ESL

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Home : 2003 : October : 23

ESL
By Sue W.

Talk to the ESL teacher. Find out the testing instruments used and what the weaknesses are. We have great ESL teachers in our building and from them I have heard that an ESl student has to make the equivalent of 15 months
progress for each 10 months progress by their classmates just to keep up. Academic English is far different than conversational English. There are many gaps that can show up as lack of progress in other areas, if you aren't aware of them. It can take up to 7 years for an ESL student to be truly fluent in English! Find out if there is any possibility of switching the ESL time, or you

might make some switch in your classroom schedule so that she misses less direct instruction time. Many ESL teachers would be willing to take more responsibilty for the reading portion if they can possibly schedule it in, but they won't know about the problem unless you talk to them!