How to Engage ESL Student Families, Research Paper Example

Introduction

From the previous study, ELL families’ involvement in the students’ affairs is quite salient. A closer look of the salience brings the sense that continuous involvement of the families in their children’s academic affairs means a lot to their overall school performance. On this, there is a necessity of the parents to get involved. . The idea of involving these families has been proven to improve the general understanding and, therefore, the performance of these students. Owing to this, several schools have adapted the idea of involving families in different ways of the studies (Pergoy& Boyle, 2002). To a greater extent, this move has registered a positive result toward ensuring adorable success from the students. Involving families in the academic progress of their children is dependent on the relationship between the families and the school, more specifically, class teachers. The methods that the teachers use in involving the families are equally dependent on the academic capability of their child.

Many at times, most parents fail to give their children the attention that they deserve. This has caused these ESL students to have a reduced morale on their daily learning activities. This research seeks to define the role of teachers, ESL students and their families and their involvement in school and the success of an ESL. The study equally seeks what needs an attention so as to ensure that that the ESL students reap the maximum from their schools as the native speaking colleagues do. From the interview, many parents are reported to be only going to school during the PTA meetings which according to the teacher, only takes place once in a year. Either, parents also visit schools when their children are in some kind of trouble that would need their attention. Albeit some of the parents get directly involved in their children’s academic affairs, the number is yet to be satisfactory. Most of these children suffer an academic torture since some of their parents fail to pay close attention to their academic requirements. The major research question is why are the ESL students not participating in the school activities? Can total involvement of parents improve the average participation of their children in schools? Can a closer relationship between the students, teachers and the parents motivate the ESL children to develop a positive attitude towards learning the English language? Does appreciating the culture of the ESL students help in improving their morale towards learning the new language? This therefore forms the basis of the review of the findings (Trumbull et al, 2001). From this, a deduction was obtained after explicitly honest response was received from a free kindergarten teacher. The major goal of this research is to determine the factors that majorly influence the ESL families’ involvement in the schools that their children learn. To verify the obtained data, the teacher agreed to be part of my study and each member of staff gave different information on the different topics of interest. In addition to other methodology of study used including the questionnaires and involvement of the individual students, there was a greater understanding of the findings. Overall enrollment of the ESL students increased from 31 in 2008 to a total of 107 in 2013.

Biases

In the research school, the program that fully supports the ESL students had not been fully established. Most of the teachers argued that the ESL families had no direct interest with their children education. On this, a good number of students were disadvantaged since some of the parents were much interested in their children’s education but since the number was not satisfactory, most of the teachers relaxed. Secondly, the number of bilingual teachers is quite small. This reduced the motivation of the available bilingual teachers since there was too much work load on them as compared to the ones who could only coach the natives (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Because of the cultural diversity, many students expected their teachers to have a complete understanding of their cultures. Owing to the fact that most of the teachers had little experience on the cultural diversities, handling most of those students was a practical challenge to them. This gave the children the feeling that their cultures are not considered in the schools making them to develop a negative attitude towards their new language. The learning system must be slower since convincing the children to learn a new language in a school that their own language is not considered is cumbersome (Weinstein & Quintero, 1995).

Creating a welcoming school environment

As a child, the concept that an ESL student is introduced to is quite different from what he/she was taught in their respective cultures. Due to the current changes in the environment, school settings equally change from rural to urban environment. A common ground that appreciates practically every culture is global demand. This ground should be able to ensure that the school contributes to the families as the latter reciprocate. Naturally, cultures are often overlooked when the question of family involvement in their children’s school activities arise. These families are expected to assimilate to the American culture once they immigrate. This has since caused a negative feeling to the immigrants owing to the feeling that their cultures are considered inferior and not recognized. The adaption of the immigrants depends on several things including whether the migration was due to war, sponsorship or living in the US without valid documentation (Weinstein & Quintero, 1995). The adaption would take an unspecified duration of time depending on the above listed factors. A school environment that does not require a quick assimilation would be the first step of opening the doors for these families to get involved. The best teachers for the ESL students are their parents. Opening a workshop where the roles of the parents are appreciated by being trained on how to get assist their children could be appreciable. According to the teacher, full involvement of the parents would be the most important step in appreciating ESL education.

