The webpage is created by a few of the teacher candidates from the ESL cohort. The web included our individual inquiry projects. It will be a useful site to look around if someone needs some information about ESL learners.
My inquiry is targeted towards the ESL label.
Rationale
Adolescence is supposed to be a significant time period for teenagers to forming their identities. However, some students do not have the chance to establish their academic identities before the first formal secondary-schooling assessment begins because they have been placed into an ESL (English as a Second Language) program. ESLis a simple acronym which embraces many meanings. In an educational standpoint, undoubtedly, the ESL identification allows teachers to structure their lessons in a way that they can accommodate students who may need additional language supports. Educators have purposefully categorize students who need similar level of supports into a class, so teachers can tailor the materials based on the students’ progress. And yet, have educators ever considered the impact of labelling a student as ESL? This is the question that I want to address through this inquiry project.
Research
The identification of being a ESL learner can be a social stigma (Marshall). Many researchers have deconstruct the abbreviation, “ESL” in a critical way, and the implications are mostly negative. ESL is an institutional marker (Ortmerier-Hooper, p. 390 ). When students are labelled as ESL, they are constrained within the institution’s expectation. They cannot reject the label but to be what that label claims them to be. They are categorized as someone who needs additional services, and the label also marks them as a novice in the English language, an English language learner (Ortmerier-Hooper, p. 390). ESL is also a “learner identity that some students associate with nonacceptance, deficit and even nonrecognition of their multilingual and multicultural knowledge and competence (Marshall, 51). Once students are aware of the negative implications that associate with the term “ESL” that they have been categorized, some students may internalize such the expectation “to stumble over English language for it is not their native tongue” (Ortmerier-Hooper, p. 393), which hinders them from acquiring or developing the new language skills that they need.
ESL are often caught in a battle between languages. For example, at home they are expected to speak in their native language, but at school there is pressure to speak in English (understanding and meeting). And yet, ESL students “see themselves as incapable of owning the language” (Ortmerier-Hooper, p. 393). According to BC Education (ELL policy), it is indicated that English language learners (often referred to as ELL students) are those whose primary language, or languages, of the home are other than English. For this reason, they require additional services in order to develop their individual potential within British Columbia’s school system. Therefore, students who have been categorized as ESL automatically notify themselves as someone who needs additional English service to success. They cannot identify themselves as someone who have the authority to determine the correctness of the language because they reconstitute their normative subjectivities as nonnative speakers (Miller, p. 95). This then relates to a different realm of problem, which is their self perception. For example, because they do not see themselves as capable of owning the language, students lack the confidence to speak in class. They do not want to make mistakes. At the same time, they are mocked by their peers when they speak their native languages (Endo). What can they really speak then? That is why they always remain silent.
Conclusion/ Possible Solution
The ESL label is an academic identity that educators have imposed on students, and students cannot really get rid of it nor able to construct their own. So what are the possible solutions? It may not be possible to get rid of the construction because I think grouping students with similar abilities is still an effective way for them to learn the language. Changing the abbreviation ESL into ELL, EAL, or EFL is not the solution as well because the implication is still the same.
I think overall teachers should just be aware of the impact or implication that such labelling can cause to students. By being more cautious, teachers can find a different way to address them. For example, teachers should try not to single the group out when teaching a regular class. When teachers are in an ESL setting, they address students by their names. Teachers should also consider students’ previous educational achievement, previous cultural and/or creative endeavours, the languages they have already developed fluency and literacy (Marshall). Teachers can also capitalize on adolescent ELLs’ L1 literacy knowledge and experience, what can be call hidden funds of knowledge, to support their biliteracy development (Youngjoo, 225). For instance, teachers can relate materials or asks questions about students’ experiences back at home to get them practicing their English usage. In this way, they are building up their confidence meanwhile they talk about something they are an expert of . Moreover, teachers should encourage students “ to continue to engage in various literacy practices in their L1 in and outside of school” (Youngjoo, ESL). This way students would not feel their native languages or their backgrounds are not appreciated.
I want to end my inquiry project with this quote:
Exclusion and production are two sides of the same coin. The act of categorizing the social world into researchable subjects is thus not an innocent or neutral practice; however, I would argue that it is not the category itself that is problematic but how such constructions are treated, especially when regarded as objective, essential entities in the world. As we know, the re- sedimentation of particular subjectivists often has more negative consequences for some individuals than for others” (Miller, 97).
Artistic Statement
I have created a graphic novel, presenting an experience that an immigrant student may have undergone. The graphic novel begins with a picture that symbolizes a new beginning, which can be seen as the honeymoon period, the first stage of culture shock (Helmer, p. 16). When students first arrive, they may feel optimistic and excited for a new and better life. They look forward to the future, to the new environment. However, very soon, the protagonist of my graphic novel is struck by the fact that she is enrolled into different ESL classes. She tries to negotiate with the administrator about this identity, but she fails. She tries to get rid of this identity by getting out of the ESL program as soon as possible because she knows the negative implications that associate with it. Can she fully get rid of the ESL label? Does such label make an impact on her? Read it and find out! 
In the graphic novel, I have purposefully incorporate Chinese dialogues which have not been translated.(Not that I want to exclude anyone) I only aim to present the real setting and situation that a newcomer experiences in Canada. They do speak multiple languages on a daily basis. As for why I have not translated the Chinese conversation, I want anyone who does not understand Chinese to experience how clueless ESL students may be when reading a graphic novel or a picture book or even textbooks that are covered with words they do not understand. (Now you get it! Feel free to ask me to explain. I am willing to do so).