Learning English and learning in English

Conventional wisdom in most Twin Cities schools is that Somali-born students have an amazing facility for gaining fluency in the English language quickly. This is seen as a great positive for this significant immigrant population and it certainly is, in terms of social adaptation.

Martha Bigelow works with several Somali
teens to improve their literacy skills.

Martha Bigelow, assistant professor in second languages and cultures in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, isn’t so sure it’s a plus when it comes to education. “One thing Somali teens tend to have in common is that their English is remarkably accurate and becomes comprehensible very quickly. My hunch is that this apparent fluency is getting them exited from English as a second language (ESL) services too soon,” Bigelow says.

“Literacy—simply defined as reading and writing in English—is the problem. When it comes to the literacy skills needed to achieve in school, it can be clear that many teens with limited formal schooling don’t understand the language in that context. Holding a conversation is not the same as being able to decode and write academic language.”

Bigelow is conducting intensive research to find out if and how literacy in a native language affects the acquisition of oral skills in a second language. She is working with the Somali student population in Minneapolis to explore those questions.

“Some Somali teens can read Somali. There are others who cannot decode a single word of Somali text. Those that can’t or won’t are most often girls who have not had access to educational opportunities or an adult mentor,” Bigelow says.

Because ESL teacher preparation often assumes literacy in some language, “it has been a challenge for me and my students to reconceive of the beginning reader as someone in his or her teens.” she says. “We have had to envision instruction that uses oral skills in much more substantial ways than usual to create a bridge to literacy skills, sort of the way elementary teachers do.”

Bigelow says that little research has been done that looks at the relationship between first-language literacy and second-language oral fluency. “I have questions about how different types of high school experiences can make low literacy less of an obstacle,” she says. “Through the students I’m working with, I am learning how teachers successfully engage their low-literate teenaged English language learners in high school classes.”

—Peggy Rader