All Children in America are English Language Learners
by This essay looks at the concept that all children in the USA need to be looked at as English Language Learners, not just those that are born to parents who are acquiring the English language as a second language. A recent published report from the NAEP that highlights reading scores comparing white and black eighth grade students from the years 1972 to 2007 identify that there is still a gap and neither group are really meeting National Standards!
NEA (National Education Association) claims that 64% of English Language Learners are born in the United States, well, I wish to argue this point a little bit. Being an educator, I guess you could say, specializing in literacy, I look at it a little differently. The NEA and other focused groups on education would like us all to believe that English as a language is something that only children born to non-English speaking (English as a second language) parents have to learn. Although they are correct in this assumption, I wish to challenge this notion and explore the reality as I see it a slight bit further.
All children born in the United States are indeed English language learners. Along with those naturally born in the US, children who immigrate to the United States will become English language learners. So it is safe to say that all children in the United States are indeed English language learners. Their individual acquisition/grasp of said language is based upon exposure either in the home, or from some other exposure and must be supplemented and supported thereafter until fluency and proficiency is achieved.
Although a recent article published by the NEA titled, “Meet Giovanni” the NEA focused its attention on Spanish speaking immigrants, it goes beyond the Latino community. There is another seemingly overlooked segment of American society: The Urban Black population.
About twenty years ago there was much discussion regarding the identifiable second language in some parts of the United States called Ebonics. Ebonics if you recall is a language that is indigenous to the African American community. It is the language as pointed out in the link that is spoken over and to children of African Americans. It is indeed a recognized language and therefore, for the child that is raised with this language spoken around them exclusively during the period of initial language acquisition, then it is a reality to say that the Standard English language is a second language for these children. Much like a Latino child coming from homes where the predominate language spoken during the time when they first acquire spoken language is that of Spanish, so it is that a child whose parents speak Ebonics is also going to be learning a new language upon entering elementary school. Could this possibly explain why since 1972 reading scores amongst the black population have only grown from a reading score of 222 to 245, while white children’s NAEP scores went from 251 to 272? (Information gathered from NEA, article “Is NCLB Working?”) This study clearly identifies a racial/ethnic gap in NAEP reading scores amongst the nation’s eighth grade students.
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