So, since I grew up outside of the USA, and my native language is not English but Flemish (a dialect of Dutch), I find myself in a very unique positions with regards to ELL or second language learners. I was born and raised in Belgium, a small Kingdom, nestled between the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, with three official languages: Flemish, French and German. In elementary school I learned my second language: French...
As a child, in my first few years of life, I lived in the French part of Belgium, although my parents were both Flemish. A neighbor of ours- who spoke solely French- was my occasional babysitter. So as a baby and toddler I was exposed to the French language. So when French came along in elementary school, it came very natural to me. In the lower and upper grades of high school I learned German and later on English. In addition I also learned Latin and Greek as requirements for the lower grades of high school.... Those were a lot harder to learn than the living languages. French, German and English were taught in these languages: the teacher would only speak the language unless a student was completely clueless and then would use Flemish to explain what was going on. But since public broadcast was in all three official languages, one would always have had some exposure prior to actual learning the language in school.
Now, as an adult, I have the desire to learn Hawaiian and Japanese, but have come to find that it is very hard for me now to learn a new language. As a teacher, I have several students who are ELL, and come from various backgrounds. The majority of my students come from either Central and Latin America, Micronesia and Marshal Islands, and have never really had formal education in their native language. The fact they never had formal education, means that they only know their spoken Mother Tongue, and do not necessarily have knowledge of spelling and grammar of their own language -which makes it hard to learn the technical aspects of new languages. I do also have a few students who did have significant education in their native lands (Israel, Japan, Korea), and these students only have a language barrier, and are very knowledgeable of the content of math, science, social studies, etc....but since they learned the mechanics and semantics of their native languages, makes it easier to learn English... most of the time!
In my classroom, I have used various resources to assist my ELL students....I sometimes translate words to French, and that most of the time helps my Spanish-speaking students....For my Asian and Pacific Islands' students, I use pictures, videos, and group my students in heterogeneous language groups, so that they can help each other by using simplified language, gestures, or even just translate into their native languages. Some of my former students have created simple dictionaries of words and expression in their native language, as part of a service learning project, and I often refer to those...and that makes a huge difference with the comfort level of my students, as they recognize the names on the outer cover of these dictionaries as names of relatives and friends...
My own philosophy about Second Language Learners is that we are all in this together...a bit of knowledge, a lot of discomfort, but the desire to work together as one. English has become the driving language in the modern world, and many nations have forced their students to learn English as a requirement to either graduate high school or college. And this is a little unfair... as most of the world speaks other native languages.... maybe we should propose to all switch to Latin as the Universal language of Economics, Politics, Medicine, Science, Foreign Trade, etc....then all people would be equal; equal with the minimal knowledge of the language's nuts and bolts and on equal playing grounds... Only Julius Caesar would smile!
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