Perspective of Reflective ESL Teachers

After much debate, often to the detriment of students, educators and administrators are still debating the best way to teach those students whose native language is other than English. An article in the Society section of Newsweek, "Classrooms of Babel," asks the following questions regarding ESL: "How much?," and "What kind?" (1991, p. 56). ESL teachers know that their students need ESL instruction, but educators and, more predominantly, those who administer funding, have grappled with the best way to approach second language instruction.

As the above Newsweek article indicates, "Since a 1974 Supreme Court decision, immigrant children have had the right to special help in public schools" (1991, p. 56). Many educators have "responded by expanding the bilingual-education programs they've been using for the past two decades" (Newsweek, 1991, p. 56). Traditionally, the teaching profession has relied upon a critical body of research that has indicated the need for children to learn the basics in their native language before gradually

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have on a foreign student, multimedia presentations in a conventional ESL classroom can be used as a painless way to expose ESL students to the barrage of sights and sounds that are American culture. It can be argued that ESL students get plenty of American culture on TV. Everyone gets too much America on American TV! Multimedia presentations in the ESL classroom can, and should, focus on American pop culture, but they should additionally serve a higher cultural purpose than TV. For example, videos of American art museums, theaters, and universities will give such students a more refined look at American culture. Foreign language textbooks have traditionally had the obligatory trip to a French art gallery, for example. Traditionally, the language lab setting has been the mainstay of foreign language instruction. Mohr (1994) appreciates this fact, but she is also in favor of letting her students talk freely among themselves--in English, of course. Her rationale is that the ESL classroom is a non-threatening language incubation laboratory where students can speak trial-by-error English in a safe environment. Mutual understanding in English is the test by which successful verbal interaction of ESL students may be judged (Mo
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Approximate Word count = 2035
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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