Running head: Supporting ESL students

Supporting ESL students in an Elementary Library Valerie E. Bogert LI 810XR Emporia State University December 2nd, 2011

Supporting ESL Students

Abstract
This research proposal outlines a focus group research project that seeks to determine the effectiveness of an elementary library in support of students learning English as a second language. Through three focus group studies using the staff at an elementary with a high population of English learners, it will be determined how the library is used, what materials are needed and effective ways of implementing changes if a need is determined. The results of this study if approved will be used to improve the library and others within the district.

Supporting ESL Students

Introduction
There is a growing trend occurring in the Springfield Public school district; the influx of non-English speaking immigrants from multiple countries. Harrison Elementary school has seen an explosion of growth in this area. The school was built in 2009 with just 40 ESL (English as a second language) students in attendance and 312 English speaking students. This year (2011) that number has jumped to 69 ESL students and 355 English speaking students and is expected to increase steadily each year. The school board has recognized this increase and recently acquired more funding to hire a second full time ESL teacher and one part time support staff. However, funding still remains limited for additional support beyond staffing. With the continued growth in this area there is a need for the school library to provide additional support to these students and the staff as they learn a new language. There are 16 countries represented in the school and the top 3 languages are Russian, Chinese and Spanish. A pie chart has been provided to show the mix of the 69 ESL students from their country of origin (see Figure 1). There are two full time ESL instructors and two part-time instructors that work with the students and teachers in the school. They provide instruction inside and outside of the classroom but do not provide help during visits to the library. This is due to the large amount of children that require their instruction within the classroom. Currently there are few resources in the library for ESL students. The library has less than two dozen bilingual books in its collection. In addition there are only three bilingual dictionaries that teach letters, numbers, basic words and sentence structure. These are only available in Russian, German and Spanish. The online catalog is only available in English and is not widely

Supporting ESL Students

accessed by any of the student population. Since the ESL population consists of many different cultures there is a need for more resources that support these students. Finally, overdue notices and communication sent from the library to students and parents is only provided in English. Any further communication must be made with a translator for families that do not speak the language, since English is the only language of both the Librarian and Library Assistant.

Problem Statement
The goal of this proposal is to discover ways in which the library at Harrison Elementary can provide support to its growing ESL population. The study will seek to show how the library can facilitate and encourage English language comprehension among the students, and to provide instructional support and materials to the ESL staff. It will also seek to determine the needs of the students, their parents and the teachers regarding communication, collection development and technology support. In addition, the study will look for cost effective ways in which the library can implement the findings. The librarian currently has $4000 in her budget to be used each school year. This money goes to collection development, student incentives, office supplies, teaching aids, and professional development. Since this library is only 3 years old the collection is not as extensive as others in the district. The primary focus of the librarian has been to get her collection up to the standards required by American Association of School Librarians. Any additional needs are often overlooked or put aside until more funding is made available. However, with the ESL student population growth over the past 3 years, the need for material and technology acquisition in this area is now a major concern.

Supporting ESL Students

Literature review
There is a serious lack of studies regarding elementary ESL students in a library setting. While searching for literature to support this study only research and reviews regarding secondary grades or college age students were found. What was found had more suggestion and opinion based writing rather than formal research. The lack of research in this area needs to be addressed and shows the need for a study such as this one. However, some of what was found can be adapted to the age group in this study. The American Association of School libraries published a supplemental report on English language learners or ELLs in 2009. This survey shows the responses of 5,824 school library media programs and has a 95% confidence rating. Some of the key highlights of this survey show that the student population of ELL students is highest in Elementary schools. Among 14% of responding schools, a student body with 25% or more ELL students was reported. (AASL, 2009) Out of the 25% or more ELL schools, Elementary schools ranked the highest at 19%. (AASL, 2009) With this report we can see how an elementary school such as Harrison follows this data, since there are 69 ELL students among the entire (424) student population; this equals about 16%. Included in the report were initiatives taken by librarians regarding ELL students. A surprising figure was that 40% of Libraries take no initiatives in dealing with ELL. Another 25% rated free-choice reading as the most effective initiative (AASL, 2009). Currently all students at Harrison Elementary are given free choice on what they would like to check out including ELL students. The students receive little to no guidance when they choose books. That coupled with a lack of native language materials shows that this school would fall in with the 40% that take no

