Understanding the Cultural and Educational Challenges Faced by Mexican ELL Students

This paper discusses the challenges faced by Mexican ELL students in the American education system. It highlights the importance of understanding their cultural background and suggests strategies for teachers to provide equitable opportunities for these students. The paper also includes a literature review on diverse students and the Mexican culture, including their values, funds of knowledge, and educational systems.

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Abstract
English language learners (ELL) vary widely in linguistic and prior educational experiences, and
in their academic strengths and needs (Rubinstein-Avila, 2003, Tedick, 2013, CSIS, 2013,
iNACOL, 2017). Some students acquire new languages quite well and show their proficiency in
English while many students find it challenging to understand the nuances and complexity of the
English language. This includes the use of grammar and the construction of sentences as well.
The students who are unable to follow this face a major problem in using the English language.
In spite of receiving long trainings and teachings on the language if the base of the students are
not strong they will not be able to make progress. One of these populations is Hispanic ELL
students. As the substantial content gaps in developing their L2 language skills rise, there is a
definite need for reaching Hispanic through teaching to both their strengths and their needs
(Epstein, 2018). The term “Hispanic” is a term that entails people from the Spanish-speaking
Latin American countries and territories including the Caribbean or Spain it. The reason for
looking at the Mexican students is that there is maximum amount of diversity among them.
There are maximum amount of Spanish-speaking student and this is the reason it is easier to
conduct and extensive research on them. Apart from this there is a language gap among them.
They find it difficult to construct the English sentence. Therefore, in order to understand the gap
the research has been done on them. Hispanic is not limited to speaking Spanish but aloes
identifying with the Spanish culture. Thus, this paper sheds light on the some of the cultural and
educational challenges faced by students in one of the Latino cultures, the Mexicans. The author
suggests ideas and strategies to help teachers provide equitable opportunities for these students.

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Introduction
Gabriel is a new elementary student from Mexico. He is the only one who speaks Spanish
in the classroom while his classmates speak four other languages. If you ask Gabriel’s parents
what his favorite class was when he was in Mexico, without hesitating to think, they would say
science. Despite what his parents say, however, Gabriel’s interest in science isn’t evident in Mrs.
Mary’s science class. In spite of his low proficiency in the English language, Gabriel’s parents
revealed to Mrs. Mary that their son is struggling with working with his peers since most of the
science projects are based on group projects. “They talk too fast and they do not help me to
understand some of the words, and I am too shy to ask my teacher,” says Gabriel.
Along with many researchers, Mrs. Mary considers that group work can serve as
scaffolding for ELLs, and Gabriel should not be a different case. However, from this scenario,
we cannot assume that ELLs will receive instruction efficiently, placing teachers in an
unenviable position as to how to modify instruction for every ELL student in the class.
Meanwhile, Gabriel’s situation reveals another focal point on understanding Latino students’
challenges in our diverse classroom: culture. For Gabriel, nodding and refraining from asking the
teacher is a sign of respect even at the cost of his understanding the content. So. what do teachers
need to know about Gabriel and his culture, and what are the implications of what we learn for

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how we might work with Gabriel? How can we modify our instruction to such students? The
answers to these questions are the center of this paper.
As a non-native speaker myself, I wanted to know more about the kind of challenges
students like Gabriel face and to connect to their needs. I also wanted to challenge my thinking
by understanding the teacher’s role in accommodating instruction and supporting language
development for such students. I wondered how my own experiences as an adult English learner
might align with those of this much-younger English language learner from a culture quite
different from my own. I decided that I needed to begin by completing a conscientious review of
the existing literature on xxxx. This review of literature begins with a theoretical framework on
cultivating teachers’ knowledge on diverse students followed by an overview of the Mexican
culture. I then designed a lesson plan because it would incorporate the culture of the students it
would address their need of learning the language. Lesson plan will serve as a schedule and a
structure that will help as a guide. This is the reason a lesson plan should be constructed.
Literature Review
Knowing your diverse students
Developing awareness of multicultural students first requires teachers to honor diversity
and to establish equal opportunities in education (Tonbuloğlu, Aslan, & Aydin, 2016, Halvorsen
& Wilson, 2010). As is the case for all learners, these students receive and process learning in
various ways; some students are orally oriented, some thrive in a rote-learning environment, this
is known as the memorization of information based on the repetition.Some show an eagerness to
think critically, etc. Students in many Asian countries, for example, often prefer to work
individually as they may believe that group work is distracting (Campbell & Li, 2008). On the
other hand, although Arab students rely mostly on rote memorization, they may not be exposed

