How I Feel about ESL English:

In Tucson now there is a policy that students from different countries who are not proficient in English, according to the AZELLA test, have to have four hours of ESL English. When new students that are learning are in ESL English, they will work on writing, grammar, vocabulary and book reports. Students that are starting to have these classes will do things in a way so that they will understand them.

I think I students that have ESL classes should get a chance to try the regular classes that

they desire and sign up for at the beginning of the year. Teachers should let the students try and then wait until they get the first report card and see if it’s good for them or if it’s too hard. Some students do know how to read and write, but when the test comes they don’t do so well because either they don’t understand it or the vocabulary that they use on the test is too hard to understand. I really do think teachers and counselors should wait and see how students do in non-ESL classes before testing and moving them.

When I started going to Townsend Middle School, I started having ESL English classes because I needed to improve my English. I only had three hours of ESL English. I had these classes 6th grade though 8th. I really didn’t understand why I needed the English classes and also what people were telling me about them. I asked my teacher to explain it to me and how it works. She told me that “Students have these English classes because they speak a second language or they started learning English.” I felt a little sad because I got this feeling that she wasn’t telling me something, but I didn’t know what. When I was in 6th grade I was actually glad that I had these classes because I got to learn a second language. I already know Serbian and not many people here in the United States speak it. When I finished 8th grade I left that school, but I felt that I had just learned a little because I had the three hours of English. When I had the three hours of English, I thought I didn’t really learn anything from those classes. I wish I could have learned more math, reading and writing. When I had three hours of ESL we would just do bell work and one assignment and that was it for that classes.

I got to know students at my school my school like Rose, Andy, Alex, J-den and many others that didn’t have the ESL English classes. I asked them, “How do you feel about not having ESL English classes?” Andy told me that it was good, but she wished to learn a second language. Rose told me it feels great; Alex told me the same thing. I really didn’t think it was fair because they didn’t let me try the regular classes. They didn’t even let me try! I asked if I could try having the regular classes, but they just told me that I didn’t pass the test and when I heard that I felt bad. Some of the other students told me that the ESL classes were just a waste of time. They also told me you just learn things that you had already learned, but in a slower way so that students can understand it better.

Even though we have ESL classes, they don’t teach you everything that you need to know about reading, writing, and vocabulary. They just go over little things that you need help on. I don’t think that’s helpful if they go over little things such as spelling and reading short stories. Reading short easy stories is not going to improve your reading skills. It’s important that we have skills for reading, writing and vocabulary that will help us in the future.

Teachers and students need to talk more about the four hours of ESL English because people just tell us students it’s the law and we need to follow it. They don’t explain it to us. We need more classes for the students that are starting to learn English. I want to change the way people think about education and how it can help them in the future.

The way I can change it is by getting s together to talk about what they want to do and what they want to change about the four hours of English. I don’t think it’s fair for some students to take 4 hours of English if they already know how to read and write. We don’t need a test to prove something; we just need to wait and see what happens. When students get the test, sometimes there is hard vocabulary, they get confused about what they are supposed to do and they just give up because it’s hard to understand. They might still be able to succeed in the regular classes though. If we had a real test it might first test vocabulary that they have learned, second part would be reading and the third would be writing. I would want students to take one part of the test a day that way they wouldn’t be sleepy.

I want the people who are in charge to change the way they test students because what I think is the test is hard to understand. The test doesn’t prove anything if they use words that the students don’t understand. I want the people that make the test to use vocabulary that students learned but also use some that they heard of but don’t know the meaning. I want them to change the way the test is and the number of classes.