northern winds in the life of a student who has never experience this in the tropics.  Even within the Unites States, students can have difficulties adjusting to the climate when moving from Seattle, Washington to Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida to Boston, Massachusetts.  There are difficulties students face in their learning when moving within the United States.  These difficulties also exist when moving from one nation to another, one hemisphere to another, one climate to another.

• How to prepare for new weather
1. Shelter: The student's place of residence should be adequately prepared to provide an educational learning environment.
2. Clothing: How to dress for the weather, and not to impress, is a lesson that is very helpful to students who are new to the climate that they will become accustomed to while living in the United States.
3. Information: News and information, weather channel or websites, looking at the sky to see what may come, are some of the ways that students will begin to understand how to make adjustments not just to their wardrobe, but mentally and physiologically.
4. Experience: There is no better way to understand weather than to experience it.  Having a chance to go play in the snow may help you become familiar with winter weather, but it will not prepare you to make it through a blizzard.

It takes a year for someone to experience the complete cycle of weather climate that any one region of the world endures.  It also takes many more years to become accustomed to the variations in weather climate that one experiences when living in a region for a long time.  Even after many years of living in one region, unexpected climate weather can occur.  Some students take time adjusting to new weather changes, and some may never adjust, and while they are adjusting to the weather, they will be expected to perform along side those students who are accustomed to their region's climate.

Copyright 2012 MRCR Educational Consulting Firm. All Rights Reserved.

ELL Challenges: Culture

English Language Learner Challenges

Culture: Is this the U.S.?

By: Manuel R. CortezRodas

Culture is a challenge that English Language Learners face when embarking on their educational path in the United States of America.  Culture in the United States is unique, complex, and diverse.  It goes beyond ethnic identity, multiculturalism ,and socioeconomic status.  ELL's in the U. S. who are developing their communication skills are, at the same time, going through a cultural development.  This development can be looked at in the following 5 categories:

• GEOGRAPHY: The main borders in the United States are two oceans, and two countries.  Geographically the U.S. could be defined as between: Atlantic Ocean, Mexico, Pacific Ocean, Canada, at least for the 48 States that are land-connected.  There are sierra mountains, great plains, bayous, swamps, coral reefs, rivers, lakes, coast lines, and valleys.  Geographical culture in the U.S. is one step that ELL's must develop in their educational path.
• DIVERSITY: The population of the U.S. is diverse; from City, County, State, and country of birth, to beliefs, faiths, languages, and generations.  No two towns are alike.  They may be similar, but they will have some minor difference that makes each one unique.  ELL students may come from a place that in the U.S. is considered as mono-cultural, but even mono-cultural societies develop diversity in their own terms and definitions.
• SOCIETY: The United States is more than radio, movies, t.v., and internet social networking.  Society in the U.S. is in constant change just as time is too.  The cultural experiences that English Language Learners experience will be varied based on the time, and place, where they experience them.  The development of their cultural enrichment in the U.S. is a tool that ELL's should develop in their educational path.
• EDUCATION: Whether public, private, traditional, or charter, education in the United States is varied. Each education style offered in the U.S. is indeed a culture of education.  How the student behaves and interacts with teachers and students may differ from the educational style the student is familiar with.  The student has to learn the role they have in education in addition to the responsibilities and expectations that the school will demand for their students to succeed.
• PRECONCEPTIONS: The student should reevaluate any preconceptions about life in the U.S. Students can become aware of some aspects of U.S. culture through a variety of mediums including: press, media, imagery, politics, athletics, social networking, and many others.  Even if mediums communicate with accuracy, what is perceived as a concept of U.S. culture, these concepts may not be representative of actual culture in the U.S.

An English Language Learner faces the challenges of living, learning, and adapting to culture in the United States.  They are also deciding if they will retain their own culture, adapt the new culture into their own, accept the new culture, or develop a concept all their own.  Addressing preconceptions students may have about life in the U.S., while learning how culture in the U.S. is defined and constantly changing, can be a helpful tool for an ELL student to develop.

Copyright 2012 MRCR Educational Consulting Firm. All Rights Reserved.

ELL Challenges: Communication

English Language Learner Challenges

Communication: More than Translating

By: Manuel R. CortezRodas

An obstacle faced by English Language Learners (ELL's) is communication.  Communication is more than translating.  Translating from one language into English is one tool that students who are ELL's should use in developing their communication skills.  Translating is one tool that ELL's can use for communicating.  Pronouncing, Speaking,Writing, Reading, and Grammar, and are other tools that ELL's can use to develop their communication skills in addition to Translating.  With a combination of these skill developing tools, students who are English Language Learners can better their communication skills in the English language. 

1. PRONOUNCING: This skill helps the student hear the phonics of the English language.  If the student does not hear clarity in the pronouncing of English, the student could misunderstand the correct sound.  The student then would adapt the unclear phonics into their speech development.  It would then require that the student learn the correct pronunciation, and remember not to pronounce the phonic in the improper way.
2. SPEAKING: Having a foundation in pronouncing English sounds and words leads to the development of speaking skills.  As the student is developing pronouncing skills, they should also be developing their speaking skills.  As the student learns, pronouncing should lead to speaking words, and expressing thoughts and ideas with some clarity.
3. WRITING: With the base of having develop the ability to pronounce and speak, the student is ready to begin writing in English.  Writing helps the student create the link between what is heard and said, with what is seen in print.
4. READING: When the student sees a word that is printed in English, the student interprets the writing, speaks it with correct pronunciation mentally, and if necessary, the student  should communicate verbally so that others may hear.
5. GRAMMAR: The student should learn the rules of the language to develop their English communication skills in a successful manner.  It is in developing grammar skills that students will refine sentence structure, essay development, and fluency.

Copyright 2012, MRCR Educational Consulting Firm. All Rights Reserved.

English Language Learner Challenges

"English Language Learner Challenges"

By: Manuel R. CortezRodas

This week MRCR Education addresses the challenges faced by English Language Learners or ELL students.  Each day this week a topic that challenges English Learners will be presented.  The four topics that will be the focus of this week's education series are as follows:

• TUESDAY = Communications: "More than translating a language"
• WEDNESDAY = Culture: "Is this the U. S.?"
• THURSDAY = Climate: "Weather the weather"
• FRIDAY = Conditions: "What has the student lived through?"

Check in at 5:00pm Pacific each day this week for each posting on our weekly educational series of topics.  Thank you for your participation.

Copyright. 2012. MRCR Educational Consulting Firm. All Rights Reserved.