Inquiry Question #1:
What impact does segregation of English Language Learners (ELL) have on their academic (high school and post-secondary) success?
Coming from a cross-cultural background, I have had many personal experiences with the conflict of place and identity. My experiences working and interacting with a diversity of students from the Vancouver Lower Mainland have also shaped how I view the unique and surprisingly diverse niche of English Language Learning (ELL) students. The students I have encountered come from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, scattered around the multicultural municipalities. My own account working with ELL students has led me to wonder if lack of resources has any effect on the academic and post-secondary success of ELL secondary school students. In this context, resources include adequate English language support from teacher aids during class, sufficient hours of quality English language instruction in school, and access to tools that aid English language acquisition (e.g. electronic dictionaries, translators). If access to resources does have an impact on success and achievement of ELL students in a secondary school setting, I would like to question how effective segregated versus integrated ELL classrooms are. My interest in and experiences with the problem of ELL integration in the classroom lead me to this proposed inquiry project for my Inquiry I course at UBC.
Inquiry Question #2:
What are the consequences of having a literacy-centered approach to learning for English Language Learning (ELL) students in secondary school?
During my time researching the experience of ELL students in mainstream classrooms, I was made aware of the lack of research in the area of ELL academic achievement and post-secondary success. Especially in such a diverse city as Vancouver, it is surprising to me how little data there are on ELL student progress after they have been removed of their ELL label. As a way to modify my inquiry, I decided to look at the form of instruction and approach to English language learning currently used in secondary schools. Gunderson (2007) noted that it is “not clear from or well supported by research that English-only programs are necessarily detrimental to second-language students’ language development” in either their first language or second language (p. 16). However, English language learning alternatives, such as transitional bilingual education, have “no consistent research support… for improving language achievement of limited English proficient children” (as cited by Gunderson, 2007, p. 19). I believe the lack of research in this area is due, in part, to the inconsistency of information collection and storage between school districts and the BC Ministry of Education. For the benefit of future research and data analysis, I would be interested in looking into how a more reliable method of tracking ELL student progress may be implemented.