Dion Ginanto
Nobody
can choose what country they were born in. Therefore, in whatever country they
belong, they will speak the language. However, for some reasons, there are a
lot of students who cannot avoid the situation in which they must learn another
language, due to their parents migrating to another country. Consequently, the
students must be able to adapt to the new culture and the new language. The
main reasons why students must learn the new language are either for survival
or for enhancing their general profile of skills (Orozco, Orozco, and Todorova,
2008). One example in which a student experienced this kind of phenomenon is
depicted by Moises in the short Movie entitled Immersion. In the movie, Moises faced some challenges to the
school, which has different languages and cultures. This paper will discuss
some alternative solutions for a school principal to overcome the problem of
the English Learner students from my perspective.
Read Also: Social Justice and Anti-Oppressive Education
Read Also: Social Justice and Anti-Oppressive Education
Moises in the Movie
The movie Immersion
by Richard Levien is about a ten-year-old Moises who has just immigrated to
California from Mexico. He is very good at math, but he speaks no English. One
day, he was able to get the right answers of the math exercise, but another
student Enrique, poaches the answer from him and Moises ends up being embarrassed
in front of the class. Moises has requested a Spanish version of the test, but
the teacher does not know what to do. The teacher has asked the principal for
the Spanish version of the math test, but the principal said that they are not
even permitted to speak to the student in Spanish. Moises almost decided not to
do math test since his classmate, Ferrado, thought that they would fail the
test. Moises did arithmetic part of the test easily, but he did not understand
the word problems at all.
Also Read: Socioeconomics Background and Students' Performance
Also Read: Socioeconomics Background and Students' Performance
This phenomenon happens not only for Moises, but I believe there are some Moiseses outside the movie who have the same problems. On one hand, the school need to fulfill the NCLB act that requested the school to perform well. However, the students who do not speak English well would hinder the progress of schools meeting the goals of this legislation (Parmon, 2010).
Some Alternative
Solutions
As an educator we need to work hard
to help the students like Moses to get the same rights as other students in
schools, and we need to strive to realize the NCLB acts. There are some
solutions regarding Moises’s problem in the Immersion movie: 1. Bilingual
education, 2. After school program, 3. Parental involvement, and 4. Cultural
education.
1. Bilingual education
Parmon
(2010) wrote that bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two
languages, with varying amounts of time spent in both the native language and
secondary language, depending on the specific program. This program promotes English
proficiency for the students, but the students need to maintain their native
languages and cultures. There are several types of bilingual education. Some
programs may be considered to be more effective than others, it depends on the
school demographics. Zacarian & Haynes (2012) in Cooper (2013) divided
bilingual program into four parts: maintenance bilingual, bilingual immersion,
transitional bilingual and structured immersion. Cooper (2013) defines maintenance
bilingual and bilingual immersion as bilingual programs that promote
bilingualism and bi-literacy; the goal is to develop proficiency in two
languages. These models work best when the school has a critical mass of
students with the same native languages. Meanwhile, transitional bilingual does
not promote bilingualism and biliteracy. The goals of transitional bilingual
are to move English learners as quickly as possible to English proficiency
(Cooper, 2013). The last type of bilingual programs is structural immersion.
This model does not promote bilingualism and bileteracy. The goal is for students
to learn as they master the content. This program is primarily, if not
exclusively, taught in English (Cooper, 2013).
Also Read: Transformational Leadership
Also Read: Transformational Leadership
Given the four programs of bilingual education, the principal of Moises is free to choose which program is best suitted to the students in the school. The principal should choose a program that is considered to be effective, so that the school meets the academic needs of the diverse learners (Parmon, 2010).
2. After school program
The
movie Immersion reveals that the
students are so diverse. Even though the movie only focuses on Moises and
Ferrado, who have difficulties in English, I believe there are some other
students in the school who have similar problems. I propose that the school
organizes an after school program for EL students. The aim of the after school
program is not merely to teach English, but also to teach culture and materials,
which are needed by the students like Moises. The school principal, who is also
community leader, should be able to promote this program to the community. By
increasing the communities’ awareness to the importance of the program, they
will help accomplish the school’s mission by either financing or voluntary
staffing the program. Khalifa (2012) asserted that, based
on several studies, school leadership can play a role in community-oriented
goals, improve the neighborhood community, and thus, improve the lives of the
students.
3. Parental Involvement
Orozco,
Orozco, and Todorova (2008) asserted that there is a clear link between
parental education and how well a person learns a new language. I agree with
this thought; but also wonder if the parents also have the same problems; they
speak no English. Moises’ family are the immigrants from Mexico that seem to
speak Spanish only. Therefore, asking parents to speak English informally at home
will seems not succeed. Parental involvement here is not merely asking them to
teach English, instead the school should be able to make them part of the
school life. Noguera (2004) contended that the form of involvement is not
merely calling parents to be more caring to students and more supportive of
teachers, but rather creating and developing partnerships based upon mutual
accountability and responsibility. Khalifa (2012) wrote about at least two
approaches for a school principal to engage parental involvement: 1. Establishing
a strong community presence to create community trust (by creating
opportunities for parents to come into the schools, and through community-based
advocacy, doing home visits, visiting a church, leading a rally against racism
in schools, etc.), and 2. Placing the community issues at the center of the school
(community partnership goals, and advocating for community-based goals).
Also Read: Minority Students and Parental Involvement
Also Read: Minority Students and Parental Involvement
4. Multicultural education
Zacarian
and Haynes (2012) wrote that there is a particularly challenge for SLIFE
(programs for EL students); that they may feel and be put down by their peers
and others for their lack of literacy skills. This phenomenon really happens in
the Immersion movie in which Moises was embarrassed by his friends in the
class. He also had to get out from the kickball game for the lack of English
ability. This tragedy should not happen if the school teaches the students about
diversity of culture. Teaching culture in the class is commonly called
multicultural education. Delpit (2006) asserted that teachers
should realize that students have different cultural and language backgrounds, and
therefore, schools need to address multicultural education in schools. Moises
and some other Spanish students will not feel embarrassed if all students
understand that the students who are from a different country will have
different cultures and languages, and therefore, every students should respect
cultural diversity. If I were the principal of the school where Moises studied,
I would add multicultural education to be embedded in every subject in the
classroom.
In
conclusion, Moises in the Immersion movie should be treated equally. Thus, the
principal should be able to administer some programs that can help Moises and
other international students adjust to the new culture at schools. I believe that
by giving students programs such as bilingual education, after school programs, parental
involvement, and multicultural education, this will lead to the betterment of
the school in dealing with immigrant students. Since the main role of the
principal are as an instructional leader and community leader, the principal
therefore, should stand on the front line of dealing with school problems,
including the immigrant student problems.
Reference:
Cooper,
Kristy. (2013). Students who are english learners (Chapter A). A class presentation. Michigan: Michigan
State University.
Delpit, L. (2006) Other
Peoples Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New Press.
Khalifa,
M. (2012). A e-new-ed paradigm in
successful urban school leadership: Principal as community leader. Educational Administration Quarterly.
Noguera, P. A. (2004) Transforming
urban schools through investments in the social capital of parents. New York, New York: In
Motion Magazine.
Orozco, Orozco, and Todorova. (2008).
Learning a new land: Immigrant students
in American Society. Chapter 4: “The Challenge of learning englsih.”
Parmon, P. (2011) Educating
immigrant children: Bilingualism in america’s schools. Social Sciences Journal. 10(1)
Movie:
Immersion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Y0HAjLKYI
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