Reading to English Language Learners

I had never realized until I started visiting the preschools and childcare centers that our volunteers read at just how many small children there are in King County who don't speak english. This is even the case in more suburban areas where one might not think to look for especially diverse classrooms. At one head start site that we visited for instance, fourteen out of the twenty children enrolled in the program were native Spanish Speakers. We have also found programs that have found it useful to offer their own bilingual educator to help english learners fit in and to have someone to talk to. This begs the question though, what happens when kids don't have someone to speak to them in their own language?

This thought worries me more and more the more that I think about what these kids go through on a day to day basis. Not only are they learning an entirely new language with little or no help from adults at home, but they're also attempting to do this at the same time that they are developing their native language skills. It is widely thought that children are able to pick up a new language in the blink of an eye, but through the research I've done on the subject for my volunteers, I've found that it can take years for english language learners to catch up to their peers both academically and socially. One little boy that I worked with was in what they call the "quiet stage" of language development. Because he didn't have the basic words needed for classroom survival he remained silent, unable to communiate with his classmates or to take away all that he could from the learning opportunities going on around him. This is why I believe so strongly in the volunteer reader program. Yes it's helpful in developing the cognitive abilities of children who are native english speakers, but it also gives english learners the chance to interact one on one with someone who has nothing but time to listen, even if this involves nothing more than gestures and looking at pictures. It gives kids a chance to hear english spoken in a non-threatening environment, while at the same time providing another supportive adult relationship.