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to critical and creative thinking skills. Thus, teachers need to consider these cultural differences
to understand what motivates and impedes students’ learning and engagement. Teachers need to
identify the contradictions, challenges, and parallels in the practices between the class and the
community as it helps for teachers in their relationship with students and avoids the creation of
conflicting situations (Gitlin, Buendía, Crosland, & Doumbia, 2003). Naturally, this statement
begs the question of what some of the important aspects are we need to know about our students.
Gordon, Lalas, and McDermott, 2006), offer some suggestions: They suggest that teachers need
to consider the following:
Does the student work most comfortably alone by her/himself?
Does the student enjoy working with others?
Do you think he or she can work productively with another student?
Do you think he or she can thrive in group work situations?
Does your student show eagerness in solving problems and thinking critically for
solutions?
Does your student demonstrate independence in applying the concepts learned in the
various subject matter areas? Does your student think about consequences of their actions?” etc.
(p. 9). Answering such questions and understanding what they entail can serve as a framework to
understand our diverse students’ cultural and educational backgrounds, hence, building a mutual
understanding between the teacher and his/her students and creating effective differentiated
instruction for all students (McIntyre, Byrd, 2012, Carr & Bertrando, 2012, Radford, 2016
&Breiseth, 2016). No matter the culture, it is important that teachers consider the answers to
these questions.
Mexicans, Latinos, and Hispanic

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Before going further with this paper, it is first useful to clarify terms that are often used
interchangeably but incorrectly. The term “Latino” refers to someone who speaks any language
of Latin descent, the term “Mexican” is a nationality, and “Hispanic” is an old Spanish (as in
Spaniard) term to describe anyone from Spanish descent. Both "Hispanic" and "Latino" are used
to denote people living in America. They both are terms used to categorize many Latino groups.
Some people get offended by it or try to make a point they do not allow the government to put
them into a "box" so they refuse that term(Shin, 2017).
Mexican Values
There are unique characteristics of the Mexican cultural values in general. Some of the
core values include:
1) The group has extensive family memberships and strong family values. Such factors
contribute to the group’s collectivist mindset, where helping younger siblings and relatives, in
general, is part of the culture (Sáenz, Ponjuán, Figueroa, Serrata, 2016). Accordingly,
collaboration and cooperation are vital elements of the culture (Figueroa, Rodrigues, Hernandez
& Rosas, 2012).
2) The religiousness of the Mexican group is another characteristic cultural factor. Mexican
children are more inclined to adopt the religious beliefs of their parents (Changing Faiths:
Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion, 2007), and thus, contradicting values
might pose a conflict between culture at school and at home for the children. Regarding religious
affiliation, the majority of Mexicans and Americans of Mexican descent identify themselves as
Catholic with a small portion of Protestant. There is also very small percentage followers of
other religions such as Judaism, Buddhism and Islam (Changing Faiths: Latinos and the
Transformation of American Religion, 2007).

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3) Additionally, another cultural characteristic of the Mexican group can be seen rooted in the
prevalence of migrant workers in such group (Taylor & Krzyżanowska, 2017). Combined with the
patriarchal family structure, it can be stated that it is difficult to engage fathers to participate in
education. Focusing on employment, fathers are often busy working or searching for a job (US
Department of Health and Human Services, 2002), making it challenge for them to participate in
any learning initiatives.
4) Machismo is one of the cultural values of the Mexican American group, for which asking for
help can be seen as a sign of weakness. In a household, gender role emphasizes that “childrearing
and domestic activities should be designated to females, and economic provision and
authority/decision-making should be males’ responsibilities”. Usually, the role of girls is to
“provide family assistance and spend time at home, emphasizing their traditional roles”
(Updegraff, p.514, 2016).
Funds of Knowledge
Another factor distinct to the Mexican cultural group is the group’s extensive funds of
knowledge. However, the fact cannot be denied that all cultural group have immense amount of
knowledge and the knowledge provides guiding principles regarding the means which can be
employed by educators for working with Mexican and Mexican-American Students (Hogg
2011). Mexican community is enriched with cultural wealth, which can be utilized to form
innovative tutor-educational plans and programs. The children in this community connect with
different networks in their communities – adult relatives, including grandparents, aunts, and
uncles, and learn many different crafts in their communities, and they serve as their household’s
linguistic and cultural brokers (Rubinstein-Ávila, 2009). According to the research conducted by
Hall, Cremin, Comber, & Moll, (2016), Mexican immigrants in America often have direct links