Supporting ESL Students

initiative at all. This was also reflected in the survey question on Non-English publication in which 58% reported less than 1% makes up their collection (AASL, 2009). Currently Harrison has less than two dozen Non-English titles. In a 2010 article in Library Media Connection, titled School Librarians and English Language Learners, Larry Ferlazzo talks about how his school uses different strategies to engage ELL students. He uses internet resources to assist language development. He also makes a point to talk about how he only uses free resources and that they must provide some valueadded benefit to students (Ferlazzo, 2010). Using an article such as this in the research study can show how there are good free resources out there for librarians to use with ELL students. The only drawback is that it is written for Jr. High and High school students in mind. However, the translation tools suggested in the article that can still benefit ELL elementary students when they are doing research in the library. Two other notable tactics used in Ferlazzos article are the inclusion of bilingual and graphic novels and books created by the students for use in the library. Graphic novels appeal to large audiences and usually have short easy to digest sentences and coordinating graphics. This strategy can be easily adapted to an elementary setting with many age appropriate titles available in the market. Also, having students create their own books can be another way to introduce new cultures into the student body. These books share information about students native countries and can help develop a welcoming atmosphere to ease student anxiety, which can be a major barrier to language acquisition (Ferlazzo, 2009). Both of these strategies can easily be used in an elementary setting.

Supporting ESL Students

In another article on Matching books and readers: Selecting literature for English learners 2006, the authors Vardell, Hadaway and Young work to suggest ways in which teachers can build their classroom libraries to help with language comprehension. While this article is a bit biased on using mostly English language books, it does give good guides on selecting materials through four general principals; content accessibility, language accessibility, visual accessibility and cultural accessibility. This article mainly focuses on classroom libraries and not the school library. However, similar tactics can be employed within the school library. The authors make an excellent point on how the selection should be appropriate for not only the age level but interest level. Books selected for English learners should be appropriate for the age and interest level of the children. This task is more complex than it sounds. Especially with English learners, the typical grade-level suitability may not apply. The maturity backgrounds (family, cultural, language, and knowledge), and interests of English learners vary tremendously from totally non-English-speaking immigrants to native-born students who have general knowledge of English. In addition, English learners come to school speaking many different languages. Thus, choosing books in Spanish only, for example, neglects the needs of students whose first language may be Russian or Hmong. Given these considerations, picture books in English may often be the most appropriate literature choice, even with older students (Vardell, Hadaway, & Young, 2006, Where to begin, para. 1). This is another good example of the resources that are out there for teachers and librarians. Once the need has been determined through the research study these articles and

Supporting ESL Students

others can help the library apply what it has learned and compare it to what has worked and what has not with other schools. Finally it is important to note that the ALA has provided through its Library Bill of Rights an interpretation of why it is important to provide for ELL students.

While English is, by history and tradition, the customary language of the United States, the languages in use in any given community may vary. Schools serving communities in which other languages are used make efforts to accommodate the needs of students for whom English is a second language. To support these efforts, and to ensure equitable access to resources and services, the school library media program provides resources that reflect the linguistic pluralism of the community. (American Library Association [ALA], 2009)

Since Harrison Elementary is lacking in its resources for ELL students and staff there should be a thorough investigation of what should and could be done to help get the school on target with what is mentioned in the Library Bill of Rights and in the previously mentioned articles.

Research methods and questions

Due to the large number of multicultural students within the school the researcher will use 3 focus groups consisting of staff members to collect initial data. Based off the results of these focus groups a decision to further the study to include students and parents will be made. The first focus group study will seek to gain insight from the ESL teachers, classroom teachers and the librarian. Group one will be comprised of the four ESL full time and part time instructors and the Librarian. The second focus group will have two teachers represent each grade from

Supporting ESL Students

Kindergarten through 2nd grade, a total of 6 teachers. The final group will have both of the 3rd grade teachers, the 3rd/4th split teacher and both 4th grade teachers for a total of 5 participants. The groups were split to accommodate the age ranges of the students represented and to put the instructors into homogeneous groups. Each group will meet in the main study lab with the facilitator, transcription assistant and researcher. The entire session will be scheduled on a teacher/staff workday when students are not in school. Each focus group will last approximately an hour and a half and will be recorded for later analysis. Participants will receive credit for attending these sessions that can be put towards their mandatory professional development hours required by the district. In addition each participant will be entered to win one of three $15 gift certificates to Barnes and Noble. Coffee and cookies will also be provided. The focus groups will seek to answer the question of how the library can support ESL students, teachers and staff at Harrison Elementary. All questions will be presented in an open question format to facilitate discussion. A discussion guide will be provided to each of the group members to refer to throughout the interview (see Appendix A). The focus groups will be asked to describe how they currently use the library to facilitate learning and to help students with English comprehension. For example, the facilitator will lead the groups in an informal discussion of how the library meets or does not meet the needs of ESL instruction, what materials are currently used in the library with ESL students, what materials should be provided for ESL students, and what the communication needs are between library staff, parents, students and teachers. In addition questions will be posed to garner ideas of cost

Supporting ESL Students

10

saving measures to facilitate any changes. A copy of the facilitator questions can be found at the end of the proposal (see Appendix B). After the completion of the focus groups, the recorded interviews will be transcribed according to the techniques described in the book Basic Research Methods for Librarians, 2010. 1. Trace the threads of an idea throughout the discussion. 2. Identify the subgroup or individual to whom an idea is important. 3. Distinguish between ideas held in common from those held by individuals. 4. Capture the vocabulary and style of the group. 5. Distinguish, if possible, among perceptions, feelings, and insights. (Connaway & Powell, 2010, p. 175). Thematic analysis is key when using qualitative data. Coding will be used to separate main ideas within the discussion and determine commonalities among group members. These will be organized into categories with similar links noted. The researcher will then review the recordings to get a general idea of the group responses, and to see if further research is needed. Great care needs to be taken to preserve the validity of the data collected and to avoid generalizations.

