1. EL PASO
SOLVING THE LANGUAGE
BARRIER
Team 3
Luis Medina
Crystal Fernandez
Richard Olsson
Daniel Silva
-LET THE CITY FLOURISH

2. COMMUNICATION IS EVERYTHING
Imagine a world where you didn’t understand
what anybody was trying to say to you,
and where nobody understood what you were
trying to say to them
I wouldn’t have time to rip my hair over the
loss in efficiency,
I would cry over the loss of living.
-Unknown

3. IT ISN’T A SECRET
El Paso is, as we know, the home for a numerous
amount of Spanish speaking families, among many
not speaking English. Those people face obstacles
that are difficult to overcome without help.

4. HUMANITY, SPECIFICALLY IN CITIES, LIVE AND
PROGRESS THROUGH COMMUNICATION, WHICH OF
COURSE IS MOST IMPORTANT FOR OUR
EFFICIENCY- WE ARE ONLY A UNIT WITH
FUNCTIONING COOPERATION

5. HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
 In El Paso, there is a lack of training and growth
opportunities for non-English speaking citizens
 The bilingual education programs for children are
not effective enough
 Racial profiling and discrimination occurs in the
workplace because of the language barrier

6. WELL, IS IT REALLY A PROBLEM?
Yes, because:
 Unemployment is high (As of
May of 2012 the El Paso rate
is 9.4%, )
 Poverty
(can be traced to lack of education and
therefore to the lack of English speaking
skills)
-Science Daily Organization
..not only unfair, but resulting in a
city of unfulfilled potential
- Economist

7.  Take advantage of the culture instead of letting it
become a burden
 Employers are looking for people who can speak
both English and Spanish. A good example is the
Medical Field.

8. SOLUTIONS

10. ESL
- PROGRAMS
The city of El Paso does provide for English as a
Second Language course work for school-aged
children
• Those can become much better
• Adults and parents should be included too

11. ESL
 Those who get to the city after completing their high
school education don’t have access to ESL programs in
public schools.
 Quality isn’t where it should be, the programs have
failed those eligible and neglects to give a chance to
those who cannot be reached.
 "A number of studies have shown that bilingual
education is effective, with children in well-designed
programs acquiring academic English as well and often
better than children in all-English programs"
- P. Eisen, M. Seltzer,
(2006).

12. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
 Research also by Stephen Krashen shows that
bilingual education is simply the most effective
method for fostering the acquisition of English. The
immersion approach, in which children who are not
proficient in English are placed in the same
classroom as native English-speaking children, is
not effective by itself, Krashen and other
linguistics researchers maintain. Based on their
research, they assert that the quality -- not the
quantity -- of English-language exposure is the
primary factor in language acquisition

13.  We need to address the need for more ESL
programs and evaluate and improve the ones that
are already being provided.
 The research on bilingual education points out that
it is far more effective for the language skills than
media makes it look like. Maybe the bad reputation
has lowered the enthusiasm for good quality

14. EMPLOYERS PROVIDING ESL PROGRAMS
 The government should also offer incentives to
employers to encourage them to provide ESL
programs for employees.
 The city council can fund those incentives for
employers.

15. THERE ARE INSTRUCTIONS…
A whole science of the teaching strategies can be
found in Kathleen Flynn and Jane Hill’s:
”English Language Learners: A growing population”
at
http://www.mcrel.org/pdf/policybriefs/5052pi_pbenglis
hlanguagelearners.pdf

16. CONCLUSION
As you now have seen, El Paso has a high percentage of
non-English speakers. This affects individuals not only in
their personal life, but also in their professional. It is
certainly so, that employment opportunities drops
enormously with the inability to properly communicate with
others.
The current efforts with the ESL programs can be
immensely improve. Not only are they not as effective as
they can be, but there is also the problem that they’re
mainly available for students in public schools and not for
parents and other adults.
To solve this, they should be focused on, most importantly
to increase the quality according to research. The
programs should increase availability to non-students.
Employers should be supported in offering ESL programs
to employees, which is an easy thing with funding.

19. REFERENCES
Science Daily Organization
P. Eisen, M. Seltzer, (2006).
“Improving Workplace Opportunities for Limited
​English-Speaking Workers. ..”
​http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/ImprovWplaceELL.pdf
S. Krashen (Education world)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr049.shtml
K. Flynn, J. Hill
”English Language Learners: A growing population”
http://www.mcrel.org/pdf/policybriefs/5052pi_pbenglishlanguagelear
ners.pdf