Should ESL students use English only in class and around campus?

Question

Do you think should ESL students use English only in class and around campus?

Answer 1

The more you use it, the quicker you learn it.

Answer 2

ESL is really a misnomer. ESL students are really English speaking students, who have a "tradition," language possibly spoken at home or at a grandparents house. I would have been considered an ESL student (if we had it in those days), because my mother and family spoke Spanish to their parents. But they never spoke Spanish to us, so we never learned it.

So most ESL students already use English as their dominant language (even though the acronym stands for English as a Second Language).

ELL are your real English Language Learners. They predominantely speak a language other than English, and may come to school speaking absolutely no English.

So the answer to your question is - ESL students already use English in class, around campus, and just about every place else. They may be exposed to another language at home - and trying to learn and / or maintain their tradition language - such as Spanish, Navajo, Keres, etc.

Education is a much more confusing business than most people realize. Although it doesn't really have to be that way - that is how it is currently set up.

Answer 3

ESL students should use only English in class and around campus if they are serious about learning to speak English.

Language immersion training is very effective - if immersion actually takes place.

I spent two weeks in Playa del Carmen Mexico last summer doing intensive language training. Unfortunately there are so many Americans (and Europeans) vacationing and living in Playa, that it is not a good place to go to learn Spanish.

For 92 years, Middlebury College in Vermont has been doing very good foreign language immersion programs on that campus. If you chose to attend one, you will pledge to speak NO English for the duration of the course. If you study Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese or Russian, you pledge to speak, read and write only in that language for the duration of the course. That is a good standard for intensive/immersion language training.

Answer 4

If they're just here as part of a study abroad program, that's one thing. In class, yes, I think they should only speak English. Just walking around campus and chatting with their friends, they shouldn't have to.

If they're here as a permanent resident, then they need to get used to speaking English in public. If people come to America, they need to learn English. I wouldn't go to Germany and expect everyone else to speak English for me. I'd learn German, because that is the language there.

Answer 5

My ex husband came as a refugee and taught esl. That said he began to go back when he began speaking his own language more. All my family speaks another language than english but among the younger kids we all use english. I

Answer 6

The nice thing about America is that we are free to speak whatever language we want.

Certaintly not speaking english in a American classroom may make it hard for others (assuming they are speaking english) to understand you.

Ultimatleu in the USA it help to learn the language to succeed.

Answer 7

YES, WE SHOUD NOT HAVE TO LEARN THERE LANGUAGE IF THEY DONT LEARN OURS