An Introduction to ELL:

1. An Introduction to ELL: The Preconceptions, Policies, and Pitfalls of English Language Learning in American Schools by Patty Jensen

3. True or False? Most LEP students were born outside of the U.S. LEP students must show proof of citizenship or residency when registering for school. Teachers should allow students to speak in their native language in the classroom.

4. True or False? Younger children are more effective language learners than older learners. Students from Asian countries are better English language learners and more academically successful than students from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. Once second language learners are able to speak reasonably fluently, their problems are likely to be over in school.

5. True or False? ELL teachers must be able to speak a language other than English. LEP students should focus on learning English, rather than on content area instruction.

6. Key terms in Immigration Reform Illegal Out of the shadows A matter of national security Protocol

7. Best Practices Inhibit teachers from adopting critical consciousness Promote banking concept Elites transmit best practices to teachers Teachers transmit knowledge to change students By doing so they believe to liberate them Discipline teachers

8. Best Practices Correct delinquent teachers Those with poor test scores, not those with poor attitudes By disciplining the teachers, through the use of best practices, it reproduces the conditions of production; as best practices only engender best practices.

9. Teacher Attitudes Toward ELLs Generally negative Belittle or ignore students� first language Ambivalent toward professional development Favor students who assimilate quickly Potentially harmful misconceptions toward language development First language delays second language acquisition Kids learn language faster It takes 2 years to acquire language

10. How are they related? Larger political policies shape teachers� subjectivities Freire�s �cultural oppression� By refusing to address the cultural issues that construct teacher attitudes toward ELL students, best practice literature fails to acknowledge its own limitations and is thereby used to perpetuate banking models of education.

11. A Cultural Obsession With Border Security Dog Show California Wildfires Family Guy Presidential Debates

12. Implications Learn ELL best practices. Be aware of the rhetoric surrounding ELLs and immigrants. Be an advocate for students and families learning English. Get your ELL endorsement!

13. References Anzald�a, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The new Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books. Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first- and second-language proficiency in bilingual children. In E. Bialystok (Ed.) Language processing in bilingual children (pp. 70-89). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cummins, J. (2005). A proposal for action: Strategies for recognizing heritage language competence as a learning resource within the mainstream classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 89(4), 585-592. Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison, 2nd ed. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books. Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. Garcia-Nevarez, A.G., Stafford, E.M, and Arias, B. (2005). Arizona elementary teachers� attitudes toward English language learners and the use of Spanish in classroom instruction. Bilingual Research Journal, 29(2), 295-317. Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language scaffolding learning: Teaching secondlanguage learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Karabenick, S.A. & Clemens Noda, P.A. (2004). Professional development implications of teachers� beliefs and attitudes toward English language learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 28(1), 55-75. Lee, J. S. & Oxelson, E. (2006). �It�s not my job�: K-12 teacher attitudes toward students� heritage language maintenance. Bilingual Research Journal, 30(2), 453-477. Menken, K. (2006). Teaching to the test: how No Child Left Behind impacts language policy, curriculum, and instruction for English language learners. Bilingual Research Journal, 30(2), 521-546. Reeves, J. R. (2006). Secondary teacher attitudes toward including English-language learners in mainstream classrooms. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(3), 131-142. Stanosheck Youngs, C. & Youngs, G. A. (2001). Predictors of mainstream teachers� attitudes toward ESL students. TESOL Quarterly, 35(1), 97-120. Vollmer, G. (2000). Praise and stigma: teachers� constructions of the �typical ESL student�. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 21(1), 53-66). White House Press Secretary. (June 27, 2007). Fact Sheet: Bipartisan Border Security and Immigration Reform Bill. Retrieved September 23, 2007, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/06/print/20070627-12.html.