Acquiring English has been an activity since the colonialism, but English language learning has become a part of the educational sector around the early 1900’s. A major influence of this movement is pushed by the declaration of ‘English as an official required language’ for the immigrants in the United States of America.

1960s

As for the educational system, specifically targeting the public sector, it was the work of Noam Chomsky, a linguistic philosopher, whom pushed strategies upon the process of language acquisition. His researches and explorations in the development of language acquisition initiated a series of inquiries about English as Second Language (ESL) learning.

Within the same decade, an organization was formed to regulate the amount of information gathered and the needs demanded in regards to handling ESL materials. This organization went by and still go by the title of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

1970s

Only one decade after Chomsky published several linguistic studies, different methods were introduced by other linguists. Comprehensive learning, incorporating physical movement and conventional relativity, was the main focus with these new methods. For example, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Total Physical Response (TPR), Task-based Learning approach (TBL), Audio-lingual , and more were all introduced during this period.

However, even with effective methods being in place for access, the curriculum and assessment guidelines were not very proactive. Too much ambiguity and limitation of data collected render the guidelines to be minimally effective to aid teachers’ teaching experience.

1999

I found guidelines provided for classroom teachers and specialists in 1999. This is the period where ESL programs across British Columbia began to transition into the English Language Learner (ELL) program.

The assessment and perspective about the ELL students are very generic and vague. Fortunately for me, I was under the supervision of a proactive ESL teacher who was quite aware of the ineffectiveness of the worksheet-based language acquisition process. She lead group games and field trips to allow us English exploration with hands-on experiences. My classmates and myself had the privilege to learn arts, carpentry, landscaping, baking, music, and teamwork while learning English.

2001

3 years after the global tech bubble burst and stock market crash, waves of immigration increased across Canada. This led to a change, an addition, to the ELL program guideline. There was a clear sophistication increased to the pre-existing guideline from 1999.

The four basic linguistic skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, were expended to three levels – primary, intermediate, and secondary – for assessment and evaluation.

I was in my secondary years during this time. Now that I am reading the guidelines and teachers’ expectation of adjustment to students’ need, I can clearly say that the amount of professional development for teachers during the time for teaching non-native English speaking students were lacking – strongly.

2009~13

I think there seemed to be a trend with change to the ELL program that goes hand-in-hand with the immigration trend. Since 2008, a major wave of Chinese immigrants entered the public education demographics. This could have led to a major increase in demand with ELL specialists and trainings. In fact, teachers would be facing serious teaching obstacles if they were not properly trained in handling and addressing the ELL students’ need.

Education is ever changing, and always growing. ELL program is a major part of this change for BC education program, since almost 50% of the demographic in Vancouver are no longer native English speakers.  According the 2011 census, 45% of Vancouver do not speak English at home. This percentage would only increase in the next decade if the immigration rate remain steady as it is now.