School Counselors Role in Serving ELL Students ESLS 503 Introduction to English Language Learners Mia Collarini The

University of Scranton

Abstract

This paper will discuss the school counselors role in serving ELL students. My paper will cover the history, present day, and future roles of the school counselor.

SCHOOL COUNSELORS ROLE IN SERVING ELL STUDENTS Over the past thirty years, the foreign born population has tripled in the United States. According to the National Council of Teachers of English, "14 million immigrants moved to the United States during the 1990's, and another 14 million are expected to arrive in the next few years (National Council of Teachers of English, 2008). This statistic proves to show that English Language Learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing segment of the student population. The highest growth occurs in grades 7-12. "ELL's now comprise 10.5 percent of the nation's k-12 enrollment"(National Council of Teachers of English, 2008). ELL's are a highly heterogeneous and complex group of students present in all areas of the country. According to the National Council of Teachers of English, "57 percent of adolescent ELLs were born in the United States, while 43 percent were born elsewhere. ELLs have varied levels of language proficiency, socioeconomic status, expectations of schooling, content knowledge, and immigrant status"(National Council of Teachers of English, 2008).

Issues affecting ELL students are countless. Some ELL students face challenges such as struggling to fit into a new society, learning a new language, and assimilating to a new school (Miller & Endo, 2004). In view of these unique challenges, school counselors act as liaisons between the school and the students home life and help students with challenges they might face. School counselors act as assertive advocates for their students in order to create opportunities for all students to pursue their hopes and dreams. As I have mentioned above, the cultural demographics within schools are changing. With these changes occurring, school counselors find themselves on the front lines working with students, parents, and families from various countries and backgrounds (Cleveland, 2008). School counselors are challenged to gain knowledge and understanding of the ever changing cultural differences among students and other key stakeholders and modify their counseling skills and delivery of services to match their students diverse needs. By making these changes, school counselors will insure the delivery of an effective, comprehensive, developmental school counseling program (Limberg & Lambie, 2011). School counseling has not always been this way. The school counselors role is always changing in order to keep up with state and national standards. As times change, the role and function of the school counselor becomes less and less clear and extremely confusing. In turn, this become problematic for everyone involved in the school system. According to Lieberman, "counseling as a profession has been hampered by role confusion for decades" (Lieberman, 2004). The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) attempted to clarify and further define the school counselors role and needed expertise (Lieberman, 2004). ASCA continues to do a good job clarifying the school counselors role to this day but it still has a long way to go. Naturally, the school counselors role in aiding ELL students is somewhat ambiguous. Most graduate programs offer some type of multicultural/diversity coursework for school counselors yet the focus is often only on responsive services or individual counseling. In many school counseling programs, there isnt even an ELL course to take. In most cases, if you want to further your knowledge on ELL students you will need to take an education class specifically on ELLs. Literature suggests a lack of professional development opportunities for school counselors to grow in competencies and positively impact ELL students academic success. Partnering with classroom teachers in collaborative guidance curriculum and system support activities can effectively impact ELL student achievement while simultaneously providing an avenue for the application of individual counseling and responsive services (Cleveland, 2008). The following are a few suggestions to assist school counselors serve and support the ELL student population. One suggestion to assist school counselors serve and support the ELL student population is classroom guidance lessons. According to Cleveland, the delivery of classroom guidance

