A New Challenge for Teachers

Abstract

CALIFORNIA, as well as other states, is handling an influx of a new type of student: the Limited English Proficient (LEP) student. student is often very intelligent but has a problem that affects effective classroom learning-the inability to understand the English language. degree of the problem varies with the individual student; some are more fluent than others. latest national statistics on students from the March 1989 Report of Limited English Student Enrollment Survey states that, LEP students in the nation's public schools, K-12, increased from 1,460,042 in school year 1985-86 to 1,533,520 in 198687. This is a 5 percent increase. Impacted states such as California report 14.5 percent of total enrollment in 1987-88 as identified LEP, or more than one in seven students overall. This means that on average a class of 35 will contain at least five students. The total reported student enrollment understates the actual number of students identified as in our nation's schools. There are several reasons for this. First, not all states reported. Second, two report they do not maintain student enrollment statistics. Third, many states do not conduct an annual statewide census of language minority students so their data are based on other methods of collecting statistics such as survey responses from cooperating districts. Bilingual Education Office of the California State Department of Education states that As of spring 1989, California has 742,559 students in grades K-12. 138,767 are in grades 9-12. California's educational code states that the student must be given equal opportunities in education. Therefore, many teachers are being faced with a new challenge. Common questions are How do I teach the student? What might work? What techniques and learning strategies do I use? This challenge intrigued me. I decided to develop a life science course for my high school students. course would be for a totally sheltered class (a class with only students). However, my strategies can easily be used in a heterogeneous class. Understand that students have the ability to learn, but are simply at a language disadvantage. In fact, most of them are very eager to learn, do classroom work and homework, are polite, and rarely pose discipline problems. I couldn't ask to teach more enthusiastic students. I wrote my life science course based on my district's course of study. I felt it was important to cover all objectives in a general way so my students would have a broad understanding of life science concepts. Following are just a few teaching techniques and strategies I used that proved to be very effective.