Not All Beginners Are Created Equal!

Entry to English is designed for true beginners – but what does that mean?  One of the most important things I learned as a teacher of English learners (ELs) was that not all beginners are equal or even beginners at all in the everyday sense of the word.   I think to many of us, a beginner is someone who has formally studied a language for less than a year and a true beginner has not studied the language at all.  As I discovered, neither description applies to many of the “beginning” students I taught. 

My school district, like many others, used the WIDA system for determining the level of English proficiency of our students.  Students are assigned to one of five proficiency levels, based on their scores on a screener that is given when they first enter the school system.  Those who scored lowest overall (below 2.0) were considered beginners.

Even on the very first days of school, differences between beginners were obvious. Some talked a lot while others were clearly in the silent period characteristic of the vast majority of English learners when they start to study the language.  Some students could read fluently at a first-grade level, some haltingly at a kindergarten level and some could not read at all, in any language.  More importantly, over the course of the year, my beginner students followed very different trajectories.  Some learned quickly, picking up and retaining vocabulary with little difficulty and other learned much more slowly with much greater effort.

When I was a new (and somewhat naive) teacher working with beginning 5th grade English learners, I attributed the differences among my beginner students to a number of factors.  At first, I thought it was mostly personality.  My son is a very good Spanish speaker in part because he just likes to talk!  Over time, I learned that some beginners had started at the end of the previous school year, were more familiar with the school routine and so were more comfortable talking.   Differences in reading I attributed largely to differences in literacy in the child’s first language, a factor that had been repeatedly emphasized in my teacher training.  What I failed to realize was that part of the difference was due to what should have been an obvious factor – prior instruction in English.

Two of my students from Pakistan helped open my eyes to what was happening.  The girls were both intelligent and hard-working but I was amazed by how much more quickly they mastered the material I was presenting. They alerted me to the fact that Pakistan has two official languages: Urdu and English.  They had both lived in large cities in Pakistan and had been taught English in school for several years before coming to live in the United States. (A translator at the school later explained that children living in rural areas would be much less likely to have had English instruction.)  After that conversation, I began to modify my instruction with these students to take advantage of their much greater store of prior knowledge.

After that school year, I began to ask students (and their parents at conference time) explicitly if they had studied English before.  I found that the same parents who assured me their child did not know any English would affirm that their child had studied English in school.  The answer to “Has your child studied English?” was a much better predictor of performance that “Does your child speak English?”  I subsequently learned that many countries in which Arabic is the official language teach English to their students – at least students in urban areas. 

I don’t know why students who have studied English for several years still score low enough to be classified as beginners.  However, I can think of a number of possible explanations. 

The students are nervous when they take the placement test. They are in an unfamiliar building in a new country talking to a stranger who is giving them a test.  This is not a formula for success, especially when you are working with children!

The students are not used to an American accent.   As a former British colony, people who speak English in Pakistan probably speak (and teach English) with a British accent. 

They are taught English as a foreign language, not English as the language of instruction, with an emphasis on everyday language rather than academic language. 

The students in my beginner classes were not necessarily misplaced – in the sense that they had a real need to review basic vocabulary and adjust to an American accent.  But not taking prior language instruction into account does a grave disservice to both students who have had and have not had this instruction.  The students who have had prior instruction need to review what they learned with an American accent and with an emphasis on speaking and listening that may be absent in classrooms where English is being taught as a foreign language.  But these students need a pace appropriate for them given that much of the material is not new.  In contrast, students who have never studied English must be given the time it takes to learn this complicated language. They should not be made to feel like failures because they can’t keep up with students who have already had several years of instruction.  Our expectations as educators should not be based on the progress of students who have already had significant exposure to the language. 

I’m sure it surprises no one that prior instruction in English has an effect on both current proficiency in English and progress in gaining proficiency.  What may be surprising is how many of your students have actually had such instruction.  The best way to find out is to ask.  It’s also important to keep in mind that the norms established for how quickly students should learn English are based on the performance of two groups of students – those who have had and have not had prior instruction.  Expecting students with no prior instruction to progress at the same rate as students with two or three years of prior instruction is unfair and demoralizing to students and teachers.  It would be nice if school districts tried to capture this information but even if they don’t, you can and use it in your instruction!