Newcomer families, school officials fear 'substantial regression' in language development

P.E.I.'s Department of Education says this year's pandemicschool closure has sparked frustration for many newcomer families, and fears their children's English or French language development is suffering.

The department says it's heard concerns from many parents with children enrolled in English or French as an additional language (EAL/FAL) classes, likeTam Nguyen and Hiep Cao.

They moved to Charlottetownfrom Vietnam a year ago, along with their eight-year-old daughter Anh and 10-year-old son Minh.

Up until March, both kids gotan hour of focused EAL training each week, and constant exposure to English in other classes at West Royalty Elementary.

It worries us very much. Tam Nguyen

They say the pandemic took that away.

"At home, it's very hard," saidAnh. "Because at school, we make eye contact with the others.And at school, there's Canadians, which maybe know more English than my parents."

"It worries us very much," added her father."To learn the language, the interaction, it's very important.And the language is the first barrier they have to overcome in order to [succeed] inthe other classes, like math or social science."

Janet Perry-Payne, the province's EAL/FAL administrator, said teachers did their best to engage withstudents and parents throughout the pandemic, using a variety of online tools, recording videos,and even visiting some families' doorsteps.

But she acknowledges, it was no replacement for in-class learning.

"Many of our families became frustrated because they didn't have the language skills themselves," said Perry-Payne.

"So in some cases, when it was something that was being given by a classroom teacher, if they didn't understand it, they would go, 'OK, we can't do that.'"

'We're watching quite carefully'

Perry-Payne saidbecause the province's 2,400 EAL/FAL students didn't do any formal testing while schools were closed, it's difficult to knowhow effective home learning was, or how it affectedlanguage development.

But she expects the impact will be significant.

"What we do know about language acquisition is when you don't have the ability to engage it, you can also lose the ground you've gained in the language.So that's something we're watching quite carefully for this upcoming school year," said Perry-Payne.

"And you have to remember, it's not just the last three months. The summer is in between too.So it's the three months plus the summer.So it could be a substantial regression for sure."

Like all teachers in the school system, she expects her staff will have to condensetheir language curriculum in September, and spend a lot of time playing catch up.

Her team is also focused onhow to make at-home languagelearning easier, in the event schools are forced to close again.

"If we can work with our parents, and show them, and teach them what tools we're going to be using, some of that won't be as foreign to them, if in fact we have to do more home learning in the future," she said.

Though some families aren't waiting around for September.

Perry-Payne said a record number ofstudents, 180, have signed up for six weeks of summer EAL and FAL courses.

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