Language lessons

When Zuha Fatima came to the United States from Pakistan two years ago, she entered the 2,900-student Hoover High School as a freshman.

She didn’t speak much in the beginning because her primary language is Urdu and, while she knew some English, she was afraid of saying things the wrong way.

Her teachers helped her overcome some of that fear, but the transition into American culture has been a journey, Fatima said. She hasn’t really made any American friends, she said.

Most of the students are good, but “they look at me differently. They treat me differently,” Fatima said.

She thinks it could be because of her Muslim faith and the fact she wears a hijab, and she doesn’t think people understand the good side of her religion. Most of Fatima’s friends are Pakistani or Mexican. There’s kind of a kinship among international students, she said.

Fatima is one of more than 1,380 students in the Hoover school system who speak a language other than English as their primary language, school system records show. With a little more than 14,000 students in Hoover’s 16 schools, that’s about one out of every 10 students.

It’s also a growing number as international travel and business increases, and the diversity in American communities multiplies.

In 2001, Hoover had 647 students whose primary language was not English, which was 7 percent of the district’s enrollment at that time.

There are now a total of 52 primary languages spoken in Hoover schools, including English. That’s up from 48 languages in 2001.

Almost half of those who have a foreign language as their primary tongue — 654 students — speak Spanish, which is probably no surprise. But there are also 210 students who speak Arabic as their main language, 83 who speak Vietnamese, 58 who speak Urdu and 50 who speak Hindi, records show.

Other leading languages include Telugu, Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, Korean and Portuguese.

‘We celebrate diversity’

“Hoover City Schools is extremely diverse, and our populations are changing in our school district as we enroll more nationalities and ethnicities,” Superintendent Kathy Murphy said. “We celebrate diversity, and we educate all children. We are proud of every child, regardless of creed, color or nationality.”

The many languages that are spoken create challenges for students and teachers alike. But the diversity in Hoover schools is one of the system’s greatest benefits, said Debra Smith, director of federal programs and testing and overseer of the English Learner program.

“We have an opportunity to create an educational community of learners that is reflective of the global society students will encounter upon graduation,” Smith said.

Hoover is not alone in its international diversity.  About 14 percent of students in Homewood schools and 15 percent of students in Vestavia Hills schools speak a primary language other than English, statistics from those systems show. The most common languages were similar, but Vestavia Hills had many more students — 287 — speaking Chinese as a primary language, compared to 45 in Hoover and 12 in Homewood.

Hoover’s Arabic-speaking population — 210 students — was much higher than in Homewood — 70 students — and Vestavia Hills — 64 students.

Mountain Brook has just 58 of its 4,388 students, or 1.3 percent, speaking a foreign language as their primary language, officials there say.

While 10 percent of Hoover students speak a foreign language as their primary language, only about 4 percent of Hoover students are still in the English Learner program, state records show. Once students score at least a 4.8 out of 6 on an English proficiency test, they exit the program, said Mollie Dunn, an English Learner teacher at Hoover High School.

Hoover is in line with the state average for English Learners but below the national average. Nationally, 10 percent of K-12 students are English Learners, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Jobs, universities, families

Families from foreign countries tend to gravitate toward urban centers and suburbs more so than rural areas. In Hoover, sometimes the draw is a job with an international company such as Mercedes-Benz, Honda or BBVA Compass, said Carl Floyd, an English Learner teacher at Bumpus Middle School and Hoover High.

That was the case with Joao Fraga, a Brazilian student who moved to Hoover 2½ years ago because of his stepfather’s work with a supplier for the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance. His stepfather’s work takes him all over the world. Before they came here, they were in India, the Hoover High student said.

Numerous international families in Hoover are connected to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which recruits doctors and other faculty from around the world, said Haymee Ramirez, who is in her 19th year of teaching English Learners in Hoover schools.

Ksenia Klochkova, a senior at Hoover High, came to Hoover from Russia. She said her mother got her doctorate in U.S. history from Auburn University as an international exchange student, and they moved here four years ago so her oldest brother could go to Auburn.

Other immigrants come here because they have family in the area.

Learning English

A student’s primary language is the language they speak at home, regardless of their familiarity with English. Some are quite fluent in English, and others know some basic English but aren’t yet conversational. Others know no English at all when they arrive in Hoover schools.

The task for Hoover educators is to take them from where they are and make them proficient if they need help. Foreign-speaking students are given an English proficiency test each spring to gauge their progress in listening, speaking, reading and writing, Dunn said.

Those who score less than 4.8 on the test are put in the English Learner program. As the demand has grown, so has the amount of personnel. In 2001, there were only three full-time English Learner teachers, but now there are 15, Ramirez said. “We’ve come a long way.”

English Learner teachers in the Hoover system can speak languages such as Spanish, Korean, German, French and Arabic, but knowing another language is not a requirement, Smith said.

Instead, they focus on teaching English to the foreign-speaking students. Some students need a lot of help, but others pick it up quickly.

“Many of our students come to us with strong academic backgrounds,” Floyd said. A lot of them have already had some English instruction before they get to the United States, but some may not have had access to education and are not yet literate in their primary language,” he said.

