n 2004, Sports Illustrated reporter Gary
Smith traveled to one of the poorest towns in
America to find the magic behind an unlikely
dynasty in high school athletics—sons of migrant
field workers who had racked up nine California
state titles in a sport often considered the domain
of privileged youth: cross-country running. The
team’s coach, Jim White, jokingly credited their
success to a secret “voodoo juice” his runners
rubbed on their legs before meets. In truth, the real
magic, as depicted in the film
McFarland, USA, appears to
have come from within the
students themselves, most
of whom spoke English
as a second language.
These young men became
successful both athletically
and academically when
they came to see their challenges as strengths. Their
success story runs counter
to the larger narrative of the
achievement gap between
English language learners
(ELLs) and non-ELLs—a gap which, despite
various approaches being tried over the years, has
remained virtually unchanged since 1998 (Ross,
2015).
Second-Language Acquisition Is Complex
On the surface, learning a second language may
seem to be a simple one- to two-year undertaking.
Research shows, however, that it’s a far more
complex endeavor—or amazing feat, depending on
your point of view. Consider the depth of learning
required to become academically proficient in a
second language:
n Language learners learn the basics of reading
in a second language quickly, but comprehension
takes longer. ELLs can pick up decoding, word
recognition, and spelling within roughly two
years, but more complex skills, such as reading
comprehension and writing, take many more years
(Connell, 2004).
n Social English develops quickly; academic lan-
guage takes longer. Most second-language learners
become conversant in English within a relatively
short period of time. However, their apparent
fluency (which can lead them to be mainstreamed
into regular classrooms) can mask a lack of aca-
demic command of their second language—that
is, the ability to engage with complex classroom
content (Butcher & Ramirez,
2008).
n Vocabulary is key, but
building it requires robust
teaching strategies. A key
factor underlying these
phenomena appears to be
vocabulary. Even seemingly
fluent second-language
learners may still possess
only 2,000 to 7,000 words
in English compared to the
10,000 to 100,000 words
native speakers possess
(Burt, Peyton, & Van Duzer,
2005). This difference is crucial, as students’ 1st
grade vocabularies predict their reading compre-
hension 10 years later (Cunningham & Stanovich,
1997). Building academic vocabulary requires
not just having students memorize word lists, but
also giving them opportunities to practice struc-
tured classroom dialogue and to think about and
clarify word meanings (August, Carlo, Dressler, &
Snow, 2005).
Misconceptions
Mainstream teachers, however, often don’t receive
appropriate professional development on second-language acquisition (Apthorp, Wang, Ryan, &
Cicchinelli, 2012) and thus may underestimate
these complexities. Teachers might harbor misconceptions about second-language learners, which
in turn might influence how they interact with
Learning a second
language is a complex
endeavor (and amazing
feat) when you consider
the depth of learning
required.
I
Bryan Goodwin with Heather Hein
RESEARCH SAYS
Tap ELLs’ Strengths to Spur Success
