in the secondary school focuses on critical literacy, analysis and evaluation.
Goals of instruction in the two class environments are often different also – ESL classes aim to have students reach appropriate levels of reading, writing and English speaking skills. In the English classroom that these ‘mainstreamed’ students find themselves, the emphasis often shifts to literature, textual analysis and evaluation of different genres in texts. Learning materials used in the ESL classroom are often extremely well structured and specifically targeted towards students for whom English is not the first language. Thus, they tend to explicitly explain grammatical and technical issues in the language, often provide visual cues and support to new material or concepts, and use simplified language in instructional tasks.
As a result of the above-mentioned factors, some NESB students tend to suffer from poor academic performance and high failure rates in the mainstream secondary English classroom.
The intended research study aims to identify not only what some of the major areas of difficulty experienced by these students are, but also suggest and put into practice some possible strategies to address these problems.
Undoubtedly, the most fundamental need of any ESL student entering a mainstream class situation is to receive a solid and equitable educational experience.
However, there also exists the problem mentioned previously, of many ‘mainstream’ teachers not being adequately prepared for ESL learners in their classes. Teaching and incorporating strategies to provide for ESL students in mainstream situations requires a certain degree of understanding and flexibility on the part of the teaching staff. In order to satisfy the learning needs, as well as specific language, personal, and social issues in relation to these students, teachers arguably need to at least recognize some of the complexities of entering a mainstream class that an ESL student is likely to face.
As researchers such as Grabe and Stoller highlight, the language skills most ESL students enter into the mainstream with are ‘not sufficient for students to succeed in academic learning contexts’.(Grabe & Stoller, 1997, p.7)
Again, the importance of mainstream teachers at the very least having some understanding and awareness of this is of the utmost importance in seeking to improve the performance of NESB learners. This view of providing advice and increasing the awareness of mainstream teachers in this area is supported by many in the field of ESL Education research. (see Rigg & Allen, 1989; Haymayan & Perlman, 1990; Nunan, 1991; Lewis & Wray, 2000; Penton, 2002)
Having flexibility in their teaching methods and accommodating the needs of ESL students in the mainstream English curriculum should be a priority in schools that accept and encourage NESB learners to enter into the mainstream school environment.
This study aims to pinpoint some of the academic and learning obstacles the ESL students face and explore ways to support them with strategies that address these problems in mainstream English.
In the exploration of this issue, it is my hope that this research project will offer some support to both ESL students and their teachers within the secondary English classroom.
Significance of the Issue:
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