Barriers of ELL Students when Learning Literacy

ELL learners are facing many barriers when learning literacy in English.

According to Deapua and Marshal (2010), ELL struggle because they lack a strong

academic background in their own language. This is specifically true of English.

These students often lack a proficiency in English as well.

Also, other cultures often have a strong support structure in their schools.

These cultures are more nurturing to students whereas schools in the United States

tend to be more individualistic. For example, cultures such as those in Mexico and

Central America often promote a familiar relationship with educators and students.

Similarly, in the Hmong culture teachers are considered “second parents.” In

contrast, US systems encourage a gradual separation of students and encourage

them to become more independent.

Another barrier, according to Musanti and Pence (2010) suggest ELLs have

to learning literacy is the fact that ELLs cover up what they do not know. They do

not want to appear dumb; therefore they act as if they understand concepts.

Research supports the fact that if you cover up not knowing a concept, it makes it

more difficult to learn it.

A third barrier that ELL students have in learning literacy is the fact that

there is a difference in the social language structure and the academic language

structure (DeCapua & Marshal, 2010). Because these language structures are

unique to their place in society, it is confusing to the ELL who is just learning the

language. It takes between five and seven years for an ELL to acquire academic

language at grade level. Also, because the social language structure is easier for the

ELL students to grasp, many teachers misinterpret these students’ knowing this

language and assume they should be able to do well in school.

To overcome these barriers, some school systems have implemented

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Although many schools see this

as a solution to an ever increasing problem, it actually has many barriers as well.

Some of these barriers include the fact that many ELL students may come to this

country with little or no technology skills. Also, this program proves to be very

costly. Funding is an on-going problem to keep this program in the schools. Lastly,

the ELL may not accept technology, even if he or she is able to learn it. (Shao-

Chieh Lu, 2006).

Along with many other barriers, ELLs have a challenge when learning

English. There is research to support that ELLs’ difficulty in acquiring academic

language is legitiment. Culture is instrumental in shaping one’s views of the world

and how he or she organizes and processes information (DeCapua & Marshal

2010). Thus, schools should understand these barriers and work around them.

Teacher attitudes can also be a barrier ELLs have when learning literacy.

Research is mixed about how teachers feel about ELLs. Most research, however,

points to a more negative feeling towards these students, especially if you ask

teachers about having ELLS in their classrooms.

According to research conducted by Karabenick and Clemens (2004), only

43% of teachers said they would like to have ELLs in their classroom. Also, 45%

of teachers believe that if an ELL student is not able to express himself, it is

because he or she does not understanding. Likewise, 63% of teachers believed that

ELLs take more of their time in the classroom than non-ELL students. Most of the

teachers also favored emersion to other methods of instruction for ELL students.

Overall, teachers in this study were positive when questioned about ELL students,

though they were more comfortable with ELLs at their school than in their

classrooms.

According to Youngs and Youngs (2001), mainstream teachers’ attitudes

toward ESL students are likely to affect what ESL students learn. Teachers’

attitudes and expectations of students often lead to students behaving or learning as

expected. Teachers influence their students, even if they are unaware that they are

communicating these expectations.

Attitudes not only in the classroom, but also in society have become

increasingly negative in the past few years (Walker, Shafer, and Liams, 2011).

Evidence to support the fact attitudes are increasingly negative include the fact that

referendums have been passed banning bilingual education and have negated ELL

instruction to a single year of structured immersion in California, Arizona, and

Massachusetts.

Additionally, in a study by the authors, the overall attitudes of teachers

towards ELLs appear to be neutral to strongly negative. Only 18% felt that ELLs

perform well and school. Also, 16% of those surveyed felt that ELL students came

from places where education was inferior. Equally important, 70% of mainstream

teachers were not actively interested in having ELLs in their room. In the same

way, 25% of the mainstream teachers felt it was the responsibility of the ELL

learner to adapt to the American culture to learn.