Involving the home cultures in schools would motivate the children as they would understand that their parents are part of their school experiences. Parents, whether literate or not should be encouraged to share their personal experience with their children in their own native language. As Weinstein and Quintero (1995) state, immigrant families can be very vulnerable and overwhelmed with the adjustments they are expected to make in their new country. Schools can make the parents not only to ensure the acclimation of their children but also to develop the required changes needed for the American culture. The general welcoming environments would be the first motivation for the students and the parents at large.

Once the reasons for immigration are appreciated in each parental case, a slower pace of assimilation would be noticed. In that case, many parents would prefer their children being taken through the slower assimilation system where their cultural diversities are appreciated to a system that would ensure a faster pace of learning while their individual cultures are ignored. The parental attitude equally has a great impact on the attitude of the children or specific teachers who appreciate their cultures are appreciated. A positive attitude would easily influence the attitude of the children positively whereas a negative attitude would kill the studying morale of the children. Sponsoring different school events specifically for the ESL students would inspire the process of creating a new environment that would increase the chances of the parents meeting one another. In this way, different cultures and languages are appreciated. The need for a continuous activity for the ESL students to increase their vigor for the demand of learning the new language was quite necessary (Pergoy& Boyle, 2002).

Family involvement and school achievement

Generally, the focus of public education in the United States is the students’ achievement and success. Due to the multicultural existence in the major towns of the Unites States, the schools in these towns have been quite aware of the cultural diversities. Urban schools therefore have had a continuing concern about the handling of this situation. For past many years, the cultural diversity has not been a major issue in the States since the children as well as their parents were assumed to know that once their children join the American schools, assimilation was compulsory. Currently, several schools within the towns have started considering the cultural diversities since most children with different cultures have constantly been failing in the given tests. This has raised concerns on the reasons for their constant failure. According to current system, students’ abilities are measured using the high standardized exams that are given at each different level of education. In most cases, it is not always compulsory that the ESL students perform poorly in their examinations. A higher possibility of failure is linked to the families. An ESL student from a poor family is more likely to fail than that from a rich family. This is linked to the several factors that poverty comes with. The socioeconomic status of the families hence plays a major role in shaping the students’ abilities to excel (Asher, 1996).

Lower academic levels of the families especially the adults in the families is the surest way of ensuring academic difficulty right from the informal education. In such a situation, a gap exists between high and low socioeconomic statuses. In a class containing both the groups, a student from a high socioeconomic status is better placed compared to the lower socioeconomic counterpart. As the academic life lengthens the gap between them increases naturally. According to Alexander and Entwisle, (1994), a school environment that is determined to improve the achievement of the students is characterized by the discipline level and maintenance of the sense of community. The overall participation of the adults in the schools can be improved if the school provides an opportunity for various activities. The standards and the expectations of the school should be let known to the families for both the high and the low socioeconomic families to have their psychology prepares for the school system. To achieve this, making several home visits and conducting surveys allowing the parents to inquire anything about the school. Making the parents have in mind that the administration has their students’ success at heart can motivate them to participate more in the school activities regardless of their socioeconomic statuses. Currently the importance of including parents and trying to reach out for them in every possible way has been noticed. On this several translated notices are written or translators included during the parental meetings to ensure that all the cultural diversities are included. Four major factors affected the students’ achievements according to Alexander and Entwisle, (1994). Among the factors are; 1) education programs that are organized for the children in their early childhood, 2) constant traction of the students’ academic progress in each level of academics and reviewing the standardized test scores, 3) having a school environment with a rather well established social and academic structures and finally, 4) involvement of parents and their children both inside and out of the school environment.

