1. At this particular high school in New York City, the participants in the English as a Secondary Language (ESL) class come from seven different countries including China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Poland, Russia, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Therefore, the seven native languages that are represented here are Chinese, Urdu, Vietnamese, Polish, Russian, Haitian and Spanish. At the same time, it is important to note that for the students that come from countries with regional dialects, the native languages may exceed the number presented here. For instance, Chinese students, depending on the region they come from, may also speak regional dialects such as Shanghainese.
Most of the participants in the classroom have emigrated directly from their home countries to New York City. However, the remaining students such as the Chinese and the Pakistanis have also come from the states of California, Texas and Florida.
According to these students, their families have moved from other states to New York City in order to be close to family members or relatives.
The diversity in the ethnic composition of the classroom is similar to many other types of ESL classrooms that are found in the schools in New York City. For instance, the National Clearing House for Bilingual Education (NCBE) 1996 reported that 460 students from 60 different countries, who speak a total of 42 different languages, attend the International High School (IHS). It provides educational services strictly for ESL students. This diversity is also mirrored in the ethnic composition of the ESL students attending Liberty High School, consisting of 465 students from 40 countries (Frank, p. 1). According to Howard Wach (1998), the students in his ESL classroom at Lehman College in the City University of New York speak Spanish, Creole, Yoruba, Filipino, Italian, Portuguese and Vietnamese. Thus, it is evident that the participants in this ESL classroom are repres...