Translating in Class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an ESOL teacher and most teachers will pair a non-English speaker with a peer buddy who speaks their language. Most teachers only ask that buddy to interpret when it is very important- directions for emergency drills, important paperwork that needs to be signed and brought back to school, etc. And most ESOL kids who are beginners get pulled out of class for short periods of up to an hour a day. They are not allowed to be isolated from their English speaking peers. I often give the teacher guidance for who to choose to be this peer buddy. I have seen students with behavior issues become very motivated and responsible when you ask them to be a peer buddy.

Do you get permission from the child’s parents to do this? I don’t think this type of responsibility should fall on a child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an ESOL teacher and most teachers will pair a non-English speaker with a peer buddy who speaks their language. Most teachers only ask that buddy to interpret when it is very important- directions for emergency drills, important paperwork that needs to be signed and brought back to school, etc. And most ESOL kids who are beginners get pulled out of class for short periods of up to an hour a day. They are not allowed to be isolated from their English speaking peers. I often give the teacher guidance for who to choose to be this peer buddy. I have seen students with behavior issues become very motivated and responsible when you ask them to be a peer buddy.

Do you get permission from the child’s parents to do this? I don’t think this type of responsibility should fall on a child.

Not PP, but different cultures have different ideas about what a responsibility consists of. Parents would be happy to know their child is helping another child, rather than focusing on what their child might be missing as a result of helping. Teachers usually know which students will be ok with this, and if the teacher knows the new student will be arriving then they might explain to the class that the new student doesn't speak or understand English yet and may need some help from people who speak and understand the new student's native language. Tons of hands go up to help.

A lot of kids like to have responsibilities and help others. Many times, like PP said, the ones most eager to help are the students with some behavior issues. I've never had a parent complain that their child has been helping with translation for a new student. Most often they're thrilled that their child is using their first language because they prefer to use English at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an ESOL teacher and most teachers will pair a non-English speaker with a peer buddy who speaks their language. Most teachers only ask that buddy to interpret when it is very important- directions for emergency drills, important paperwork that needs to be signed and brought back to school, etc. And most ESOL kids who are beginners get pulled out of class for short periods of up to an hour a day. They are not allowed to be isolated from their English speaking peers. I often give the teacher guidance for who to choose to be this peer buddy. I have seen students with behavior issues become very motivated and responsible when you ask them to be a peer buddy.

Do you get permission from the child’s parents to do this? I don’t think this type of responsibility should fall on a child.

I don't ask for a parent's permission for anything else a child does to help out in class. Like I wrote, the teachers aren't asking students to interpret entire lessons. My younger students fall over each other trying to help out their teachers. I always joke that I should bring them home because I've never seen anyone as enthusiastic about helping clean/organize the classroom as these students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter just told me that her 5th grade class has a new child that only speaks Spanish. There is another child in the class that is kinda bilingual. The teacher is using google translator to talk to her directly and she says after a few sentences when speaking to the whole class, she pauses so the other bilingual girl can translate to her the same few sentences, and then this continues every few sentences. Does this truly happen in other schools? Who just sends a 5th grader into a school, that doesn't know any English? Does the teacher have to continue this bilingual lessons. It must eat up so much time.

Honestly OP, you have every reason to complain. That child’s time should not be taken up to be a translator for the teacher, your child’s time shouldn’t be spent in school going slower because of one kid, additionally if your child is not in a langaguge immersion class it’s a problem. I would email my concerns to the teacher and principal. The teacher can use other methods without slowing down class lessons for example: using picture vocabulary for the new student, referring the child for ESOL screening, use of manipulative or incorporating more hands on components in her lesson, use sentence stems to help the child, modifying that particular student’s work to make it a simpler version of what everyone else is doing. I’m a teacher and would be horrified if my colleague wasted the entire classes’s time to try to be bilingual without any formal training. This allows the pace of the class to go slower, all for one kid, that is why there is an ESOL teacher. Those teachers can slow things down. Finally, unfortunately, until the county deals with it’s illegal immigration problem this is what you can expect to happen from a small segment of teachers. The kid is obviously in school to learn English, so the teacher should be speaking in English but adapting lessons that make it easier to understand with pictures or fewer words.

