| As the number of Latino student grows in the United States, these students continue to demonstrate an inability to achieve English proficiency in schools which results in many of them dropping out of school. Their academic needs are simply not being met. The specific problem is that many educators do not have previous experience working with second language learners or have pre-conceived ideas about how to teach them, and their methods have not been effective enough to help raise the proficiency levels of these students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate and document how eight ESOL educators from a variety of educational settings in a lower income urban setting in Kansas would describe their experiences with secondary school Latinos. Through in-depth interviews, data was gathered in the style of a case study method. Following the interviews, the data was evaluated in order to create individual responses, group responses, and synthesized responses which were formatted into contextual meanings. The results illustrated successful ESOL methods and curriculum that demonstrated effectiveness. Other findings included problems that ELLS face and the positive influence that educators have on their students. Finally, recommendations for future research in national, state, and local areas have been offered. |