From the listed factors, the first two are straight from the school while the remaining two are directly family related. Alexander and Entwisle, (1994) reason that when the four factors listed above are harmonized, the performance gap between the high and low socioeconomic classes would be reduced. Miramontes, et al. (1997) found out that a strong relationship between the parents and the school has a strong positive impact on the overall students’ performance regardless of the home language. According to this research, the need for schools to partner with the families whose home language is not English is necessary to improve the students’ performance. These researchers admitted the difficulty of starting such a relationship at first especially in the schools where appreciation of cultural diversities is not well established.

The most challenging factor to be overcome by the ESL families is the fact that the language minority families may view the teachers as in a position of higher authority. The parents therefore leave it upon the teachers to ensure that communication between the duos is not lost. Naturally, when the teachers constantly communicate with the ESL parents, they explicitly feel comfortable and the relationship between them strengthens since a sense of belief that they can play a major role in their children’s academic life is inflicted in them. As Cavanagh and Lopez (2004) states, the most successful school has a strong relationship between the teachers, families and the students. Regardless of the tribe, race or the socioeconomic status, families are the best assets in ensuring academic success (Carreon et al, 2005).

Improving home and school relationships

In the United States, schools have a great challenge in developing a complete system that literacy is compulsory. Several parents are reluctant in preparing their children to have a diverse mind on how to be flexible in their future careers. Owing to the current demand, competition in the global market is quite high. This requires the collaboration of parents and children to face the challenges that the ESL students face. It would be quite cumbersome o address the problems that the students face without adequate involvement of the parents (Gaitan, 2004). This is independent of the cultural or the language background. Communication between the parents and the school staff can make the relationship between the school and the parents. Communication does not only mean informing the parents on the children’s progress since this is only half of what is supposed to be done. A major assumed part in several occasions is listening to the parents on how they would prefer the different situations to be handled. This is the foundation of building a stronger relationship between the parents and the teachers. Other than imparting the information, the other role of the teachers is to involve anybody who vividly understands the role of the parents and can contribute to the topic of discussion (Cavanagh and Lopez, 2004).

In several occasions, teachers assume that the natives have a higher value in academic excellence more than the immigrants do. The immigrants have an equal interest and salience when it comes to their education. The way different teachers receive the native parents is different from the way the immigrants are received. This should naturally be the case since the immigrants and the natives cannot be treated the same way. The only difference is that the teachers treat the native parents with some superiority as opposed the non-native parents. The treatment of the two set of parents should be parallel and in their own special ways (Dornyei, 2003).

Immigrant parents are usually isolated from the usual school activities because of many reasons. Among the reasons are 1) lack of proper English skills or command. This is majorly linked to their academic or cultural background, secondly, most of these parents lack a complete understanding on how the schools and the homes should relate. This denies them the chance to make a proper contribution to the factors that mostly affect their kids at a personal perspective. Thirdly, these parents lack the confidence on how to face the problems because of the fear of making several mistakes in communication, again, lack of understanding on the school system, major interference from work deny them the chance to attend to their children’s demands in school. Some of these parents have had past experiences from the schools that they had encounters with in the past. Most of these experiences are hardly positive making them develop the difficulty in speaking out their minds. Most schools assume that the above factors are not considered by the different families who do not speak English as their first language (Marsh, 2001). On this, there is need for the schools to have special programs to take care of these parents’ needs. Understanding that language can be a barrier, parents can have negative experiences with some former schools and the fact that not all parents can easily understand the operation of the schools should be a motivation to the involved personnel to ensure that all these interests are taken care of. Creating free hours of visit including during the class hours would give the ESL parents more reasons to constantly visit the schools. Creating special lectures to the parents on how to handle their children would be a motivation.