[Anonymous]

It's rather Illuminating how everyone assumes it just because the child speaks Spanish that she is undocumented.

never mind that the majority of people who are entering the country from Spanish-speaking countries are legally immigrating as asylum-seekers and were treated terribly by ICE

[Anonymous]

Honestly OP, you have every reason to complain. That child’s time should not be taken up to be a translator for the teacher, your child’s time shouldn’t be spent in school going slower because of one kid, additionally if your child is not in a langaguge immersion class it’s a problem. I would email my concerns to the teacher and principal. The teacher can use other methods without slowing down class lessons for example: using picture vocabulary for the new student, referring the child for ESOL screening, use of manipulative or incorporating more hands on components in her lesson, use sentence stems to help the child, modifying that particular student’s work to make it a simpler version of what everyone else is doing. I’m a teacher and would be horrified if my colleague wasted the entire classes’s time to try to be bilingual without any formal training. This allows the pace of the class to go slower, all for one kid, that is why there is an ESOL teacher. Those teachers can slow things down. Finally, unfortunately, until the county deals with it’s illegal immigration problem this is what you can expect to happen from a small segment of teachers. The kid is obviously in school to learn English, so the teacher should be speaking in English but adapting lessons that make it easier to understand with pictures or fewer words.

OP may be doing everything you suggest, and there is zero chance this child isn't ALSO receiving ESOL services. But ESOL in 2018 isn't like ESOL when we were kids. The English Language Learners aren't segregated in a self-contained classroom away from everyone else. They are mainstreamed to the degree possible, which is better for them and better for society as a whole.

I'd also point out, as others have done, that OP is taking the word of a 10 year old about how much time is spent translating. It is also Week One of school. Maybe simmer down and wait a sec to see how this plays out?

Kids have the right to an appropriate education in a mainstream environment. That includes kids with special needs and kids who are learning English. OP's child isn't going to be harmed by the presence of an English language learner in their classroom, even if OP is so sheltered that it hasn't happened before now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's rather Illuminating how everyone assumes it just because the child speaks Spanish that she is undocumented.

never mind that the majority of people who are entering the country from Spanish-speaking countries are legally immigrating as asylum-seekers and were treated terribly by ICE

Asylum seekers. Right.

[Anonymous]

The Bethesda Elementary School has a high proportion of educated, wealthy, international students, some of which are in ESOL and need translation. Since this school is used to it, teachers don’t stop the class every minute to translate - a paraeducator uses google translate, or the teacher comes over after the mini lecture to re-explain to the student. We have 50 nations represented at school.

Students in such conditipns learn passable English in a few months and enrich the school with their perspectives and cultures.

This teacher is going overboard from lack of experience, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our ES has had several students from upper middle class, professional families immigrate over the summer in the past and arrive speaking nothing but Chinese, Russian, or Korean. There are some other students that speak these languages and sometimes yes, the teacher will ask them to translate important directions or questions for the student so they aren't totally lost. This usually lasts about a third of the school year, then they stop needing it, and by a year later they are on or above grade level and you can't tell they ever didn't speak English. So no, this phenomenon is not just an "illegal immigrant" (code: poor Hispanic) thing. Children's brains have an amazing capacity for language.

This is true. I taught English as a foreign language abroad and the younger the kids were, the quicker they picked it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter just told me that her 5th grade class has a new child that only speaks Spanish. There is another child in the class that is kinda bilingual. The teacher is using google translator to talk to her directly and she says after a few sentences when speaking to the whole class, she pauses so the other bilingual girl can translate to her the same few sentences, and then this continues every few sentences. Does this truly happen in other schools? Who just sends a 5th grader into a school, that doesn't know any English? Does the teacher have to continue this bilingual lessons. It must eat up so much time.

that sucks.

spanish girl needs to be sent home with a note: Don't come to school until you know English. like they did in the 1950s.

