English Learners in School

With the influx of students arriving from various islands and other places, our schools are populated with multi-ethnic groups from non-speakers to different levels of English proficiency.  As a result, Guam Department of Education has instilled programs such as Language Other Than English (LOTE), English As A Second Language (ESL) to assist students in learning English to meet academic requirements and content standards in the schools (Guam Department of Education website, Programs).  

Speaking from my personal experience, when as a child entering school, I was not a proficient English speaker. Chamorro was my first language and I only knew basic words in English to communicate what I wanted, which of course was my favorite food and other needs. I learned English in school from a program that I went to daily for half an hour.  It was very frustrating at that time because it was delivered electronically and above all it was boring and monotonous. I slept through the whole program.  Consequently, I have no idea how I survived my English speaking experience.  

However, being an educator in the public schools, observing students in ESL classrooms, I noticed that they are enjoying their language learning experiences because ESL educators are making it very interesting and enjoyable by applying best practices and strategies in teaching L2 learners, unlike my experiences when I was a child entering school and learning a second language.