Exchange student from South Korea

Hi, I am new here on Classroom 2.0, but thought I would try and get some ideas from everyone on here. My 5th grade class just got a new student - an exchange student from South Korea. His first day was yesterday. He didn't say very much, unless he was spoken to, then he said as little as possible, a lot of one word answers. He is very respectful! The school is a small Christian school that goes from Day Care to 12th grade. We have a teacher that helps the exchange students in the HS, but nothing for elementary. She has taken some time out of her schedule to come in and help a half hour each day with him, thankfully! My problem is, I need ideas on how to assess him fairly and any ideas on how to make him feel included in class would be appreciated! I am basically starting from scratch, we have never had an exchange student in our elementary before and I do not have any background on exchange students! Thank you in advance for your ideas!

Tags: ESL, Exchange, student

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Permalink Reply by Julie Baird on January 8, 2012 at 5:46am

A fifth grade exchange student is rather unusual. Our elementary schools have several ESL students from Asian countries but their families moved to our area. They are not exchange students.

Do you know what his LEP (Limited English Proficiency) level is? Usually exchange students have to have an LEP level of 4 to be accepted by the exchange organization but that is not always the case. If his level is very low then using a lot of gestures and pictures with him will help. If his LEP level is high, he might not be used to your accent or your rate of speech. Many of the Asian countries stress reading and translating in their English classes and they do not include a lot of listening and speaking activities. Speak slowly and repeat a lot.

Since you are a small Christian school you might not have an ESL program in place. If this is true, can you ask to speak the director of ESL at a neighboring school to get ideas on how to help your student.

The good thing about younger students with limited English proficiency is that they tend to learn the language quite quickly, especially if they have a native speaking buddy in the classroom that can go through the directions again and help with homework assignments and such.

One last thought, if he is truly an exchange student and not an immigrant, he should be returning to Korea at the end of the year. Are grades really necessary for him? Does it matter if he mastered any of the material? Most exchange students need to maintain a certain GPA at the high school level or they are sent back but it is not because they aren't learning. It's to make sure that they are not messing around. However, many of the schools in their home country do not count the year in the USA for grades or credits, just for experience.