Extended Bibliography Revised: “ESOL AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN.”

REGAN, TIMOTHY F., and PETER SCARTH. “ESOL AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN.” 1968. ERIC. EBSCO. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

Regan and Scarth in their article “ESOL AND THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN” comment about concerns and observations on programs for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and how these programs are or are not working for Mexican-Americans. They directly address different methodologies and pedagogies being used in 1968. Regan and Scarth also discuss the short comings and the lack of regard for the Mexican-American’s “psychological set and his cultural heritage.”(Regan, Scarth 1) This article discusses how this psychological set and Mexican-American heritage is immensely important for the student's retention of the curriculum.

The process that the educational community has used in teaching Mexican-American's English in the class room, according to Regan and Scarth, has been lacking guidance and direction for many generations. There are multiple aspects address by the ESOL programs that have short comings in the past. Regan and Scarth point out that teachers continue to disregarded research that supports using Spanish in the classroom and insist on having students only speak English. Because there has been such a disregard for this research, the educational community that Mexican-American's participate in, has been set back year after yea. Regan and Scarth continue to discuss the importance of empathy for the Spanish speaking students' cultural backgrounds that the students call upon for understanding and using their new learn skills. When teachers hold back Spanish speaking students from using their cultural and past experiences to draw conclusions to learning, the students are considerably restricted in their ability to process complex ideas.

The evidence that Regan and Scarth present in their article is still evident, although being written in from 1968, in the education system today. Many teachers who interact with Spanish speaking students encounter the same issues address in this article. As the number of Mexican-American students in English based classrooms increases the philosophy that Educators use must be open to adapting their methods to help these students learn in an environment that best suites their needs. The unique backgrounds and heritages that many Mexican-American and migrant workers families' come from present teachers with new learning barriers they have not encountered before with native English speaking students or urban students. These new learning environments require new techniques and programs that have not previously been used in public education.

The complex ideas and methodologies addressed by Regan and Scarth are ones that all educators must start to ask and address for themselves when they are working with an increased number of spanish speaking students. With the help and use of ESOL specialists, teachers and schools have had more success helping Spanish speaking students in their classrooms. Many concerns arise out of the current state of these programs. An area not specifically addressed by Regan and Scarth is the need for Mexican-American students to be fully assimilated into American culture. One of the main focuses in primary school is to help children become and act “American.” This step I believe is being left out of the education process in today's teaching, for respect to the Mexican-American students' home life and cultural background. However with the lack of becoming “American” these students will have a harder time continuing their American education, one that is so reliant on standardized tests geared toward American students. When students are pushed constantly to achieve higher testing standards how will Mexican-American's perform in an educational system that is not an equal one to their needs or development abilities?