Hi everyone,
I hope you're all doing well. Like Nicoletta, I'm also glad to have found out about The Westcoast Reader as it is a valuable tool in the adult/secondary ESL classroom. I find it practical, fun, useful and informative for students.

I just read the article "High ESL counts hurts" and it really seems like I've read this article before (even though I haven't). And now I remember reading a similar article last year in another LLED course. It's a shame that ESL learner statistics are still not improving. In that particular course, I met a full-time elementary school teacher who was taking evening classes in order to get her TESL. She said that with the rising numbers of ESL students especially in Richmond, she felt that it was her obligation to get at least TESL certified. I agree with Marin's view that those without training need to get training in order to best accommodate their ESL students and that it may have nothing to do with 60% of the class having English as their second language. But it is also important to take into consideration that even if the teacher is trained to teach ESL, doesn't mean that a classroom of various learners (including 60% ESL) will suddenly be easier to teach. Accommodating different learners at a variety of levels can be exhausting. This article raises the long debated issue of whether ESL students benefit more from being in the mainstream classroom or being in ESL classes. Being in the regular classroom is essential in order to learn about new culture and especially having the chance to listen and speak to their peers constantly in English. However, this can also be too intimidating/too challenging and might be a factor that causes poor levels of achievement, especially if some teachers don't have the resources/training needed to attend to their ESL students.