Teaching Carribean students and others who speak English differently from Americans
From LiteracyTentWiki
From: j-p-sinclair@worldnet.att.net
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:11034] Search for support materials
Date: August 9, 2005 1:35:04 PM EDT
To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Hello:
As part of our work we look at various cultures that are relatively/new to America to determine how to best address their educational needs. We are currently looking for materials, papers, personal narratives, journal articles and the like that discuss challenges students from the Caribbean islands face when they come to the United States to attend school or obtain work. We are most interested in reading comprehension problems, and Caribbean students' ability to successfully pass written school and professional tests. If anyone has information regarding this topic, please let us know.
Thank you.
Dr. Judith Sinclair
Sinclair & Associates International, LLC
Main Office: Washington, DC
From: j-p-sinclair@worldnet.att.net
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:11036] PS to Search for support materials
Date: August 9, 2005 4:40:52 PM EDT
To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Thanks to all of you who have taken time to read our message. We have had several interesting responses, and a few good questions. We would like to provide additional information to our request for information regarding Caribbean students' literacy progress in U. S. jobs and schools: It is our experience working with Caribbean students that they consider English as their first language. The assure us that they are first and foremost English speaking, and that they are neither ESL or bilingual. Yet, it is also our experience that many of these students face significant challenges when they are presented with standard tests for professional and school work. We are looking for more information regarding Caribbean students who consider English as their first language, and their ability to take professional and school tests. For example, are they compromised in reading comprehension tests? Do they do well in their writing sample tests? If so, why? If not, why? We are interested in a variety of perspectives, and appreciate your response.
Thank you again.
Dr. Judith Sinclair
Sinclair & Associates International, LLC
Main Office: Washington, DC
From: djcslp@slllc.org
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:11037] Re: PS to Search for support materials
Date: August 9, 2005 5:06:21 PM EDT
To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Much more info is needed to answer this question appropriately. How long are these Carribean students in the US? What is their level of acculturation? Very often people who are second language learners identify themselves as English speaking for political purposes and due to such pressures when in reality this is not the case. An ethnographic interview detailing language background and use and level of acculturation is very important. I am currently putting together a comprehsive guide to how this should occur. Until these answers are obtained, it is hard to answer re: reading comprehension..Second language acquisition and acculturation as well as eliminating lang problems as an etiology is critical.
DEBORAH JILL CHITESTER M.S.,CCC/SLP
Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist
Second Language, Literacy & Learning Connection, LLC
-Attaining Success for Second Language Learners-
Web Site: www.SLLLC.org
E-mail: djcslp@slllc.org
732-398-1796(Tel/Fax), 732-642-5118 (cell)
From: j-p-sinclair@worldnet.att.net
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:11044] SEEKING INFORMATION ABOUT CARIBBEAN STUDENTS IN USA
Date: August 10, 2005 7:36:58 AM EDT
To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Hello:
We are attempting to gather information on the below-noted topic, so if we have not already heard from you, please contact us.
As part of our work we look at various cultures that are relatively/new to America to determine how to best address their educational needs. We are currently looking for professional materials, papers, personal narratives, journal articles and the like that discuss challenges students from the Caribbean islands face when they come to the United States to attend school or obtain work.
As background, it is our professional experience working with Caribbean students that they consider English as their first language. The assure us that they are first and foremost English speaking, and that they are neither ESL or bilingual. Yet, it is also our experience that many of these students face significant challenges when they are presented with standard tests for professional and school work. At this time, to assist these students, we are looking for more information regarding Caribbean students who consider English as their first language, and their ability to take professional and school tests. For example, are they compromised in reading comprehension tests? Do they do well in their writing sample tests? If so, why? If not, why?
We hope to apply new information to our new research project. We are interested in a variety of perspectives, and appreciate your response.
If anyone has information regarding this topic, and most particularly published material, and has not already contacted us, please let us know.
Thank you.
Dr. Judith Sinclair
Cognitive Psychologist in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sinclair & Associates International, LLC
Main Office: Washington, DC
From: j-p-sinclair@worldnet.att.net
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:11057] Note of Appreciation
Date: August 11, 2005 10:48:37 AM EDT
To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
Please know that we are very appreciative of the many informative responses we have received in the last few days regarding language and Caribbean students' success in work and school in the United States, and we thank everyone who took time to reply. It has been very interesting to review how various respondents framed our query. All replies are worthy and helpful.
In our opinion, this is a critical issue in American education; one that deserves continued interest and support. However, according to what we have seen in many multicultural, linguistic, and/or multisocial studies, it is often miscategorized or undervalued as a factor in this population's career and academic success. In our opinion, some of this misunderstanding may spring from the often-tempered relationship between theory and practice, a synaptic process with well-documented risks. Other misunderstandings might reside within the tension between current behaviorist, cognitive, and constructivist concepts of language and "linguistics," as they emerge from earlier Watson vs. Chomsky "manifestos." And, there are other factors, as well.