Results
The results found in the focus group studies will be used to determine the next step in resolving the proposed question. If it is determined that more research is needed, then another study will likely be passed on to students in the form of surveys. These surveys will in English only to give the same disadvantage to all students, due the vast variety of languages in the

Supporting ESL Students

11

school. The use of translators is highly unlikely since it could negatively skew the data results and would incur a great cost to the researcher and school. In addition the results would help facilitate much needed changes in the library and can used to apply for additional grant funding to purchase new items for the collection. Based on the responses, the Librarian can then research methods used by previous schools like those listed in the literature review, to find free or cost saving techniques for ESL support. Once the research has been completed, publication of the findings can help other schools within the district that have ESL students provide solutions to English language development.

Budget
Personnel Transcriptionist at $0.50 a minute x approximately 4 hours of audio Focus group Moderator at $50.00 an hour for 4 hours $135 $225

Total Personnel Budget= $360 This cost could be reduced by using School district personnel instead of hiring outside. However, this could bring bias into the group. Subject Incentives Two drink totes of coffee from Panera Bread ($13 each) One large cookie tray from Panera Bread Three gift cards from Barnes and Noble ($15 each) 6.8% sales tax $26 $23 $45

Supporting ESL Students

12

Total Incentive Budget= $139

Other materials Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder Zoom APH2 Accessory Pack for H2 Portable Recorder SanDisk 8 GB Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card Energizer Max AA Alkaline Batteries 8 pack 6.8% sales tax $143 $60 $9 $9

Total Materials Budget= $236 The Zoom H2 is one of the top stereo recorders recommended for interview analysis. The accessory pack includes an extra USB cable, AV adaptor, remote control, and a tripod.

Total Budget= $735

Supporting ESL Students

13

Reference
American Library Association. (2007, May 29) Access to resources and services in the school library media program. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessresour ces.cfm American Library Association. (2009, December 30) School libraries count!. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/researchandstatistics/slcsurvey/2009/ellreport Connaway, L.S., and Powell, R.R. (2010). Research in Library and Information Science (5th ed.) Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Ferlazzo, L. (2010). School Librarians & English Language Learners. Library Media Connection, 29(3), 24-5. Retrieved from OmniFile Full Text Mega database Vardell, S., Hadaway, N., & Young, T. (2006). Matching books and readers: Selecting literature for English learners. The Reading Teacher, 59(8), 734-41. doi: 10.1598/RT.59.8.1

Supporting ESL Students

14

Figure 1

Country of Origin for ESL Students

China - 7 Vietnam - 4 Uzbekistan - 2 Ukraine - 3 South Korea - 3 Senegal - 2 Malaysia - 2 Kyrgyzstan - 2 Laos - 2 Guatemala -1 Hungary - 1

Mexico - 14 Russia - 20

Pakistan - 1

Philippines - 3 Romania - 2

This pie chart shows the breakdown of the 69 ESL students and their country of origin. The country is labeled with the number of students represented beside the name. This data was collected from the lead ESL instructor at Harrison Elementary.

Supporting ESL Students

15

Appendix A
Focus group discussion guide Using the library to facilitate English comprehension

o Materials used

o Materials needed

Communication

o Barriers in communication with students and/or parents

o Gateways in communication with students and/or parents

Cost saving ideas

o Books for collection

o Books for Staff Library

o Other materials

Other issues in dealing with ESL instruction that the library can support

Supporting ESL Students

16

Appendix B
Facilitator Questions: 1. How do you use the library to help students who are learning English? 2. If you do not use the library please explain why. 3. What materials do you use? a. How do you use them and why? 4. Are there specific materials that you would like to see in the library? a. Professional Development- classroom use b. Student use 5. If additional materials were purchased would you use the library more? How? 6. Are there communication barriers with parents that the library can help with? a. For example overdue notices- Would including pictures of the cover of the book help parents understand what is being sent home when students have an overdue book.? b. Have any of the parents expressed concerns about what is available or not available in the library? If so please explain. 7. Are there ideas, materials, or things that you use in your classroom library that would be helpful to the school library? 8. What would you consider to be the most important change the library can make in regards to the ESL population? 9. Any further ideas or discussion? 10. Conclusion