NMC raises bilingual problems concerning student teachers

Northern Marianas College has raised concerns about the impact of bilingual issues on the instruction of student teachers.

According to an NMC report, instruction at the School of Education can be complicated due to factors related to the training provided by the public school to local students, the English language proficiency of foreign students admitted to the program, and NMC’s use of instructional materials based on U.S. mainland curriculum standards.

“Bilingual issues affect the School of Education in several ways. Most Education students and most of the students in the public schools of the CNMI speak non-standard English. However, the textbooks, standards, tests and curriculum for NMC, the CNMI Public School System, and local private schools are based on U.S. mainland curriculum standards, and Standard American English is the official medium of instruction,” NMC noted.

PSS’ bilingual policy, which aims to maintain the CNMI’s two indigenous languages, further complicates the situation because it does not follow the usual procedure of providing mother tongue instruction to students as a transition to English, NMC said.

PSS requires students whose mother tongue is other than English, Chamorro, or Carolinian to attend either Chamorro or Carolinian classes.

“There is constant tension between the effort to meet the needs of the CNMI within the realities of the cultural context, on the one hand, and that of meeting U.S. institutional standards of performance, on the other,” NMC said.

Also, immigrant students often have a problem improving their English language proficiency because PSS does not offer English as a Second Language classes.

As a result, the School of Education has the task of providing CNMI teachers with the skills to instruct children with different English language abilities, NMC noted.

But certain public school teachers themselves—particularly those hired from outside the United States and its territories—need to improve their sometimes unintelligible English.

Another problem involves students who have transferred from non-U.S. institutions who possess inadequate English language ability to perform college-level work, NMC said.

According to the School of Education, some of the measures currently being implemented to addresses these bilingual issues are:

– Strict adherence to the English prerequisites before education courses can be taken;

– Working with other departments to raise the English prerequisite levels for core required course at the freshman and sophomore levels, in math, science, and the social sciences;

– Administration of Praxis I as a requirement for admission to the upper-division education courses; and

– Advising education students who appear to need greater oral competency to enroll in one or more speaking and listening development courses.