English Language Learners

Diaz-Rico, L. & Weed, K. (2010) The crosscultural, language, and academic development handbook. A complete K-12 reference guide. Chapter 8 Jenkins, J. (2009). Who speaks English today? (p. 15-24). World Englishes. Farr, M. et al. (2010). Ethnolinguistic diversity in language and literacy education.

  

From my perspective, the issues brought up by Diaz Rico, L. & Weed Jenkins and Farr, Seloni and Song need to be approached from different perspectives.

Diaz Rico & Weed ad Farr. et al. discuss the ELL population in the US. Clearly, they provide a clear picture on the challenges and benefits brought by the different waves of immigration throughout the history of the US. It is very unfortunate that nowadays students from culturally diverse backgrounds are still struggling to find an education that responds to their needs and that maximizes their cultural and linguistic richness. Efforts must be made by educational authorities in order to develop the capacity required to equip schools and educate teachers so the educational system can stand up to this challenge. However, this cannot be done without a paradigm shift in the way society sees immigrants. Throughout history, immigrants have been seen by host countries as a work force to help boost the economy. Immigrants have been seen as desirable in times when the local workforce is not enough to cope with the demands of production and trade, or in times of excessive wealth when natives have decided that certain jobs should be done by outsiders in need of income.

From this perspective, the legacy of these immigrants as well as their heritage has been deemed as undesirable, to say the least. It has been this perspective what has prevented immigrants to be treated as legitimate members of the society, as subject of duties but also of rights. It is for this reason that education is not designed to provide quality solutions to the challenges posed by immigration. As Farr, et al. put it (8), it is possible to have a common language but not desirable to have an only language.  Only if we come to understand that efforts should be made in order to take advantage of the benefits and potential of multiculturalism, if we become willing to learn the lessons the peoples of the world have to teach us, can we transform our educational practices to respond to such phenomena. A multicultural society ruled by monocultural policies and practices is a social time bomb.

On the other hand, Jenkins problematizes the notion of the circles as put by Kachru and other authors over the last thirty years. In this respect, I find it necessary to say that even though I consider important to uncover all the layers in terms like EFL, ESL, ENL, and to further our knowledge on the different features of the English learning environments around the world,  I do believe that is necessary to keep this macro-distinctions.  Coming from a country that could arguably called from the outer circle, it is clear that the needs, motivation, resources, etc. of those who learn EFL are very different from those in the ESL circle (or outer). I do not agree with Jenkins when she quotes Graddol to assert that some countries in the outer circle are transitioning into the expanding circle. At least, in the case of Latin America (she mentions Costa Rica and Argentina), this is by no means true. It is not possible to equate the complexities of ESL scenarios with those places where political, cultural and economic decisions have brought about policies to foster the learning of foreign languages. This statement by Graddol is made based on number of people studying English and educational policies and history has proved that ESL settings are brought up by much traumatic happenings such as colonization or political disrupt.