I have also found that many of my pre-or low level literate Spanish speaking Mexican/Central American  high school/adult aged students have one of two things going against them - They either have vision issues requiring glasses that they've never had the finances to deal with or have learning issues or disabilities that haven't been diagnosed or addressed. 




 --- On Fri 11/04, Glenda L. Rose < glenda at english-now.us > wrote:
From: Glenda L. Rose [mailto: glenda at english-now.us]
To: englishlanguage at dev.nifl.gov
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:44:26 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [EnglishLanguage] pre-literate?

True, Paul, but not all Mexicans have the resources to<br>attend school. Although the education is free, the<br>textbooks and transportation are not.  (Or family<br>constraints determine that it is not important for<br>certain children to go to school - especially girls. <br>This seems especially true for my students over 40.) <br>A lot of my Central American and Mexican students had<br>interrupted schooling.  Many are preliterate or have a<br>very low level of literacy in their first language,<br>which does make it more difficult for them to develop<br>literacy in English - not impossible, just more<br>difficult (and frustrating for them as well.)  Just<br>like people who cannot read and write in English in<br>the US, many of these students are embarassed to admit<br>that they can't read and write in Spanish and it takes<br>a little observation and detective work to figure it<br>out.  When I confront a student, I make sure they<br>understand that I am not criticizing or 
blaming them,<br>but that in order to help them I need to know what<br>they are able to do in Spanish. <br><br>I debate with myself about whether it is better to<br>encourage the students to learn to read and write in<br>Spanish first or continue with English.  I usually<br>have a conference with the student to talk about these<br>options and let them make the decision.<br><br>--- PAUL ROGERS <pwaynerogers at yahoo.com> wrote:<br><br>> In a previous post, someone mentioned the following:<br>> <br>> Though there is an ever-growing population of ESL<br>> learners particularly adolescents and adults who are<br>> preliterate (meaning that their L1 does not have a<br>> written form).  Which means that this population<br>> does<br>> not have the opportunity of being literate in their<br>> L1.  <br>> <br>> I am interested in knowing which people do not have<br>> a<br>> language with a written form.<br>> And what percentage of ESL students fall into this<br>> catgegory?<br>> <br>> In my 
experience, most Spanish speakers are very<br>> literate. Mexico, for example, has a fairly decent<br>> public education system.<br>> Paul Rogers<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> 	<br>> 		<br>> __________________________________ <br>> Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 <br>> http://mail.yahoo.com<br>> <br>> <br>> ----------------------------------------------------<br>> English Language Learners mailing list<br>> EnglishLanguage at dev.nifl.gov<br>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings,<br>> please go to <br>> http://dev.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage<br>> <br><br><br><br><br><br>----------------------------------------------------<br>English Language Learners mailing list<br>EnglishLanguage at dev.nifl.gov<br>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to <br>http://dev.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage<br>

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