migration, language, ELLs

Korean 17.59% Spanish 90.57%

Spanish 13.07% Vietnamese 3.05

Persian 12.56% Korean 0.48

Hebrew 12.06%

French 10.55%

Mandarin 6.3 %

1964733 Los Angeles Unified. 3066456 Buena park elementary

Spanish. 92.92% 80.87

Korean. 0.94% 10.14

Filipino 0.79% 2.53

Armenian 1.18%

I have no experience working with ELL (English Learner Students by Language) yet. However, I am an international student. I graduated High School in Orange County District. My school was a private high school, so the ELL percentage was little different from the report of California Department. The report showing over 90 percent is Spanish students while my private school had less than 10 percent of Spanish students. My Prediction to Los Angeles Unified was correct. I’m currently living in Koreatown, and most of children, and adolescents go to school in Los Angeles Unified. Many of my friends graduated Los Angeles High School. They explained to me about ethnicity distribution at their school. Most of the students were from Spanish household and a pretty large percentage of students from Korean household. Friends who graduated Los Angeles High school are not speaking English well. They tended not to use English both at home and at school. Maybe the Spanish student’s situation could be different, but as far as I know about Korean students in Los Angeles High school are having trouble learning English. The report of Beverly Hills Unified is showing a few different data. ELL students are evenly distributed. Korean Percentages of ELL are same in Los Angeles Unified and Beverly Hills Unified. However, the total number of ELL students is 1000 times more in Los Angeles Unified (Los Angeles: 165,453, Beverly Hills:199). This will make a large difference in learning English. Teachers in Los Angeles Unified should put much effort in making English environment to ELL students. Since California has a large volume of foreigners moving in, the schools need to prepare for this. California passed “English Only” law, but I think it needs to be changed. I understand and agree with that “to live in United States, a person must be able to speak English.” It is important to provide English environment at school, but we need more than that. The Spanish population is growing, and other foreigner distribution rate is growing too. Only providing ESL classes are not enough to help ELL students. Young age ELL are better at learning new language, but Students who moved to United States at high school age will suffer from learning English and adapting American Culture. We’ve learned from the last topic about bilingual immersion Schools. If I am a parent, I would love to send my kid to Bilingual immersion school before age 13 rather than make then attending Los Angeles Unified schools.