Free Essay: Advocacy for English Language Learners Students

English language learners are drastically increasing, especially in public schools in the united states, posing a significant challenge to educators and the education system. Often educators are unprepared to meet the need of linguistically different learners, and the schools lack enough resources for educating the ELL. Often they are left with limited access to academic content resulting in their negligence. They also struggle more to gain academic success as they spend most of their time struggling to learn English, a tool essential for success. For an individual to move a challenge that ELL students face a public agenda without making them feel like strangers in school. An advocate should organize an advocacy campaign via the policymaking process. Becoming an advocate for ELL students as an individual, my first action plan will be to gather background information from all the ELL students. I will also set a clear policy objective, and finally, I will develop my key strategies before and during the campaign process.

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Some of the ways to advocate for ELL students within and outside the school include; volunteering to present various approaches that both teachers and parents can use to support the ELL students. Advocating for ELL students in the community helps in facilitating involvement and empowerment, having in mind that all the students are equal even though the ELL students are not fluent while speaking in the language they are learning. While in school, advocacy for ELL students enables one to tell to teachers and other students the need to understand that those students with non- English –speaking backgrounds require specialized instructions using the language they intend to learn so that they may not feel discriminated.

Advocacy principles are; equality and diversity, where advocacy campaigns should meet the needs of ELL students. These needs are; to eliminate discrimination, equal excellent opportunities to all students those from English- speaking background and those from non- English- speaking backgrounds, teachers and parents must foster good relations between all the students within the schools. Empowerment and putting other people first as another advocacy principle. An advocate should focus on ELL students by encouraging them to focus on what they want to achieve at the end of the English course. Ensuring when the campaign ends, all the ELL students receive equal treatment in all schools and communities. Confidentiality is also a principle of advocacy. It helps an advocate to develop a relationship of trust between him and ELL students making them tell their stories on all the challenges they face as ELL students within the school.

Essential characteristics to possess as an ELL educator are; certified professional, empathetic educator, and communicator. A certified professional helps the ELL teacher in preparedness and professional development training. As he /she has to teach, those who are not the native speakers of English and preparedness help him or her increase confidence. Through empathy, ELL teachers can put themselves in the situation of the students. Empathy helps them to understand what ELL students are feeling; hence they demonstrate a caring and supportive attitude toward them. If an ELL teacher possesses the ability to relate to and communicate with ELL students, they provide a bridge between the ELL students and the school and the community. Some of the steps to adopt the mentioned traits include earning a bachelor's degree, considering training in the English language, and considering a master's degree.