English Language Learners

I know this is a late note, but I cannot stop thinking of the children who are getting assesses at the time they enter kindergarten or the new grades! I had the same experience myself being anxious and worried about the result. In addition, reading about the teacher social skills rating (TSRS) made me think of my POP about children who are English language learners. In my opinion, not knowing English has effect on most of the skills. As I talked with my colleagues, infants and toddlers generally don’t communicate verbally, so ELL child can easily play and imitate other children (parallel play). “Observing and imitating peers, beginning to play “follow the peer” games, and observing and playing briefly with peers” are the indicators of the “social interest” (ELECT, 2007, p. 35). On the other hand, older children have more difficulties to adopt to the new environment and socialized, as language becomes more dominant in the social skills. For ELL child, who just join the English environment, the language become barrier to communicate effectively. “Not speaking the same language is a barrier to inclusion” (Hardacre & Dumais, 2013, p. 485).

Rock &Stenner (2005) mentioned, “ ‘Interpersonal skills’ rates the child’s behavior in forming and maintaining friendships; getting along with people who are different; helping and comforting other children; expressing feelings, ideas, and opinions in positive ways; and being sensitive to the feelings of others” (P. 22). My concern is how the educators are able to assess those children even in the other aspect of developmental stage when the child is not able to communicate and express her/his self?

Furthermore, they might have hard time expressing their feeling to resolve any conflict with peers which is one of the indicator of “Conflict Resolution and Social Problem-Solving Skills” (ELECT, 2007, p. 43). On the other hand, exposed to new language can be handled easier in preschool than older children. “Social language can be picked up more quickly, through mimicking in social interactions” (Hardacre & Dumais, 2013, p. 471).

Also, what if the children get frustrated because they cannot express themselves? Are they consider as a behavioral problem?  As Rock & Stenner (2005) stated, “ ‘Externalizing problem behaviors’ measures the likelihood that a child argues, fights, gets angry, acts impulsively, and disrupts ongoing activities. ‘Internalizing problem behaviors’ measures anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and sadness.”  I am afraid if the culture and the language differences cause children to get the low mark from their assessment, so that they feel different from others.