Second Language Speakers (L2 Users) in the United States

Second Language Speakers in the United States

Second language speakers constitute a diverse group in racial and ethnic background, language proficiency levels, and educational profiles. They have different native language and English literacy habits and skills, and vastly different family and schooling experiences. This is especially true of children who enter the U.S. public school system as English lanuage learners (ELLs). For example, some ELLs arrive as immigrants with considerable schooling in their home country, but others arrive with limited or no previous schooling in any language. Still others were born in the United States but live in families and communities where a language other than English is prevalent, so they remain long-term English learners. Because of the sheer diversity of the second language speaking population, teachers of ELLs often encounter students from widely differing cultural backgrounds and levels of language proficiency.

The increase in second language speakers in the United States during the past 30 years can be attributed largely to immigration, which continues to be the primary source of linguistic diversity in the United States. Immigration legislation passed in 1965 resulted in a steady increase of immigrants from Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa. Immigrants now constitute the fastest growing group of students in U.S. schools, and by 2009, as many as 1 in 5 children between the ages of 5 and 17 nationwide were second language speakers of English. Not all of these children require special language services and interventions, but about 8% of students in the K–12 education system have a formal ELL designation and do receive such services. Demographers predict that within the next 15 years, the percentage receiving such services will increase to 20% to 25% of all students.

A wide range of languages is spoken by second language users in the United States. Approximately 72% of school-aged ELLs speak Spanish as a home language. Another 10% speak Asian languages, with Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese constituting the largest groups. The remaining 18% of second language speakers speak more than 150 other languages.

This changing population has dramatically altered public schooling in the number, distribution, and diversity of second language speakers in U.S. schools. A large number of ELLs are concentrated in California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, and Arizona. In these traditional immigrant-receiving areas, numbers of second language speakers have continued to rise. Meanwhile, in areas that have traditionally not experienced large-scale immigration, such as the southeastern and midwestern United States, new immigrant communities are settling in, and large numbers of ELLs are receiving their education in the public schools. The next section discusses some of the factors that affect language acquisition for second language speakers.

...