It’s good to confess ones ignorance in a subject matter. Especially when you’ve made the effort to know better, so you can do better.
Growing up in SoCal, I suppose I always thought ESL was for Spanish speaking students. I never thought that my native Filipino, Korean, Chinese, and Arabic speaking classmates were ELLs. That’s weird huh? At 33 years old, I came to the realization that all non native English speaking students needed some kind of academic program to assist them in learning English and becoming academically proficient.
I never considered ELLS struggle through the difficult process of English language immersion especialy without adequate programming.
That begs the question, do African American students who grow up in low literacy homes or where Ebonics (ie. African American Vernacular English) is the native language, need ESL programming?
Using Ebonics or Black English as a Bridge to Teaching Standard English
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