Chapter 1: Who Are The Ells?

Tom is a seventh grader. He came to the United States from China six months ago with his mother and sister to join his father. The parents now both work in a restaurant, leaving for work in the morning and returning home late. Tom stays at home after school with his sister and occasionally also visits the restaurant to provide any help as needed. Tom has been attending the ESOL class daily to learn English. ESOL stands for English Speakers of Other Languages. An ESOL class is a resource classroom where the ELLs are provided additional English language support so that they can improve their English skills. The ESOL programs are required in school by the Lau v. Nichols decision made by the Supreme Court in 1974. Tom stays in the ESOL class for one hour daily and then returns to mainstream classrooms. He often sits silently in the mainstream classrooms. It is difficult for him to understand the basic concepts presented by teachers in the content-area classrooms and he does not know how to ask questions or to interact with peers due to his limited English. He tries to improve English by watching TV and listening to tapes in English daily at home. He does not have many friends in school or after school to socialize with. Yet, Tom is polite and has never been a behavior problem and most teachers comment that Tom is a “good kid” but he does not speak English. Academically, he lags behind his grade level.