One year to learn a language
This is just crazy.
I was browsing Donors Choose (link now working!) - something I do when I get some spare cash - and found a teacher looking for dictionaries her ELL students could use in their taught-in-English classes.
Here's what she says in her thank-you email:
In the state of Texas, the ELLs now have one year to learn English. After the given year, the students are expected to perform on level with native English speakers, no matter the grade level.One year? And then they're expected to perform "on level with native English speakers"? So a sixteen-year-old has one year to reach high-school proficiency in a foreign language? I wonder how many of the school board members who drafted that requirement have ever tried to learn a foreign language? And then perform in it? With that performance being learning other subjects.
That's just crazy. Even if the only thing those kids do in their year is learn English, the odds that a teenager - or even a tween - will get up to level in just a year is ludicrous.
Labels: donorschoose, language, politics
3 Comments:
-
At 2:31 PM, May 27, 2008
John Evo had this to say...
-
-
At 3:37 PM, May 27, 2008
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
-
-
At 7:38 PM, May 27, 2008
Anonymous had this to say...
-
-
<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->That is crazy.
By the way, your link to Donors Choose isn't working. And it sounds interesting if it's what I imagine it to be.
Man, I wish I knew why Blogger sometimes makes those into relative links (if that's what you call it when it turns "donorschoose.org" into "www.blogger.com/donorschoose" ...)
Anyway, link now fixed.
It's a site where you can contribute money (a little or a lot) to teachers' projects.
It appears that the idiots who are writing the ELL standards in Texas know less than nothing about how children learn languages. While a crude, working verbal knowledge of a foreign language is often acquired fairly easily, the depth of knowledge required to comprehend, and write, texts often takes several years to acquire.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]