Without the support she receives in the English as a Second Language program, Carolina Bacelis would struggle to stay on track.
The 17-year-old has been in Green Bay – and the United States – since August and is cruising full-speed-ahead toward learning English.
“Everything what I do here is because of the ESL program,” Bacelis said. “The ESL program is spectacular because all the teachers are interested in the students.”
The Green Bay Press-Gazette is following Bacelis at Green Bay East High School and Maria Ocampo, 16, at Green Bay Preble High School as they learn English and adjust to life here. Ocampo gives ESL a B-plus.
“It’s a good program,” she said, adding she thinks there’s always room to improve.
Darryl Buck, a bilingual teacher who has Ocampo in an ESL writing class, agrees that determination is a key to learning a language.
“It’s like playing a musical instrument,” Buck said. “Some people pick it up and play it immediately, others have to practice for a long time, but anybody can play.”
Rating the ESL program
Ocampo and Bacelis like the mix of English instruction and Spanish support they receive in the ESL program. Teachers, too, think the program is on the right track.
“Green Bay’s, I think, pretty lucky to have this ESL and bilingual program going,” said Jeff Gumz, who teaches bilingual social studies and ESL language arts classes at East.
The bilingual element – where students take classes such as math and science in their first language until they begin to be proficient in English – was created a few years ago at East. The program at Preble began this year.
Buck said he would like students to get more support as they adjust to a new culture, deal with separation from friends or family and perhaps face racism.
“Socially, it’s hard to provide what they need,” Buck said.
Gumz said the bilingual classes are important so students don’t fall behind in academics while they’re learning English.
“The thing is, you’re not going to learn a language overnight,” he said.
ESL students are divided into five levels depending on their English abilities, with one the lowest and five the highest. As they progress through the levels, students get more instruction in English and less from bilingual teachers or aides.
Ocampo, a Colombian who has been here about one year, is in level four. Bacelis, a Mexican, was in level three but will move into level four when the second semester begins Monday.
Bacelis’ goal is to reach level five by next year. Level five students typically take all classes in English and receive help in Spanish only during resource classes – basically study hall with teachers on hand to answer questions.
Ocampo’s English goal isn’t tied directly to ESL levels.
“My goal is that everyone understands me,” she said.
Sometimes, she keeps quiet when she has something to say because she’s worried about being misunderstood.
Ocampo was telling a story when she saw a wrinkle appear on her friend’s forehead and stopped.
The friend “was like, ‘No, it’s OK, I understand.’ But I was afraid because her face looked confused,” Ocampo said.
A different approach
While Bacelis and Ocampo have the help of bilingual translators and teachers, an ESL program doesn’t necessarily include a student’s first language.
ESL teachers must take a foreign language, but aren’t required to demonstrate the same level of proficiency as a bilingual teacher would. Instead, their focus is on methods and strategies for teaching English to someone who doesn’t speak it – without speaking that person’s language.
Bacelis said her ESL teachers are “always trying to explain to you the most easier …”
“The easiest,” translator Jeremy O’Brien corrected.
“The easiest way,” Bacelis finished.
Gumz could explain things to Bacelis in Spanish in his English reading class.
But he rarely does. “I try to explain everything as much as I can in English,” he said.
Ocampo likes the challenge in her classes without a translator or teacher who speaks Spanish.
They’re harder, “but it’s going to be better because you’re forced to talk English all the time,” she said.
Leaving the comfort zone
As Bacelis and Ocampo become more proficient in English, they’re leaving the comfort of classes where a translator can bail them out if they don’t understand.
Ocampo’s “regular” classes are gym and algebra B.
“It’s hard sometimes because sometimes in math my teacher say something and I’m like, ‘Ah? What did you say?’ ” Ocampo said.
“The first day, I felt different, but now, no, I feel like everyone else.”
Bacelis still has a translator with her in her “regular” computer class.
“I try to do my best job in that class, but it’s too difficult,” she said.
She feels pressure being in a class with all English-speaking students.
“I have friends that help me, American friends,” Bacelis said. “You’re always afraid, though.”
What gets students beyond that fear is, in Spanish, “ganas,” Buck said. He defined the word as “yearning, a want … it’s the desire to learn.”
“The people who really desire it are going to be the ones that spend the extra 15 minutes going through the flashcards that they bothered to make,” Buck said.
Learning language important, students say
BY KELLEY BRUSS
PRESS-GAZETTE
Carolina Bacelis and Maria Ocampo don’t mind that state law requires them to learn English at school.
In fact, school lessons and homework don’t keep up with the girls’ motivation to learn. Both work in the evenings with an English tutor unconnected with school.
“You need to know to communicate the other people – with other people,” said Ocampo, a Preble High School student in the English as a Second Language program.
She doesn’t see the requirement to learn English as an affront.
“You are reaching a language, you are not getting rid of your language,” she said. “It’s necessary.”
Bacelis, a Green Bay East High School student in the ESL program, agreed.
“We need to know more,” she said. “If you know another language, you can understand a culture, you can understand a people. You have to learn the language where you are.”
And as long as the requirement to learn English is supported in Green Bay by the ESL program in place, the girls think it won’t be hard for a motivated student to learn.
“The teachers are great, oh, the teachers are great,” Bacelis said.
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