The World is in Our Hands
Rose Tree
Media
School
District
ESOL
Program
2005-06
ESOL Services
• 99 ESOL students
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
new students enter almost every week
Indian Lane Elementary – 11
Glenwood Elementary – 13
Media Elementary – 25
Rose Tree Elementary – 8
Springton Lake Middle – 22
Penncrest High School - 20
• Students with 27 different languages
• Students from 29 different countries
World Languages
•
European languages
– Spanish
– French
– Polish
– Russian
– Swedish
– Romanian
– Hungarian
– Italian
– Portuguese
– Albanian
– Greek
– Ukrainian
•
African Languages
– Swahili
– Twi
– Africaans
•
Asian Languages
– Gujarati
– Malayalam
– Marathi
– Hindi
– Cantonese
– Mandarin
– Burmese
– Tagalog
– Korean
– Vietnamese
– Cambodian
– Persian (Farsi)
Countries of Origin











Argentina
Belarus
Brazil
Cambodia
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
France
Ghana
Hungary
India









Iran
Italy
Latvia
Liberia
Myanmar
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Puerto Rico
 Romania
 Russia
 South Africa
 South Korea
 Sweden
 Taiwan
 Tanzania
 Ukraine
 Vietnam
ESOL Testing Instruments
• IPT – Idea Proficiency Test
• Entrance, Placement, and Exit decisions
• SELP – Stanford English Language
Assessment
• Pennsylvania requirement
BICS & CALPS
Basic Interpersonal
Communicative Skills
• Universal aspects of language proficiency that are normally
acquired by all native speakers of any language
• Usually by ages 5-6, all children have developed BICS in their
first language
• Language skills needed for every face-to-face comunication
(personal and social situations)
• Contexts are clear and generally concrete
• Not necessarily related to academic success
• May take up to 2 years to develop in a second language (L2)
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
•
Those language skills associated with literacy and cognitive
development
•
Language skills required to go beyond ordinary social communication
•
Cognitively demanding, decontextualized
•
Language skills needed for reasoning, problem solving, or other
cognitive processes required for academic achievement in subject
matter
•
CALP development in a first language (L1) contributes to the
development of CALP in a second language (L2)
•
May take 5-7 years to develop in a second language (sometimes 9-11
years, depending upon L1 CALP, age and other variables)
Communication Tools
• Language Line
– A “conference call”
– District supplied through AT&T
– Place the call to LL, tell them the language of the
person, their name and phone number
– Explain what you will be talking about and any
specialized vocabulary you will be using
– Translator places the call to the parent
– Talk to the parent, giving time for the translator to
translate for you.
– IT’S EASY!!
Communication Tools
• TransACT
– A new data base coming to RTMSD soon
– Includes all required NCLB forms in many
languages
– Includes some “housekeeping” forms schools
often need
If you get nothing else…
• Please think of your students as a RESOURCE
for you and your classes
• Students are not coming in with a DEFICIT just
because they do not speak English.
• Students come with a broader WORLD VIEW
and EXPERIENCES your native speakers do not
have (most likely).
• American students can LEARN from the ESOL
students as they HELP the newcomers learn
English.