By: beverly j. irby & Rafael lara alecio

13. General sociocultural attitudes (Teachers overwhelmingly (89%) agreed that cultural differences enrich the lives of community members. Consistently, a majority (62%) disagreed that people from different cultures inevitably have difficulty living together in harmony. The least consensus was expressed in response to the question of whether cultural and ethnic differences are a barrier to the ability of families to work and socialize together, with 42% in agreement and 35% in disagreement.)

14. Bilingual resources (Depending on the number of ELLs in the classroom, the teachers were varied on their responses on the amount of classroom resources needed to teach the children. In general, 66% believed it did not take any more resources to teach the ELLs than it did to teach non-ELLs.)

According to Brittain (2002), many teachers perceive any performance or effort done in another language not equitable to the merit of doing the same thing in English. In two-way bilingual programs, teachers often view immigrant children’s accomplishments in Spanish as something not worthy of praise or recognition, since it is done in the native language and is assumed to be an effortless task (Valdes, 1997). This is not true of the teachers that we have observed in several Texas school districts with large numbers of ELLs. They tend to value both languages and accomplishments by the students in both languages.

Concluding remarks

The high number of Latino immigrants will persist for several decades. During this time Latinos will continue to influence our economy and society. Educators have attempted to find a way to serve the academic needs of the large population of Latino students. Yet even with the ELL programs Latinos still consistently score below proficient, and continue to face multiple problems. Many are victims of stereotyping because of their language, socio-economic, and educational level; feel excluded from the academic society; and have trouble adjusting to the school system in their new country. Others struggle with a lack of parental involvement because their parents do not speak English and do not understand the new culture. Also, some Latinos are taught by teachers who feel uncomfortable teaching students with a different language and culture. Educators need to address these problems now to find ways for the students to excel. However, assimilation is not the answer; with pure assimilation the people of the U.S. would lose the unique Latino flavor in our nation’s salad bowl.

References

Brittain, C. (2002). Transnational messages: Experiences of Chinese and Mexican immigrants in American schools . In C. Suarez-Orozco&M. Suarez-Orozco (Eds.) The new Americans series. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing.

Camarota, S.A.,&McArdle, N. (2003). Where immigrants live . An examination of state residency of the foreign born by country of origin in 1990 and 2000. Center for Immigration Studies. Retrieved May 14, 2005, from http://www.cis.org/articles/2003/back1203.html

Center Brief Series. Retrieved May 28, 2005, from http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/immintegbrf.html