Community Inquiry Project Abstract and Findings

Abstract:

The English-Spanish Language Barrier and its Implications for Classroom Learning

With the steadily growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States, the nation’s public schools are now adapting to great numbers of students who do not speak English as their first language and are classified as Limited English Proficiency (LEP) learners. My goal of this project was to understand the dynamic between students and teachers in the case where the English-Spanish language barrier is present. Research took me to Memorial High School in West New York, NJ, where almost 85% of the student population speaks Spanish and another 17.8% is classified as LEP learners. I attempted to find the implications this language barrier has on classroom learning and the stress it places on the teachers. Personal interviews with one student, two English as a Second Language teachers and one English teacher at Memorial High School revealed that the ability to speak Spanish and relate to students facilitates the learning process. Ultimately, being able to realize that students come from diverse – and sometimes difficult – backgrounds is crucial when teaching to a student population where many have a limited English proficiency.

What I've Learned:

My visit to Memorial High School, overall, was a positive experience. While certainly louder and livelier than many suburban school’s I’ve visited, Memorial High lacks the scary, institutional feel that most are accustomed to seeing in the media’s portrayal of urban schools.

The teachers that I spoke to were optimistic about their students and positive when they spoke about their professional teaching experiences. Garcia and Del Rio, as immigrants to the United States, understand on a deeply personal level the difficulties that their students face in school and in the real world. While they keep a positive outlook regarding their teaching jobs, they do admit to the limitations of teaching so many students with English language difficulties and the implications for the school.

Memorial High School is ranked 282 out of all 316 New Jersey public schools and is far from acclaimed. (New Jersey Monthly, 2008) The reality is that while many of these English language learners are hard-working and dedicated, an equal amount of them are not. As mentioned before, many of them fall back on the fact that in a Latino community like West New York, they simply don’t need to speak English. At the same time, yet another group of students lack the basic schooling skills needed to succeed in public institutions. These students, who are not exempt from taking nationally mandated standardized tests, contribute to the low test scores and, ultimately, the low ranking of the school.

In Language Barrier as an educational problem of Spanish-speaking Children, William R. Holland (1960) makes the judgment that many Spanish-speaking students are “handicapped in later life” because of public school learning experiences and teaching practices. (pg. 42) Whether this is particularly true in the case of West New York, it’s clear that students – whether Spanish-speaking or other – are essentially the product of their home environment and culture. Socio-economic status, language spoken at home and attitude toward learning in general all play a major role in forming a student. In suggesting solutions to language barrier issues, Holland identifies “the utilization of cultural information [as] indispensible for understanding the educational problems of Spanish-speaking children.” (pg. 42) The learning experience for native Spanish-speaking students is different from their English-language counterparts in both methods of teaching and expectations. (Holland, 1960, pg.42)

I interviewed Mrs. DeKranis, the English teacher, in the shop room of the school’s basement. While there, I commented to another nearby teacher that the room was very interesting and that my former high school had nothing of the sort. The teacher, whose name I did not catch, shrugged her shoulders and said to me, “well, they’ve got to have a trade.” In saying this, she implied that many Memorial students would need a specialized trade if they could not fall back on their academic skills.

When I asked Mrs. DeKranis about her students’ aspirations for after high school she remarked, “When you ask them who’s going to college, they all raise their hands. And I want to be Miss America. Just because you want to, doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen.”

We also spoke about the importance of the HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment) tests to the majority of Memorial High students. Esther Rodriguez, the eleventh grade student I spoke to, detailed to me her dedicated study habits in order to pass the exam. DeKranis told me that many of the students shared Rodriguez’s fixation. She said that the HSPAs were to Memorial High what the Scholastic Aptitude Tests would be to other schools. She told me her daughter, who attends a suburban high school in her town of Paramus, never once expressed a preoccupation for the HSPA exam. In fact, her obsession was obtaining adequate scores for the SATs and getting in to a good college.

Although many graduates of Memorial High do go on to study at good colleges around the country, this preoccupation with the HSPA shows a lessened concern for higher education and more of a motivation to just graduate high school.

While the teachers I interviewed acknowledged a real preoccupation for the academic welfare of their students, not one that I talked to would change their jobs for the world. Their seemingly limitless positivity comes not only from a love for what they do, but also a loving compassion for their students. What seems necessary for a teacher in this type of urban environment is an understanding nature, an ability to relate to students and, most of all, a love for one’s job.

For me, Memorial High School has shed a new light on urban schools. Yes, there are serious, stereotypically ‘urban’ obstacles when teaching to students who have diverse socioeconomic statuses, backgrounds and overall motivation to learn. But then again, in what schooling situation will these issues not be a factor? I’ve found that it’s crucial to make a concerted effort to understand where students are coming from. This is inevitably what will dictate student behavior. Understanding, in combination with patience, persistence, and trial and error will serve to help the most when teaching students with English language difficulties. It’s something that teachers at Memorial High certainly can appreciate.