This chapter contains a section on looking past language mistakes. When teachers focus on a student's grammar mistakes, then they aren't really listening to what the student has to say. Many English-language learners are very intelligent, they just have difficulty expressing themselves. It is okay to help language learners with their mistakes, but that shouldn't be the only focus.
This section jumped out at me because in High School I had a friend name Diana, who was an English Language Learner from Columbia. When she moved to my town she didn't know any English at all, but after a few months she became really quite proficient with the language. She made a lot of mistakes along the way, and had a lot difficulty with her classes, but she was a very hard worker. The teachers were very patient with her, and listened to her, and tried to understand her. If they hadn't been so understanding I can't imagine how different her experience coming to America would have been. It is very important to be respectful and understanding to all students, regardless of their background.
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