Language Barriers at Home and School

In a city so close to the border, where some families speak two languages at home, it may sometimes be hard for children to become accustomed to language differences at home and school. 

Last year in the Tucson Unified School District, the largest public school district in Tucson, the average number of students enrolled in an English Language Learners (ELL) program was 12.6 percent, according to data from an ELL count on the TUSD website.

My sister, Amber Helms, tutors in Title 1 elementary schools in Tucson and works with students who face these challenges with learning English every day.

Helms works for Adelante, a company that provides free after-school tutoring to any student enrolled in a Title 1 school.  In the Tucson Unified School District, just fewer than 90 schools are considered Title 1 schools this year, which means that a certain number of families in the school must have a low-enough income that they qualify for free or reduced lunches. 

This semester, Helms tutors a 3rd-grade boy named Luis in reading.  His parents are Mexican, and Luis tells Helms that they speak Spanish at home.  Since kindergarten, though, Luis has been speaking English more than Spanish, out of personal preference.  His teacher at Cavett Elementary School speaks both English and Spanish.

“He speaks perfect English and he enjoys it more than Spanish,” Helms said.

Helms said he’s at an age where he can make that decision on his own.  He’s in the tutoring program just to become a better reader, unlike the students Helms tutored last semester. 

Emileth and Yamileth were twin girls in first grade who did not speak English very well. Their parents were from Mexico and spoke very little English.  While Helms was trying to teach the girls to be better readers, she was also finding that she had to teach them some English as well.  They had more difficulty than Luis recognizing basic words in English. 

They were younger than Luis and Helms said she focused more on teaching them phonics because that’s what they were lacking.  Helms said that at their age, the girls often got confused between English and Spanish because they didn’t have a strong reading base in either yet.

Every family has their own story, and children have to adapt to their environment in whatever way they can.  I just hope that as time goes on, school districts close to the border keep supporting communication.  Hopefully an increase in school support will ease families and provide many opportunities for learning and working together to get past language barriers.

~ by nikki1488 on March 30, 2010.