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English as a Second Language
FAQs
Commonly Asked Questions about the EL Program
2. How long does my child need to stay in the EL program? Q. What does EL/ESL stand for?
EL stands for English Learners, who are speakers of other languages and need additional instructional service to learn English and content knowledge.
ESL stands for English as a Second Language. Q. How long does my child need to stay in the EL program? It depends. Several factors play important roles in your child’s second language learning and acquisition such as:
Q. My child speaks English very well. Why does he/she still need the EL service? There are two types of languages that an EL student has to learn and master in order to perform successfully at the grade level in an American school. One is called BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) or social language; the other CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) that we often refer as the academic language. It takes about 3---5 years for child to be orally proficient, which allows the student to be able to communicate at ease with his/her American peers. BICS lays an important foundation for the student to master the academic language, but it does not guaranty the student’s academic success. According to the statistics, it normally takes 5-7 years for an EL student to have a solid grasp of CALP. A good solid grasp of CALP is absolutely the key to your child’s long-term success. But this doesn’t mean that an EL student must remain in the program for 5-7 years. Q. How do we, as parents, know that if our child is ready for the exit from the EL program? We cannot judge your child’s readiness for the exit unless we have a thorough evaluation of your child’s academic performance. The following is the list of criteria that we have to follow:
Q. How do I help my child learn English faster?
There are so many things you can do at home to help your child learn English. The most important one is to expose your child to books --- BE READ TO, READ WITH, & READ INDIVIDUALLY. Remember: your child’s first language proficiency is the key to the success in the second language acquisition. Therefore, it is beneficial for your child to read books in your native language, especially when reading English is too challenging at the beginning. Lower grade EL students should be read to at least 20 minutes every day. Upper grade students should have at least 30-minute leisure reading daily. Books can be either in English or the native language.
An EL student who has very strong first language literacy skills progresses much faster in learning the second language than the one who does not have solid first language literacy skills.
Q. Should we, as parents, expect our child to complete all the assignments during the 1st year in an American school? Beginning EL students are expected to complete Math, Spelling, and any other modified homework in Science or Social Studies. But I do not recommend that you and your child spend long hours in translating every assignment word for word in order to finish the homework designed for American students. Instead, encourage your child to read as often and much as possible in both languages after finishing the modified assignment. A few of the countries represented at Spring Lake Park
A glance of the multiple languages spoken at Spring Lake Park
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