lessons, especially as they relate to instruction of social skills, awareness, and expectations can be an integral part of student success (Cleveland, 2008). Through classroom guidance lessons, professional school counselors can help ELL students by providing the necessary tools, skills, and scripts to function successfully in class. More specifically, school counselors utilizing a creative delivery of research based curriculum can often provide a more inclusive learning experience for ELL students. Another positive aspect would be incorporating guided language acquisition development strategies into the presentation of guidance lessons. In turn it would infuse the content with both theory and practical methods for engaging ELL students (Cleveland, 2008). Similarly, utilizing demonstration of mastery techniques such as role play/acting, group work, game play, and art introduces the potential for increased ELL student participation as writing/speaking in English need not necessarily be the primary form of communication and assessment (Cleveland, 2008). Another suggestion to assist with school counselors serving and supporting the ELL student population is having system support. System support means having other stakeholders help with ELL students. Having multiple people on the same page is always a good thing, you become a team. You become a team of advocates for the students. In order for everyone to be on the same page, we need to make sure everyone is educated on the ELL population. There are a few ways to ensure system support. One way to ensure system support is providing stakeholders with a basic overview of information regarding a students culture. Letting stakeholders know that it is ok to ask students questions about their culture is vital. Students like when stakeholders get actively involved getting to know them. Another way to ensure system support is to encourage stakeholders to use translation services. Often times community colleges, refugee forums, or cultural centers provide free services to the ELL population. Stakeholders need to be proactive and make an effort to reach out to these different entities and try to provide services to the ELL population (Cleveland, 2008). Another suggestion to assist school counselors with serving and supporting the ELL student population is having consistent laws throughout all districts at the state level. Specific laws and mandates would ensure consistency between programs in the same state. All programs would have the same quality, content, and methodology (William & Butler, 2003). Further, programs with the same content would help lessen the instances of individual school based approaches. It would be nice for all students to have equal access to all programs provided by school counselors. Another suggestion to assist school counselors with serving and supporting the ELL student population is having group interventions with ELL students. Group counseling has proven to be a great mechanism aiding ELL student development. School counselors can use group to attend to the ELL students academic, career, and personal/social development in a creative and effective way. Potential benefits for ELL students participating in groups include: learning problem solving skills, experiencing an environment where their concerns can be

normalized and their feelings of isolation can be moderated, exploring ethnic identity development, and enlarging their social network in schools (Shi & Steen, 2011). Another suggestion to assist school counselors with serving and supporting the ELL student population is making sure you have a strong working relationship with the ELL students family. It is paramount that school counselors have a good rapport with family members of an ELL student. School counselors can arrange different services for students and parents to ensure communication with the school district. With this service being offered both parent and student can be more at ease. One last suggestion to assist school counselors with serving and supporting the ELL student population is making sure they continue their professional development by attending professional conferences, meetings, and workshops that address ELL students. So often, school counselors get fixed in the demands of day to day school life that they can lose their connection with problems, issues, or trends effecting students (Davis, 2006). It is extremely important for school counselors to take time to enrich themselves with current trends on ELL education. "Anticipating and preparing for the future requires the school counseling profession to change with the sociological transformations expected in education"(Portman, 2009). We know change is certain, especially when it comes to the changing demographics with a school's ELL population. How school counseling as a profession will react to this change is yet an unanswered question. Ideally, my hope would be that school counseling professionals will continue to dialogue about the changing faces of the future in schools and speculate and proactively respond to the needed knowledge, awareness, and skills necessary for student success.

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counseling.ASCA Professional School Counseling, 15(1), 45-54. Miller, P., & Endo, H. (2004, June). Understanding and meeting the needs needs of esl students. Retrieved from http://faculty.weber.edu/mtungmala/Hybrid4270/Articles/MeetNeeds.pdf National Council of Teachers of English. (2008). A nation with multiple languages. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/ELLResearchBri ef.pdf Portman, T. A. (2009). Faces of the future: School counselors as cultural mediators. ProQuest Education Journal, 87(1), 21. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.scranton.edu/education/docview/218973754/fulltextPDF/1 433572983A4AF72CD/10?accountid=28588

Shi, Q., & Steen, S. (2011). Using the achieving sucess group model to promote self-esteem and academic achievement for english as a second language students. ASCA Professional School Counseling,16(1), 63-70. Williams, F., & Butler, S. (2003). Concerns of newly arrived immigrant students: Implications for school counselors.ProQuest Education Journals, 7(1), 9.