Yet, overall, and certainly with respect to the many fine responses we received from you, it seems to us that we are gaining ground in our understanding of how to appreciate and treat often-frustrated insular and continental Caribbean students. It is our idea that the interest and knowledge gained in the last 100 or so years about both insular and continental Caribbean language and linguistics in America as it relates to students' success in school and in work will continue to grow in import as we look toward our new society, and the challenges it provides to American education. And, realizing that this interest is not particular to our own country, the new perspectives we American educators forge will hopefully serve the wider, universal interest in this subject.
Thank you again, friends and colleagues, and please know that we look forward to our continued participation in the NIFL community's exchange.
Sincerely,
Judith Peyton Sinclair, Ph.D.
Cognitive Psychologist in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Executive Director
Sinclair & Associates International, LLC
Main Office: Washington, DC
From: crandall@umbc.edu
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:11062] Re: SEEKING INFORMATION ABOUT CARIBBEAN STUDENTS
Date: August 11, 2005 5:53:38 PM EDT
To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
I have read the discussion on Caribbean students with interest, and though my experience is more with students from secondary settings, I thought I'd provide what I learned in working for several years with these students and their teachers.
This question is not new to ESL. The issue of what to do with students who come from countries in which English is an official language--usually those countries which were British colonies--is one that is very timely in K-12 education in both the United States and Canada. The situation is complex, but let me try to indicate some of what those of us who have worked in this area have learned and how it might apply to adult education.
Students from these countries--if they have formal schooling--learn a variety of standard English in their countries which is somewhat different from American English, but is nonetheless, intelligible to American teachers; these students should be placed with English-speaking students. They will have some differences in their English (pronunciation, some vocabulary items, etc.) but these will not be substantial enough to prevent them from participating in mainstream classrooms. However, many of those coming from Caribbean countries where English is the official language and the language of education (countries such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, etc.) and from West African countries like Liberia, Ghana, etc. have limited formal schooling, and thus, they speak (and more importantly, write) a Creolized variety of English which contains features which are more reflective of the African languages that are part of those Creoles, than of the more Standard Englishes that are spoken by educated people in their countries.
The unfortunate part of this is that in places where there are few speakers of Caribbean (or West-African) Englishes with limited formal schooling, these students will likely be placed with ESL students. Neither the reading specialist nor the regular classroom (or English) teacher (or in adult education, the ABE instructor) feels qualified to teach someone whose English is so different from that spoken by other English-speaking students. However, the students DO speak English and are thus, not surprisingly, quite insulted when they are viewed as being non-native speakers; it's just that they haven't had a chance through schooling to learn the standard English variety of their country. Their problems are different from those of students from other language backgrounds; they are also different from English-speaking adults with limited reading or writing skills. We can only expect this situation to grow in the US, since there are now more than 60 countries in which English is an official language. In these countries, many children may have some opportunity to speak English, though their education in that language may be limited. Again, however, those who have substantial education in whatever variety of English will not have as much difficulty in U.S. educational contexts, since educated (or standard) varieties of English around the world (which are based on written varieties) do not differ nearly as much as oral varieties.
I've provided a website with an article I wrote about this for the /ERIC/CLL News Bulletin,/ "The DO Speak English: World Englishes in U.S. Schools" which discusses the issue and provides concrete suggestions for appropriate instruction, especially for adolescents. Some of the guidelines include: --Fostering an atmosphere of respect for different varieties of English --Building on the English varieties students bring to class --Focusing on developing written Standard American English --Being explicit about differences between students' Englishes and Standard American English --Being cautious in interpreting the results of standardized tests in English --Developing special instructional programs for those with limited literacy or formal schooling
More information is available at this website:
http://www.cal.org/resources/news/2003summer/sum03newsfinal.pdf
I hope this helps.
Jodi Crandall
From: said@ameritech.net
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:11066] Re: Caribbean students and dialect differences
Date: August 12, 2005 11:37:19 AM EDT
To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
I don't have a lot of students from the Caribbean but I do have a lot of students from India and Pakistan as well as countries from Africa where English is a major second language. What I see with these students is dialect differences. For example, Indian English is used to communicate with each other across the sub-continent, but it may sound very foreign to an American speaker's ear. The intonation in Indian English is quite different from that of American English. There are also differences in vocabulary and spelling. If students understand that there are dialect differences even though we are all speaking English this will help them understand better the difficulty. If students are told your English is bad or you don't speak English, they will often become defensive because in many cases they have had at least a part of their education in English, and are used to communicating in English in their own countries. I know there is information out there about these dialect differences, but I don't have any specifics.
Terry Pruett-Said
ESL teacher
Michigan
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