"Math is lagging by a year." "Reading and Writing are lagging by 3 years." Is this a learning deficit. Maybe not..."That student in the room with the worst grades may be behind because of language learning . Acquiring fluency in a language for academic purposes can take many years past the oral acquisition stage.
It takes anywhere from 2 to 7 years to acquire a language. Yet, we often assume that if a student has been in a language program for 3-4 years and speaks (almost ) fluently then academics should be in par with their oral skills. However, this is not always true. Academic lags may exist for many years past the acquistion of oral skills due to weak knowledge of the vocabulary, idioms, and/or semantics.
What is the solution? Offering more English support. Breakdown the English curriculum into English Composition, English Literature and English survey (reading mastery). Offer all of these to ELL students until they can meet the curriculum standards. Teach to Mastery.
