Attendees of this year’s English Language Learners Conference got a chance to learn how to teach children whose first language isn’t English.

Joy Russell, early childhood, elementary and middle level education department chair, opened the English Language Learners Conference by describing how a student whose first language is not English feels when they start school.

The conference was held Friday and Saturday in Buzzard Hall by the Student Association for Education of Young Children or SAEYC, featuring lectures put on by Eastern professors and two guest speakers.

Russel told the future teachers Illinois has more than 100,000 English language learners or ELLs. Citing an Illinois 2007 report, Russel explained 81 percent of the ELL speak Spanish, and noted that Coles County has 42 ELLs. She added that every county in Illinois has reported ELLs.

Audrey Edwards, director of the integrated secondary education program, and Rose Gong, an English and Chinese as a second language teacher, finished out Friday’s conference with a joint presentation.

“I’m here for professional development,” said Maggie Belpedio, a senior early childhood education major who is in charge of advertising and fundraising for SAEYC.

She also wants to learn strategies to help teach ELL students.

Danielle Heeren, a junior early childhood education major, came to the conference because she has a passion for teaching and said she has good chance of teaching students who will need what she plans to learn here.

“I decided to come because reading is crucial to learning,” Heeren said.

At Gong and Edwards’ presentation, “Education ELLs: What it’s all about?” the professors tested students on their ELL knowledge, talked about the chances of having an ELL student in class and gave some tips to make students feel included.

Jennifer Hixson, a teacher and former director of Urbana’s Bilingual and Multicultural Program, talked Saturday morning. Hixson talked about literacy, comprehension, difficulty with learning English and content accessibility.

After living in Alaska, Hixson got a job teaching English as a second language and took classes obtaining certification in the field.

With 400 to 500 ELL and ESL students in Urbana’s K-12 system, Hixson taught students from all over the world.

“I learned about the world and how education is done,” Hixson said.

Hixson’s knowledge is not limited to Illinois.

She has been to Japan instructing Japanese teachers about how to help students who are of Japanese heritage, but were born in Brazil speaking Portuguese.

Felicia Coster, a junior elementary education major and the president of SAEYC, said there will be more events in the future.

“This is a young organization, and I’m working hard to build it into a bigger one on campus,” Coster said. “There’s great information presented by the teachers. I’ll get a better understanding of ELLs from the people who work with them.”

The next SAEYC event will be a joint venture with WEIU, featuring Jeni Huckstep, called “Word World” and “Feelings” 7 p.m. Wednesday at Room 1103 in Buzzard Hall.

James Roedl can be reached at 581-7942 or jmroedl@eiu.edu.

Randy Kalal, an English-as-a-second-language instructor in Mattoon, talks about the number of ESL students by Illinois community during Saturday’s English Language Learners Conference in Buzzard Hall hosted by the Student Association for the Education of

(more…)