Even those who have had English instruction can find it challenging. 

“English is a crazy language. We’ve got a lot of crazy rules,” Dunn said.

Klochkova, from Russia, said she started learning English in the first grade but still found it hard when she first arrived in Alabama because she had first learned English from a British instructor.

“We spoke British English, and it is very different from American and especially the Southern accent,” Klochkova said.

For those new to the English language, teachers start at a basic level with things such as colors and shapes and then move into higher-level language skills, Dunn said.

For young elementary students, there’s a lot of focus on language skills in the curriculum anyway, but older students tend to miss more academic instruction if they don’t know English, and it’s harder to catch up, teachers said.

Technology aids

Thankfully, there are a growing number of tools to help English Learners. The Chromebooks that most Hoover students are provided give students access to language translation programs and other supplemental resources, such as English practice games, Dunn said.

Dunn has a computer application that translates her spoken words into other languages, and other programs translate written words. Ramirez said she used a computer translation program to explain to a Chinese boy and his parents that he was out of money in his lunchroom account.

Those programs can translate entire sentences, but teachers prefer for students to use the word-for-word translators because it helps them learn language structure better, Floyd said. 

Some students from other countries have a hard time getting used to all the technology used by Hoover students. 

“In Mexico, we didn’t use Chromebooks or phones,” said Lediman Hernandez Chavez, who came to Hoover four years ago when he was in the seventh grade. “I didn’t know how to type.” 

That made turning in assignments difficult, he said.

Frequently, other students are a big help in interpreting, Dunn said. “It’s kind of like they take them in,” explaining how to navigate the school when they arrive, she said.

Ramirez said being patient, speaking clearly and slowly and using gestures can go a long way when communicating with English Learners, especially newcomers.

Building relationships and understanding students’ backgrounds is one of the most important elements in education, Dunn said.

Academic rigor is great, but students also need social support to help fill the academic gaps, Floyd said.

Teachers said they also work hard to communicate with parents, who many times are less fluent in English than the students. Dunn said when a new student arrives, she finds out the parents’ preferred language and gets a number where she can text them. She has an app that allows her to type in English, and the app translates into the parent’s preferred language.

Written communication sent home with students is sent in both English and the parents’ preferred language, Floyd said. That way, if there is an error in translation, a family friend or neighbor can assist the parent.

Also, the Hoover City Schools website has a tool that allows the website to be translated into 105 languages.

Building confidence

The English Learner teachers also work with fellow teachers and staff to share ways to communicate with international students.

One of the biggest things is to help the English Learners build confidence, Dunn said. It can be extremely intimidating to speak in an unfamiliar language, and they’re often afraid they’re going to make an error, she said.

Boyang Song said he didn’t know English when he moved to Hoover from China two years ago. “My teacher says it’s getting better, but I don’t know,” he said.

He still finds it hard at times to have conversations with people because he doesn’t always know what they are asking, he said. He pays attention and makes A’s in some classes, but science and history are harder because he doesn’t always understand the vocabulary, he said.

Deebaj Fatima, Zuha Fatima’s cousin, said she also didn’t know English when she came to Hoover two years ago, but she found it easy to learn. She now at least partially knows five languages, she said. Her native language is Urdu, but she also speaks Punjabi and learned to speak Hindi by watching Bollywood movies. She can read Arabic because her holy book — the Koran — is in Arabic, she said. She is now learning Spanish.

Culture shock

Moving to America can be kind of a culture shock for some students. “Pakistan is totally different,” Deebaj Fatima said.

One of the biggest differences for her is the clothing. Her sister still wears a shalwar qameez, a traditional outfit from South Asia that includes baggy trousers and a long shirt, to school. But that’s not what she does. She typically wears American-style clothing to school (but with a hijab) and changes back into Pakistani clothing when she gets home, she said.

She wears the American-style clothing to school because she gets the “weird eyes” if she doesn’t, but she’s really more comfortable in her native attire, she said.

American food also is very different from Pakistani food, which is much spicier, the girls said.

“In two years, I’ve never even tried American food,” Zuha Fatima said. Both she and her cousin bring their lunches from home, and neither of them have ever had a hamburger.

Zuha Fatima said she also found it strange thatAmerican girls who are friends don’t usually hold hands when they walk around, like Pakistani girls do.

Song said education is much different in China, where students don’t have the freedom to choose classes like they do here. “In China, schools are like a factory,” he said.

Klochkova said the school cafeteria here has a lot more choices than what she had in Russia, and she finds it interesting there is little public transportation here, but that wasn’t the most surprising thing to her.

“A lot of people are very slim and sport-minded,” she said. “In Russia, there is a stereotype that Americans are very fat. When I came here, I expected everybody to be fat.”

Hernandez said he finds Americans are much more tied to schedules than Mexicans, while Klochkova said life seems less busy in America than her hometown of Moscow. People here are generally kinder and not rushing around so much, she said.

Hernandez said some people here say racist things without thinking twice, and he thinks they need more education about different cultures. But most people are good to him. “I think Hoover’s a great school.”