At present we are struggling to support our high numbers of immigrant and refugee students in our English as an Additional Language program. In addition to these students, our school has a population of 45-52% First Nations, Inuit and Metis (FNIM) students, from 73 different Nations across Canada. Ultimately, this means that a high proportion of these students do not speak English as their first language. Despite being a culturally responsive school, we are not addressing the needs of these students at present. This is a large oversight and yet it is hard to imagine how we could possibly have the capacity to include these students in the programming. There are a number of hurdles. One is that FNIM students, on the whole, do not want to take English language classes in our urban setting. They do not want to be seen as different from other students and since they fully recognize what the EAL program is about, they shy away from being identified as English learners. Secondly, despite having many resources to teach EAL to ELLs, and many resources for treaty and multicultural education, we lack resources to address supporting language with FNIM students. It is very important that we are culturally sensitive and have specific resources available that address this particular situation. As the EAL Specialist at our school, I honestly do not know where I can find the capacity to address this next year, and yet I must.
My questions are as follows:
1. How do we encourage students to participate in EAL programming when they are extremely reticent, and sometimes completely opposed to do so?
2. What sorts of training or materials are available to teach English Language Learning to FNIM students that addresses the specific nature and history of colonialism in Canada? This is a loaded question I know, which is why I need to start the conversation around it.
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