Ethnographic Studies of School Success and Failure

Valdez, G. (1998) The World Outside and Inside Schools: Language and Immigrant Children.     Education Researcher 27, (6) 0-18.

△ This Article is based on an ethnographic study of 2 Spanish speaking middle school immigrants who came to America knowing very little English. It focuses on their difficulty with acquiring English and making the transition into our schools. Valdez studies two female middle school students named Elisa and Lilian.    

△ The audience intended for this article is teachers and high school administrations with the purpose to inform.

△ Valdez wishes to investigate how and why immigrant children struggle when they come to America with little English speaking ability and have to make the transition into mainstream English classes.  

△ Valdez explains how Mission Vista schools had a surge in the number of Spanish/Latino students in the 1980’s due to affordable housing. The schools were not prepared for this new student population. Valdez’s article is important because this is now what is happening all over the country particularly here in the bay area with a very diverse student population.

△ Many mainstream teachers in Valdez’s study were not willing to come out of their comfort zones and assist immigrant students.

△ Although, these students were intrinsically motivated at the start they became frustrated when the school system didn’t foster their transition into learning English to perform well in school.

△ The school that Valdez looked at was divided into 4 levels of ESL for speakers of other languages, but students rarely were allowed to reach the advanced level. We saw this in the case of Elisa.

△ Students were taught in large multi-level classes of varying levels of proficiency by what sounds like the Grammar Translation Method of learning English. The immigrant students didn’t work in groups or do any meaningful learning in their classes. The students were segregated from the mainstream students and had little opportunities communicating in the target language.

△ Elisa became very motivated to learn and Lilian lost interest. Elisa almost had to beg her teachers to help her. Valdez states, “Elisa on the other hand, carefully copied sentences down in her notebook, looked ahead in the textbook, and asked to be allowed to hear the tape that accompanied the textbook”(p.8).   

△ Despite how hard Elisa’s mother tried her English speaking abilities were not strong enough to help her daughter and communicate with teachers at the school.

△ Valdez helped Elisa get out of what she called “The ESL ghetto” by assisting her in enrolling in a school where she could take mainstream courses, but she faced the same issues when she tried to attend college.

• How might you summarize the article in a few sentences? Teacher and schools may not be prepared for the diverse student population that is currently within our schools. There is a misconception that second language acquisition is relatively easy and that all students can learn English the same way and within the same time frame. There are ESL teachers in our schools that may not be trained or not trained well enough to help students who come here knowing zero English. Administrations need to set the bar higher for students so they can learn rather than continue to put them in remedial classes. We need better testing to assess students English speaking abilities.