English as a Second Language Student Success in a Mainstream Classroom Setting

English as a Second Language

The main objective of the Lasisi research project was to explore how English as a Second Language (ESL) students who were in middle school would interpret advertisement images and they used visual representations to communicate (Lasisi, 2009). The Lasisi study was conducted in California, with mainly Hispanic students. The students were observed from the beginning of the class, once they were identified. The researcher and the students had time to get to know each other so that they could become familiar with each other. My research utilized the Lasisi's research to gather additional information in the school systems.

Students were randomly selected and asked questions about the English as Second Language program (ESL). Fifty seven percent of the students that participated in the study were black, non-Hispanic and forty three percent were white non-Hispanic. The majority of parents of these students (57%) were between the ages of 36-50 years old and 85% percent had a Bachelors degree as their highest level of education. Seventy one percent of the parents feel welcome and appreciated when they go to school and many of them find it difficult to participate in school activities because of different reasons such as lack of childcare, language barriers and other miscellaneous matters. Only 20% of the parents found it difficult to participate because of language barriers. The majority of the parents (42%) said they would participate in these school activities if they were held between 5pm and 8pm, Monday through Friday.

The parents are able to receive communication with school through electronic delivery such as hotmail 33%. Yahoo 33%, gmail 17% and facebook 17%. 100% of the parents said