REDUCE ANXIETY IN MAINSTREAM ESL STUDENTS

Reduce anxiety in mainstream ESL students

Reduce anxiety in mainstream ESL students

Introduction

Problem Statement

The problem was that English as a second and foreign language students in grade nine lacked the skills to cope with reading comprehension tests. Students did not have the tools to achieve high scores in reading comprehension tests. They did not have effective reading strategies to guide them on their reading comprehension tests.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine the causes of this problem and provide a workable curriculum program for grade nine students on the skills they lacked and improve student scores on reading comprehension tests within a particular junior high school setting. ESL/EFL learners found reading for information easy in their first language but more difficult in a second or foreign language.

Description of Work Setting

The research project took place at a junior high and high school located in this suburban community. The student population of the district consisted of approximately 1500 students. The cultural make-up of the schools was approximately 60% of European origin, 39% of Eastern origin, and 1% of Ethiopian origin. There were no special education classes in ESL/EFL although the school had diagnosed 30% of the student population as learning disabled. There were two physically handicapped students.

The schools divided classes (grades 7 to grade 12) into 3 levels of ESL/EFL proficiency. The levels coincided with the levels of the ESL/EFL "Bagrut" examination modules. All students received 4 hours of ESL instruction from grade 7 to grade 12. Students received ESL/EFL instruction according to their proficiency level. The school policy was to remove non-readers from regular class settings during lessons. They received extra help during class hours and in the afternoons.

Theoretical framework

The problem was that ESL/EFL students in grade 9 lacked the skills to cope with reading comprehension tests. Many ESL/EFL students received low or failing grades in English as a core subject because they performed poorly on the reading comprehension parts of the tests. They did much better on oral and listening comprehension.

Every student in Israel must learn English for at least 8 years, from grade 4 to grade 12. At the end of grade 12, there is a final examination called the English "Bagrut" which evaluates 4 skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Most of the final exams consist of reading comprehension passages.

Reading comprehension tests are very difficult for most learners because of Hebrew interference and lack of worldly knowledge. The questions are very tricky and demand more than knowledge of the English language. They require a broad knowledge of world events and of different cultures. Most students find the questions very ambiguous.

One of the reasons for this is Hebrew interference. Hebrew is very different from English. It reads from right to left the letters are completely different since it does not use European letters. ESL students of Hebrew are at a disadvantage just like other learners of eastern languages. There is a tendency for ESL learners to translate the ...