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- This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c)
- It originates from the Evil House of Cheat
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- Essay Name : 1579.txt
- Uploader :
- Email Address :
- Language : English
- Subject : Education
- Title : The obstacle to live
- Grade : 3.8
- School System : 4.0
- Country : USA
- Author Comments :
- Teacher Comments : The essay clearifies a lot of issues that the international students face and Americans do not notice.
- Date : 25 November, 1996
- Site found at : yahoo site
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- The obstacle to live.
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- Education in America is available to everyone,
- regardless whether a student is U.S.born or an immigrant.
- This fact opens a huge world of the opportunities in front
- of everyone, no matter what nationality and culture you
- belong to. For young immigrants, American Education means
- the achievement of the very stair where they can stand as an
- equal part of the American society they live in and to be
- helpful for the country they have chosen to be their home
- and that gives them such incredible opportunities.
- Although immigrants to the U.S. come from diverse
- backgrounds and cultures, almost all of them face similar
- challenges on the way to their dreams and goals. Young
- immigrants cannot be equal competitors or equal members of
- the American teams because of the proficiency in English
- that create all their problems.
- Every immigrant student has to lead a double life,
- being suspended between an old and a new home. Every day
- they come to the school and enter an American way of life
- and English language; every day they come back home in their
- own culture and traditions, speak their mother tongue with
- their families. All of them are put in the limits of
- helplessness and difference. Imperfection in English lacks
- any practice of this. They are not able to communicate with
- the people that are around them now, and therefore cannot be
- completely free in their lives.
- Mastering English is common and the most important
- problem for every immigrant student. Nevertheless, all of
- them are passionate about learning common language because
- now every aspect of their future depends on it. But it takes
- years to know English on American level and students differ
- in their abilities to the learning of other languages not
- only by their individual characteristics but also by the
- features of their own language. For example, Russian
- alphabet has almost one half of the letters that are similar
- to ones in English alphabet. But what about Japanese where
- there is no even a single letter similar to English one?
- The same is true about oral speech and pronunciation in the
- variety of languages, like in Asian languages, they are
- absolutely different from English language.
- It can be a different kind of problem for everyone; and
- for the international students it is linked directly to
- succeed academically. It often happens that the skills in
- understanding, speaking, reading, and writing English are
- limited enough to deny students the chance to learn in
- classrooms where the teaching is only in English. Immigrant
- students are often inappropriately placed in special
- education, and are at a double risk to be placed in low
- academic tracks because of language limitations. As an
- example, my younger brother was placed in grade 7 instead of
- grade 9 only because of his English skills, but not because
- of his level of knowledges. It turns out to be that the
- students are evaluated by their ability to speak English but
- not by their academic performance.
- This is a stressful time for every international
- student. Poor English lacks every point of interaction with
- Americans, lacks any chance to succeed. However, this makes
- stronger their passion about learning English. For them, it
- is the only thread that ties them with the future where they
- dream of being. They want to be equal with Americans and
- not to be considered as ESL students. They tend to have
- more similarities with American society where the strongest
- one is the language, a unifying force of an incredible
- diverse population.
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