Embracing Students In Programs Of English As A Second Language: A Field Based Study Of The English As A Second Language Program In Como-Pickton Independent School District (C-Pisd)
...have failed, or have struggled to meet the needs of English language learning students, or otherwise known as English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Guadalupe Valdés completed a two-year study, in which she assessed four Latino English-language learners, three middle schools, and four different ESL teachers. Valdés discovered the targeted schools struggled with the four students, and “continue to struggle to meet the needs of arriving immigrant students” (7-9). On the other hand, research also shows there are excellent programs for ESL students. One of these examples is the Bethlehem Area School District (BASD), which serves the City of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Simons 98). As stated by Simons, “the BASD is an example of a district that successfully designed a context-sensitive program that is well on its way to meeting the needs of its multilingual/multicultural student population” (110).
The purpose of my research project will be to study the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at Como-Pickton Independent School District (C-PISD), located in East Texas. In the Como-Pickton research project, instructors and administrators will be surveyed to obtain information on how the Como-Pickton ESL program compares to the programs studied by Valdés and Simons.
Literature Review
Historically, decade after decade, the United States has been occupied by vast numbers of immigrants; “until the 1950s, 85 percent of immigrants had come from Europe; in the 1980s, 85 percent came from the Third World, mainly from Asia and Latin America” (Crawford 14). Along with immense crowds of immigrants from different backgrounds and cultures, many challenges arise. Our public schools have faced and are still facing with the big challenge, which is to teach English to non-English speaking, newly arrived immigrants.
According the law, immigrant, non-English speakers...
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