Arab Educational Information Network

Using semi-structured interview, the purpose of this study is to find out what specific language skills are perceived by three classroom teachers to be most problematic to their ESOL students’ academic learning at K-12 schools in both America and Canada and what suggestions these teachers can make for ESOL students to improve their academic English skills at these schools. Results show that these K-12 ESOL students experience considerable challenges in English academic listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Specifically, understanding classroom tasks, giving oral presentations in content classes and being able to communicate a problem, comprehending the main ideas as well as the details of texts and reading materials, and deciding what to write and organizing ideas were identified as most challenging for the K-12 ESOL students in academic listening, speaking, reading, and writing, respectively. (Published abstract)