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Thursday, July 22, 2010

English As A Second Language Flourishes

In 2007-2008 the Norriton Area School Dstrict had 615 English as a Second Language (ESL) students, and in 2008-2009 that number increased to 657. Most of the young enthusiastic English language learners are Latinos from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and several Latin American Countries.

Among the at least 20 laguages, which are sopken by the students in the district, Spanish is the majority, which is the native tongue of 95% of the ESL students. Others are Arabic, Chinese, Gujarati, French, and Vietnamese. The reason of the growth of ESL students is that most of them were born in the U.S. or came directly from their mother countires.

Li, who has been teaching ESL classes for 10 years in the district, believes that writing in English is the most difficult task for ESL students to master. Leaf, the district's ESL coordinator, states that it takes an average of five to seven years to reach English language proficiency in reading, speaking, listening, and writing.



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