Looks like you need a refresher course on how to write proper sentences in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Honestly OP, you have every reason to complain. That child’s time should not be taken up to be a translator for the teacher, your child’s time shouldn’t be spent in school going slower because of one kid, additionally if your child is not in a langaguge immersion class it’s a problem. I would email my concerns to the teacher and principal. The teacher can use other methods without slowing down class lessons for example: using picture vocabulary for the new student, referring the child for ESOL screening, use of manipulative or incorporating more hands on components in her lesson, use sentence stems to help the child, modifying that particular student’s work to make it a simpler version of what everyone else is doing. I’m a teacher and would be horrified if my colleague wasted the entire classes’s time to try to be bilingual without any formal training. This allows the pace of the class to go slower, all for one kid, that is why there is an ESOL teacher. Those teachers can slow things down. Finally, unfortunately, until the county deals with it’s illegal immigration problem this is what you can expect to happen from a small segment of teachers. The kid is obviously in school to learn English, so the teacher should be speaking in English but adapting lessons that make it easier to understand with pictures or fewer words.

OP may be doing everything you suggest, and there is zero chance this child isn't ALSO receiving ESOL services. But ESOL in 2018 isn't like ESOL when we were kids. The English Language Learners aren't segregated in a self-contained classroom away from everyone else. They are mainstreamed to the degree possible, which is better for them and better for society as a whole.

I'd also point out, as others have done, that OP is taking the word of a 10 year old about how much time is spent translating. It is also Week One of school. Maybe simmer down and wait a sec to see how this plays out?

Kids have the right to an appropriate education in a mainstream environment. That includes kids with special needs and kids who are learning English. OP's child isn't going to be harmed by the presence of an English language learner in their classroom, even if OP is so sheltered that it hasn't happened before now.

Obviously Op’s ten year old is competent enough to know that her education is being impacted in a major way. I’d expect my child to complain so that I can advocate or get together a group of parents to advocate. Additionally someone mentioned ESOL today is not the same as yesteryear, I am aware of that but SOL has changed from having those students in a separate room to the general ed room due to lack of funding. The powers that touted its better to mainstream those kids even though they speak a lick of English and then they backed it up with faux research to skew data in their favor. This is all about the dollars since many states around the country can’t afford the number of teachers to the ratio of ESOL learners it’s absorbing. In no other country, do they expect to teach you a second language in school for FREE along with so many additional resources that are FREE in the community.

[Anonymous]

I’d be more concerned about kids with behavior issues in the classroom. That takes much more teacher time and attention and impacts the other kids in the class in a far more negative way than a kid who is learning English.

[Anonymous]

This is DC, OP. Kids at our elementary school speak 22 different languages. Alice Deal has students speak in 15 different languages for the 8th grade International Baccalaureate promotion ceremony. It was wonderful and the experience enhances learning for everyone. No one is held back by being exposed to children who speak other languages. This is a major international city for crying out loud. This is one pf the best things about living here.

The schools have pull outs for ESL, and the preK teachers say within 30 days the new students can follow in class and at 90 days they are more fluent than their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's rather Illuminating how everyone assumes it just because the child speaks Spanish that she is undocumented.

never mind that the majority of people who are entering the country from Spanish-speaking countries are legally immigrating as asylum-seekers and were treated terribly by ICE

Asylum seekers. Right.

the script has been floating around for 20+ years. everyone knows exactly what to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's rather Illuminating how everyone assumes it just because the child speaks Spanish that she is undocumented.

never mind that the majority of people who are entering the country from Spanish-speaking countries are legally immigrating as asylum-seekers and were treated terribly by ICE

MoCo has a huge unskilled, uneducated illegal immigrant population from Central America. Much larger than any corporate families or foreign service delegates' children in the U.S. for 2-3 years with a stable, educated, literate set of parents.