To accommodate the different work schedules, parents and teachers created both evening and morning meetings. This was meant to involve all the parents regardless of the work type. Most parents found it challenging to leave their work and attend to the school hence the morning and evening programs would be preferred. The ESL parents appreciated the possibility of having classes to have a rough idea on how to couch their children since most teachers would prefer having the parents couch their children at home. When home visits are made, children would find it exciting to see their parents and teachers together. The last thing a child would want to do is to disappoint such a relationship. This would motivate the student to make the relationship between the parents and the teachers stronger (Gaitan, 2004).

Occasionally, students were not for the idea that their parents visit their schools. The main reason is that most of their parents expect a lot from them. The end examination results were more important to them that how the students faired in their schools. The relationship between the families and the students was not friendly due to this fear. Having had the experience with the students, some teachers opted to increase the intimacy with the families. In an event that the ESL parents were held up, they would opt to use mobile phone to reach them. Every improvement and success of their children was with them. The families then have time with their children and advice them accordingly. This built a fresh fearless relationship between the parents and their children such that the students would feel free whenever their parents visit their schools. This improved the motivation of the students as well as the morale to learn more of the language (Carreon et al, 2005).

Summary

ESL families have a major role to play in the academic performance of their children. In every case, teachers and parents should have a strong relationship to help in the motivation of the children. According to the above findings, creating a welcoming environment to the parents regardless of their cultural background is a very salient step in making the success of the students practically possible. This environment basically entails appreciating the existence of the different cultures that learn English as a second language. A strong teacher-student-parent relationship increases the ability of the students to excel in their academics regardless of their socioeconomic status. Home-school relationship motivates the ESL families on the interest of the teachers in their children’s success. Allowing the ESL parents to participate in every decision making in the school and any factor that affects their children would motivate them to get more reasons to be interested in their children’s academic progress.

Conclusion

From the above findings, certain conclusions can be deduced. According to the current ways of handling the ESL students, there could be a positive change in the coming years. In this area, the agenda would revolve around how to inflict a positive attitude in the ESL families and the best ways of handling them to maximize the benefits. Either, considering the cultural diversities and treating each culture as major would increase the family participation. Allowing the children to communicate in their native languages, either with their parents or teachers would make them yearn for more translation (Trumbull et al, 2001). From the findings, future researchers should come up with the best alternative ways of developing children’s attitudes in addition to the ones listed above. The researchers should equally provide the teachers with alternative ways of handling the students in a situation where the number of teachers is small. Ways of encouraging the students on how to associate with other cultures other than the American culture and their own should equally be encouraged. Several other questions like why some parents do not have much interest in their children’s academic process, why most parents hate their cultures being ignored; their reasons for choosing to take their kids to learn English when most of their languages are international should be answered (Carreon et al, 2005). The future researchers should exhaust the information on ways of helping the teachers, students and the parents to make more informed decisions.

References

Alexander, K. &Entwisle, D. (1994).When Expectations Work: Race and Economic differences in school performance.Social psychology Quarterly, 57, 284-291

Carreon, G. P., Drake, C., Barton, A.C., (2005). The salience of presence: Immigrant parents’ school engagement experiences. American Educational Research Journal 42, 465-498

Cavanagh, M. & Lopez, M. A., (2004). Understanding the Latino Experience.The Independent school, 63, 96-104.

Dornyei, Z. (2003). Questionnaires in second language research; construction, administration and processing: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Gaitan, C. D. (2004). Involving Latino Families in Schools: Raising Student Achievement through Home-School Partnerships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Marsh, V., (2001).Total physical response storytelling: a communicative approach to language learning. Chandler, AZ: TPRS Publications Inc.

Miramontes, O.B., Nadeau, A. &Commins, N.L. (2001). Restructuring schools for linguistic diversity: Linking decision making to effective programs. New York. Teachers College Press.

Pergoy, S. F., & Boyle, O. F. (2002). Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL. New York: Adison Wesley Longman.

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S., (2001).Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P.M., & Quiroz, B. (2001). Bridging cultures between home and school: Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate Publishers.

Weinstein-Shr, G. & Quintero, E. (1995).Immigrant learners and their families: literacy to connect the Generations: Center for Applied Linguistics.