New immigrants

Just as the school's name indicates, Newcomers High School is for new immigrants. Even the "show-your-ID" notice at the school entrance is written in 15 languages. Of 900 students, about 180 are Chinese and 90 percent of them are ELLs, according to the school's principal, Orlando Sarmiento.

"Although the class is taught in Chinese, the tasks are fully in compliance with Common Core standards," said Lin, as his students were working on group projects.

The students had just read a Chinese novel called I Love Mary, about an immigrant from Taiwan in the 1970s when international diplomacy shifted toward Beijing away from Taipei.

Much of the rest of the class was done in American-style. In class, students write dialogues for movie scenes based on the novel and answer analytical questions.

Above a blackboard were three sheets of paper on how to write Chinese essays in a typical American format (topic sentence, supporting evidence, conclusion).

"Although they don't speak good English for the moment, they have the skills and basics now," said Lin, who has been working within the city's public school system for about 30 years. "So, when they have more English proficiency, they can catch up relatively easily."

As the children's English-proficiency improves, the amount of native language used decreases. By the time they have enough English proficiency, they will have full English classes.

In one of Spencer Liu's history classes at Newcomers High School, English is the only language, and students of different language backgrounds, including Spanish, Chinese, Bengali and Polish, study together.

Liu uses more simple English. When explaining the concept of a "republic," instead of academic definitions, he would just say "no king."

Dictionary and reference books in English and native languages are also in classrooms, so when students need extra guidelines, they can find help. Many of the books are directly imported from China.

Another type of bilingual program is dual language, where ELLs and English-proficient students study together rather than separately. There are nine dual language programs in the city. All classes are taught in two languages, as more parents find being bilingual is an advantage.

In dual language programs, "we want students to maintain both, because we understand the benefit of having kids maintaining their first language and able to carry the academic learning into English," said Tam, whose school will start its dual-language programs this September.

How schools help ELLs varies. At Lower Manhattan Community Middle School, only 11 percent of its 350 students are ELLs, and most are close to having adequate English proficiency so they will no longer be enrolled in ELLs.

"You wouldn't want somebody who isn't speaking English properly to serve as the model. We want to put [ELLs] students with students who can speak fluent English so they can see them as models," said the school's principal, Kelly McGuire. He said in his school most students, even from non-English speaking families, would acquire adequate English proficiency because they had to speak English to communicate with peers.

More than formal classroom sessions are being used to help students improve their English. Art also is believed to be an effective tool.

Since 2004, Lincoln Center Theater has been helping ELLs in the city through its LEAD (Learn English and Drama) program. Three teachers and three theater artists started the program when they found ELLs students struggled reading ordinary theater programs. Now, LEAD has expanded to 28 classes from 16 schools.

Students receive a 20-session theatrical training each year. Teachers and theater artists will choose a text and act it out, for example, Romeo and Juliet. Theater artists train students to speak with expression, articulation and projection to improve their listening and speaking. They analyze lines and figure out characters' emotions and important words for vocal emphasis.

"They have deep understanding of the text by acting it out," said Kati Koerner, the program's director. "They will get very comfortable with the language and very confident in speaking English in front of other people."

The students will usually share the play in their own school or become each other's audience, but sometimes they manage to put on performances in places like the Central Park.

MS131 is also partnering with organizations like Urban Arts Collaborative and Hester Street Collaborative, even though these organizations do not have specific programs for ELLs. "If I am creating a video, so I need a story board, I need to write my script, and if I am making a song, I need to create rhythm, which word goes with which note," said Tam.

Emotional outlet

Art also can be an effective emotional outlet for students in puberty as their awareness of self-identity and sexuality awaken, she said. "Not everybody is as out-going, but with art, you can let go some of these energies, both active and negative," said Tam.

By participating in plays, "the students forged emotional connections with the character, and they could discover themselves by pretending to be someone else," said Koerner.

The city's education department and public schools are encouraging parental support. The department will provide more training programs for parents of ELLs students, new guidance documents and multilingual videos for parents, said Richard Bellis, the department's ELLs curriculum specialist, when he spoke about ELLs students to the New York City Council education committee on Feb 27.

"I believe that parents can help support their children in their overall education on two fronts. To be engaged in their children's lives and be engaged in school," said Mitchel Wu, program manager of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and a member of the Citywide Council on English Language Learners.

"I encourage more Asian/Chinese parents to take on these roles, because currently, there are not many that serve," he said.

The Citywide Council on English Language Learners consists of 11 members and has advisory status to school authorities and the education department. In each of the 32 Community Education Councils in the city, there is also one seat set aside for an ELLs parent.

"We talk about what's available, what parents can do, to apply," said Teresa Arboleda, the council's chief. "We provide a forum." The council holds meetings at least once a month, and council members are in touch with parents via e-mail and flyers.

Teaching parents

Interpreters are also mandatory at parent-teacher conferences in the city's public schools, and schools like Newcomers are teaching parents what questions they can and should ask and how to check on the work their children are doing at home.

"One of the things we have to do with parents is teach them how to complain," said Sarmiento, "a lot of parents don't know how to complain how to ask teachers a question. For example, if there is a parent, I would ask him to ask the teacher to show the evidence my child is improving or not doing well."

Citywide Council on English Language Learners is working to open a program to teach parents English so they can be better and more involved in their children's education. Many non-profit organizations, like the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) and Asian Americans for Equality are already doing that.

"It is a motivating factor for parents to learn English, so they can talk to their kids, help with them with their homework and attend parent-teacher meetings," said Simon Chiew, who oversees the operation of CPC's adult literacy program on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, which has a high concentration of Chinese. "If they are more involved in their children's education, it could lead to the kids being motivated and performing better in school," said Chiew.

Contact the writer at huiquanlu14@chinadailyusa.com

Lu Huiquan in New York contributed to this story.