StevenLaura

A school counselor introduced me to a student who was transferring into our district from another district in our state. The counselor saw that he had been ESL at his former school, and so assumed he'd be ESL here. We chatted, and I asked him where he was from. Liberia. (Hm... Some American history there) Sweet. What other language did he speak? Just English. "Well, I used to know a little French, when I was, like three." -- pause -- So, I confirmed. "So, your parents speak only English to you at home?" Yep. And you don't speak any other languages? Nope.

I told the counselor he should probably have the student fill out a home language survey. (The first step in determining if a student might be eligible for English as a SECOND language. Basically, it asks you what language(s) you speak at home. Pretty simple.)

A couple days later the student waived to me in the hall, "Not going to be in your class!"

Nope. Didn't think so.

So, the moral of this tale: not all immigrants need to learn English. And there are countries other than the US, UK and Australia that speak English!

Labels: L's Job