It never fails to impress me when somebody knows more than
one language. I tried in vain for years to learn Spanish, and for some reason,
it just never clicked. This is why when I look at the English Language Learners
(ELL) in my classroom, I know that they are capable of so much. Randy Bomer
points out that not everyone believes this is the case: “Unfortunately,
educators too often tend to see students who speak languages other than English
as their first language as deprived rather than rich, as problems to fix rather
than resources to draw upon” (41). I never want to look at any of my students
as “problems,” and this is why I think learning how best to assist ELL students is so
important.
