Molly Kirby’s classroom at Clarion Area Elementary School might sound like a modern tower of Babel, but it is also the sound of learning.
Kirby is the Clarion Area School District’s English as a second language (ESL) coordinator, and it is her job to teach English to foreign-born students. It is not an easy task when the students may speak a dozen different languages.
“Currently, we have seven students in the program,” said Kirby. “In the past few years we have had students from all over – Saudi Arabia, China, Guatemala, Pakistan; so we are speaking Urdu, Chinese, Spanish, Nepalese and Portuguese.”
“Most people think they come here for the university, but most – 80 percent of them – are not associated with the university,” said Kirby.
Teaching students from so many diverse cultures requires a variety of tools. “People often ask how you teach them if you don’t know their language,” said Kirby. “You figure each other out. A smile is a smile in all languages. You need to make them feel comfortable. You start with pictures and single words and it grows quickly.
“A big part of it is making them feel comfortable. Some students go through what they call the silent period when they first come to class. They don’t even want to try. It is a new country, a new culture and a new language. It really depends on the personality of the student as well.”
Having a foreign language background is not a requirement to teach ESL.
“I know how to teach English,” she said. “I don’t need to know their language to teach them English. It would be easier, but I have not had many students who had zero English.”
Many of the students, she said, have had some English language courses.
“In a lot of countries they started to learn English when they were in kindergarten,” said Kirby. “They come with a pretty good English base. A lot of their words are similar to English words. For instance, they say cat just as we do in English. It depends on their educational background and what school they went to in their home country.”
In addition, Kirby said, some students students who came here were never formally instructed in their home language.
“The students can read and write English and their parents cannot, but they cannot read and write their home language,” she said. “They just speak their home language.
“We have had a couple of students who came to us with no English at all. Technology helps a lot. We use translators and give them as much help as they need to get through the day.”
Walter said adults must remember kids brains change and develop so quickly that “if you just immerse these kids they pick up things without being taught.”
Kirby said she is “so proud” of the school district and “how great the kids have been” with the English Language learners. “They think it is so cool that these kids know another language.”
Sometimes, students are the best teachers,” said Walter.
Kirby said the students usually do not have trouble adapting to the American culture.
“Some of them do have difficulty adapting to our classroom routine, however,” she said. “They have adapted to our culture, and their families are OK with that.”
Walter said, “We are dealing with the educational component and children accept everything. It is hard to put yourself in the minds of students because they don’t have the same fears or the same beliefs that we, as adults, have. They come in and become immersed into our culture.”
Kirby said there is the social language and the academic language.
“They pick up the playground language very quickly. That’s easy to pick up,” she said. “My job is to teach them the academic language, the technical science words, reading words and vocabulary.”
“When it comes to language acquisition, the younger the better,” said Walter.
Kirby said there are several different language acquisition levels.
“The state requires a test every spring that measures what language proficiency level they fall into,” Kirby said. “There are six different levels, and your goal is to get them to exit ESL.”
She said Clarion University has been valuable.
“When we have parent-teacher conferences, they have helped us out immensely by being the interpreter. They have been a great resource,” said Kirby.
Walter said the top challenge for the district is the unknown.
“We have no way of preparing for the next year until we meet the student and their family,” said Walter. “Our schedules change, our materials change and the needs of the students change. It is a very fluid program.
“A student from any country in the world could walk in and enroll tomorrow.”
And, Kirby said,”That’s what makes it fun.”