Working With Younger-Arriving ESL Learners in High School English: Never Too Late to Reclaim Potential

Abstract

Younger-arriving ESL learners often come to high school ill prepared for the demands of English literature courses. Although they may have acquired the phonological and grammatical system of English with relative ease and developed a basic vocabulary, they lack the breadth and depth of vocabulary and the related concepts that are necessary to engage with the abstract nature and cultural embeddedness of literature study. In probing behind this linguistic facade, we have been able to help our students make gains in the development of cognitive academic language proficiency as reflected in standardized achievement measures of academic writing. The acquisition of the cultural capital necessary for success in literature studies, however, is more problematic. New questions arise about student identity and cultural understandings that are central to the success of ESL learners in high school.