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Pauline Anne Miranda

Professor Holly Batty

English 101

02 October 2019

Sí Se Puede!: Latinx Students’ Journey Towards Success

The United States has a very competitive system where students are forced to be at their

top performance level. But for some students, it is a real struggle to achieve this as it is not the

only problem they have to think about every day. This problem is very common to Latinx

students, which ultimately leads to a lack of representation in the professional workforce and in

the higher education system. It is evident that there are a lot of issues that cause this problem.

One of them is the language barrier. The language barrier hinders Latinx students from being

academically successful. To help English learner students, the American school system requires

them to take an evaluation exam to test their knowledge in English. If the result shows that they

need attention to learning English, they will be put in an ESL class. ESL or English as a Second

Language class is a class where English is taught at a beginner’s level. This class was

specifically made to help students to improve their writing and communication skills in English.

Although the goal of this class is to help English learners to learn English faster, I believe that it

is not doing its purpose. I think that it is taking away their opportunity to learn English in their

own way.

First-generation students come to this country with their families to seek a better life.

They usually arrive knowing little to no English at all. In fact, some are just starting to learn to
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speak it. This is where their first barrier to success starts here in America. In the article “Falling

Behind: Understanding the Challenges Facing Latino Education in the U.S.”, Silvia Alvarez de

Davila, Ph.D., and Cari Michaels provided a statistical piece about Latino students where, “... 37

percent of Latino students in grade four and 21 percent of students in grade eight were English

language learners, [when is] one of the many factors influencing the achievement gap between

young Latino and white students” (Alvarez). This data shows that a huge percentage of the

Latinx students are still learning English, which is establishing a difference in their performance

level compared to white students. The gap that is being made at this point in their academic

career leaves a huge dent on their path to success because instead of focusing on other core

subjects such as science and math, they are forced to take extra classes or programs to improve

their English. They are doing so much work and putting a lot more effort than their fellow

classmates. This leads to them being physically and mentally exhausted at the end of the day.

The situation is very familiar to me because I saw my sister go through it. Every day when she

would come home from school, I would notice that she looks tired. She told me that she did not

have a friend as she could not talk to anyone. She also cried because English was too hard for

her. I cannot count how many times she told us that she wanted to go home and that she hates it

here. Her feelings reflected in her progress report card. Before she was really good at math and

science, but at that point, she was not doing well. Eventually, she improved and learned to speak

English fluently, but she is still behind her learning materials because my sister had to focus on

learning a new language.

Language barriers do not cause problems to Latinx students’ academic performance

alone, but also to their relationships with teachers and mentors. Many students want to succeed
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but they do not know where to start, or sometimes when they fail to achieve something, no one is

there to tell them that is okay and that they have more chances. Because of the language barrier,

Latinx students can not build a relationship with their teachers. Based on my personal

experience, this is extremely true. When I came here from the Philippines, I was having a tough

time communicating especially with my teachers, because they were intimidating and I can not

express myself in English. One time I had an idea about a project but I could not share it with my

instructor because it was too complicated for me to explain it in English. This lead to me ending

up doing the same plan as my classmates did. I could have gotten a higher grade if I

communicated with the teacher. Even after a few years of learning English, I still found it hard to

get close to my teachers in high school. This caused me a lot of opportunities I could have gotten

with a teacher helping me through my high school. I believe that I would have a better chance of

getting into my dream school had I had a teacher help me.

For some Latinx students, it is a requirement to take ESL classes. Although there are

some people who believe that providing an additional class for English learners will give their

learning more attention, I argue that mixing them with English speakers will help them practice

their grammar, writing, and speaking. Letting them communicate in English with those who

grew up speaking the language will improve their speaking abilities.

In addition, the U.S. school requires Latinx English learner students to take English

learning classes. Most of these classes are not properly planned and some are taught by unskilled

teachers. As a result of these flaws in the ESL and ELL system of learning, students are not

getting the proper education they should be getting to catch up to those who are more privileged.

Some people who are in favor of English as a Second Language class say that these classes are
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there for support and so it does not need a lot of improvements. It alone is not enough to improve

a child’s learning. They propose that we should not expect a lot from it. I agree that it is not the

ESL classes’ full responsibility to teach the English learner students, but it is the core class to

help them understand other subject areas and can aid them outside the classrooms as well.

However, I believe that schools cannot expect a single class like ESL can contribute to the fast

and easy learning of these students.

Furthermore, ESL should be aiding students to adjust to their new environment, but

instead, these classes are just keeping students in their comfort zone. Students and teachers in

ESL classes communicate in their native language, which does not help Latinx students learn

how to communicate in English. The goal is to help them communicate with comfort in English,

but when they speak their language in this class, having this class is useless because it is not

serving its purpose. These students will continue to speak in the language they are accustomed

to, instead of going outside their limits.

English learners also tend to stick together, minimizing their social circle. In her piece

Decreasing The Social Gap Between English Language Learners and Native Speaker of English,

Rachel Loayza expressed her observations of English learning students in which she mentioned,

“The ESL students are eating together and the native English speakers are eating together, which

is also observed as the students leave for recess where the ESL students are seen playing together

and the native English speakers are seen playing together” (Loayza 1). This stops them from

expanding their social relationships with other students in their school. Some people say that

friend groups are entirely within the students’ decision. Whether they are put in the same class or

not, it will not stop them from hanging out with other students they are comfortable with. This is
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out of the school’s business. Although this is the case, I argue that introducing them to more

people and letting them socialize with other kids outside their comfort zone will definitely give

them an option. This will show them that there is more to the world they were used to be.

As has been noted, Latinx students who are learning to speak English should be put in

ESL classes as it minimizes their perspective on socially interacting and gives them no chance of

developing a strong relationship with their teachers, which can lead to an unsuccessful academic

career. The American school system should put more thought into how to improve the learning

situation of Latinx students because they are highly unrepresented in the professional field. Our

country is in need of diversity to lead us to success. Latinx students’ skills and intelligence must

be utilized and give them the future they hoped to have when they arrived in their new home.

They are a part of America’s future.

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Works Cited

Davila, Silvia Alvarez de. “Falling Behind: The Challenges Facing Latino Education in the U.S.”

CEHD Vision 2020​, 28 Apr. 2016,

https://cehdvision2020.umn.edu/blog/challenges-facing-latino-education/​.

Loayza, Rachel, "Decreasing The Social Gap Between English Language Learners And Native

Speakers Of English" (2017). School of Education Student Capstone Theses and

Dissertations. 4261.

https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all/4261