Remote hurdle for English learners
For Tania Trujillo, 6, distance learning is a disaster. She faces some of the same obstacles other kids struggle with — distraction, missing friends — but there’s another hurdle as well: She’s an English language learner.
Her mother, Maria Trujillo, a San Francisco stayathome mother of three and an immigrant from Mexico, worries that Tania, only six weeks into first grade, will have to repeat it. Maria is struggling to help Tania when her own English is limited and she must use her phone to translate schoolwork. That makes it tough to help not just Tania, but her sixthgrader, Blanca. Both girls are at Thomas Edison Charter Academy.
Tania and her sister are among more than 10,000 English language learners in San Francisco’s public schools — more than 28% of the district’s students and among about 1.148 million statewide. Figuring out how to serve these students is crucial since language barriers compound the challenges of remote learning.
COVID19 forced Bay Area schools into remote learning through the spring, and only a handful have returned to inperson classes this fall. Immigrant students face disparities that heighten the challenges of distance learning. They tend to live in crowded homes and may not be able to find a quiet place to attend class or study. Technology may be harder to access for lowincome families, and immigrant parents may not know how to use computers. Even with districtissued hot spots, WiFi is spotty and students lose connectivity during live instruction.
English learners, in particular, also lose a vital component of their education. Many of these students need kinesthetic learning — the physical side of schooling that requires a student to “do” rather
than just perceive — to successfully develop English language skills.
“Virtual learning is going to widen the learning curve and the educational gap for English learners and students who come from lowincome neighborhoods,” said Erik Vargas, youth program manager at the Unity Council, a nonprofit organization in Oakland. “In a school setting, you’re able to provide that oneonone support by sitting next to them during instruction, and that’s something that is very hard to replicate.”
Miguel de Loza, supervisor of SFUSD’s elementary school multilingual programs, said Zoom meetings can sometimes be detached and impersonal, which may diminish English language teachers’ ability to engage students in academic conversations. De Loza said these students might fall behind without inperson language instruction, which relies heavily on visual cues and body language.
“There are many clues that are not present when you’re in a Zoom call that are there when you are in person,” de Loza said. “When you are learning another language, you look for every clue that you can get to make sense of what’s happening.”
On Zoom, teachers use breakout rooms to place students in smaller groups so that they have more time and opportunity to speak in class, but de Loza said it is a “trial and error” process to determine what’s most beneficial. That process included workshops to teach parents how to use remote learning software and how to translate webpages.
At San Francisco International School, a small public school in Potrero Hill designed to serve students who’ve been in the country less than four years, teachers have struggled with how to transition books, art materials and science kits to remote online learning.
“With English language learners, you want kinesthetic, visual and auditory learning. We’re trying to figure out how to make that kinesthetic piece happen,” said Principal Tara Hobson. The school serves about 400 students from 27 countries who speak 17 different languages.
The pandemic hit immigrant families, many who were already struggling, particularly hard.
Taylor Liang, who came with her family to San Francisco from China four years ago, lost her job during the pandemic, making her husband the sole breadwinner in the household.
Her son Matthew, an English learner in 10th grade, attends school remotely, but Liang worries that he is not learning well online.
She said her son might struggle to learn English because he is no longer physically present in the classroom. Still, she said remote learning is the best option during the pandemic because they won’t potentially be exposed to the virus at school.
Immigrant children tend to live with extended family and young children, said Basma Khafaga, a world history teacher at San Francisco International High School. Although large households provide more familial support, these environments may not be conducive to remote learning. Households may be noisy and internet connections overburdened.
“Very often they’ll turn on their microphones and you’ll hear conversations between adults, or children yelling and screaming in the background, and that makes it really hard for them to learn,” Khafaga said.
Recently arrived immigrant students typically need more help with technology because they experienced interrupted levels of education or they did not interact with computers in their home country prior to enrolling in a U. S. school, Hobson said.
Since March, English language educators say they’ve worked hard to adjust the curriculum, solve technological problems and address students’ basic needs.
To reduce teacher burnout and allow for more inclass language instruction, San Francisco International High School has one teacher helping students with technology while the primary teacher explains the lesson. Staff who used to work on campus, such as security and sports coaches, also provide additional language instruction.
Immigrant parents also feel the challenges of remote learning. Some supervise children all day, but others are unable to because they work. Many of the parents do not speak English well themselves and enlist the help of their children to help the younger ones with schoolwork.
When she is not doing her own homework, Blanca, 11, helps Tania with hers.
“Since my mom doesn’t know that much English, I try to help my sister,” Blanca said.
Although remote instruction may not be ideal for language learning, being home offers more opportunity for children to strengthen their native language and cultural identity.
“We don’t hear enough about how these children’s homes are actually very beautiful places to be,” said Cati de los Ríos, an assistant professor of literacy, reading, and bi/ multilingual education at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. “Bilingual children are taking on these new roles, but children are learning beyond measure alongside their siblings and parents and communities.”
Despite difficulties, Sandy AguilarMarroquin, a senior at San Francisco International High School, does not mind online education. With remote learning, she can go at her own pace and take time throughout the day to help her mother with household chores.
AguilarMarroquin said the biggest challenge is finding a quiet place to participate in Zoom classes. She lives on Mission Street, where ambulances pass by “every five minutes.” She also shares a room with her mother, and she cannot unmute herself and speak in class while her mom is on the phone.
Despite challenges, Khafaga is optimistic her students will succeed.
“These kids are incredibly resilient and try much harder to join us in Zoom or to reach out to us. We see them working at like 11 o’clock at night on Google Classroom, trying to finish the work and do their best,” Khafaga said. “Although I am concerned, I have absolute faith that they’ll overcome it.”