Computer Classes in English Score a Hit With Students

Spanish is the only language Jose Hernandez has known for most of his 10 years. It’s the only language spoken at home with his family, who came to the United States from El Salvador three years ago. So up until a year ago, Jose had a hard time learning and understanding English, his teachers say.

But with the help of a new language program at Rosemont Avenue School, the fifth-grader can now tell you confidently what English compound words are. And he’s becoming computer literate.

“It’s great because I learn things,” Jose said with a grin.

Jose is just one of a thousand students at Rosemont with limited English skills. About 75% of the school’s 1,400 students are classified as Limited English Proficient, compared to 52% of elementary schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District.

So Rosemont school administrators decided to use $40,000 of their funds designated for bilingual and low-aptitude students to outfit one room with 20 Apple computers and a reading software program offered by Jostens Learning.

The program uses color, animation, digitized voice and developmental lessons to teach critical thinking along with basic reading and keyboard skills. The reading lab, called the “Language Enrichment Center,” opened in July. Students in grades one through five work on the computers half an hour each day.

The students log on to the computers by typing in their names. They use earphones to hear the pronunciation of the words on the screen and use both the computer keyboard and a mouse to follow the instructions on the screen. A microphone connected to the headphone also allows the student to pronounce words and hear themselves speak.

The tasks range from choosing a word to complete a sentence to answering questions after reading a short story. The stories themselves teach students about such subjects as dinosaurs and the preservation of wildlife.

What impressed the Rosemont educators and persuaded them to purchase the software was the emphasis on critical thinking, according to Marilyn Goldman, the teacher who runs the lab.

“It asks the students, ‘What do you think will happen next?’ They have to think about this, and they get immediate feedback from the program,” Goldman said.

Jones added that working on computers will help the students fit more comfortably in the high-tech world. “We’re living in a society that is moving rapidly toward electronics,” Jones said. “Some teachers are still afraid to touch computers. This is helping the next generation.”