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with their relatives in Mexico. The education and the culture of having wealth is predominant in
the regions of Arizona, mostly found in the Mexican households of Sonora.
According to Moll, Soto-Santiago&Schwartz, (2013), Mexican households engage in
activities in order to restore, re-invent and reproduce their identities. Additionally, a sense of
belonging and dignity is associated with their funds of knowledge. There are various factors that
are involved to have a good livelihood. The focus should always lay on the way to make a good
living but it also depends on other cultural and aesthetic activities that is prevalent in the Mexico
city.The social and political context has also shaped and influenced Mexican households, and
their vulnerabilities and activities, too. Hence, it is necessary to re-assess the grounds on which
these entities are influenced.
According to Saathoff, (2015), the members of the Mexican community had to master
skills and knowledge when they migrate to America and other countries. This change was
necessary to learn about their heritage when leaving their home and for teaching the new
generation, until date, there are members of the community who are extremely experienced and
are known as generalist which hold complex knowledge.
In a study of XXX by Lincona, (2013), Mexican students often have been viewed through
the “deficit lens” which reduces their importance and subjects them to lower expectations. This
can be stated because it has been observed that those students have suffered from the gap. This is
characterized by the expectation of lower grades and a low academic performance. This belief is
rejected by many (Lincona, 2013), and it is demonstrated through research that the Mexican
community has an array of relevant knowledge which helps them to moderate through their daily
lives.

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Funds of knowledge are an important potential asset in all classroom settings (Tunks,
2013). Mexican parents encourage their children to read books related to their heritage and
culture (Crisp et, al. 2009). The cultural context which is present in these books,like “Post
Hegemony”, “The Impure Imagination” and “The Inner Life of Mestizo nationalism” include
historical figures, the recipes of Mexican traditional dishes and the significance of festivities
which are celebrated. According to Hogg (2011), it is important to use the strategic and cultural
resources of funds of knowledge in schools. Therefore, teachers can focus on designing
activities, lessons, and projects which can assist and ease the process of transferring cultural
information.
Educational systems
With the increase of limited-English-proficient Mexican students in American schools, it
is important to shed light on the impact the educational system in Mexico in order to understand
and address the needs of these students as the research is being conducted on the those students.
For many years, the Mexican educational system has struggled with providing a good education
for children. The educational system in Mexico comprises of pre-school education, elementary
education, high-school education, senior high school education and education superior. The poor
education system in Mexico is an important matter and it lays a huge impact on the gap of
language that the students of Mexico goes through.In Mexico, pre-schooling, which is privately
funded and optional, is available at the age of three. From age six to twelve, primary school is
mandatory; middle school is also mandatory for twelve to fifteen aged children, with high school
mandatory education finishes. After high school, university culture is not common in the rural
areas of Mexico. The number of students who continue on to higher education is extremely low
while those who complete their schooling are low (Puryear et, al. 2012). A study shows that

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students in Mexico are less likely to complete education of their high school and pursue a degree
of their college due to the economic pressures. Mexico is a developing nation and not a
developed nation. The maximum population of the region suffers from an economic lag. This is
the reason they are unable to invest their money on education. However, a Hispanic Center’s
national survey of Latinos in American context states that about 78% of Latino students wish to
continue their higher education, yet, about half of them consider it as challenging due to the lack
of resources and family struggles (Kelly et, al. 2010). Adding to that, the reason for this drop-off
could be credited to the deficiency of the infrastructure in schools in rural areas as well as the
underfunding factor. Rural schools in Mexico often have a shortage of textbooks, teachers, and
buildings. Whereas public schooling is free in Mexico from one to twelve grades, students still
have to purchase their school supplies and textbooks. As they mostly come from the poorest
sectors of Mexican society, many Mexican families who have only a few years of schooling lack
many of the resources to support learning to their kids in learning the, second language as they
have “little or no knowledge of English” (Lopez, 1999). That is, as they have other
responsibilities, Mexican families are most likely to face difficulty in adopting a new language.
The reason for this is the increased amount of illiteracy in the region. Thus, without the crucial
support from their parents these students may lose the motivation to focus on their studies. In
addition, English instruction typically begins at the early stages of children’s education in
Mexico; however, the primary focus of instruction is on vocabulary and simple phrases (Borjian,
2008). It is important to learn English there as it forms an important part of the curriculum. It is a
language that is recognized in all parts of the world. Hence, they should be strong enough in that
field of studies. Unfortunately they are unable to receive that support. Furthermore, the parents’
attitudes toward forms of community literacy (e.g. they said it is” “non-constructive,” “limited,”

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and “poorly written”). (. Teague, Smith, & Jimenez, 2010), p.11). This is due to the shortage of
teachers who have sufficient proficiency in English to teach more complex communicative
aspects of English. They need to learn the English language as it would enable them to have a
good life. They would be able to have good income for their family. When Mexican immigrant
children move to the United States, they are required to learn English to perform well in the
academics. The teaching practices informed by the socio-cultural context in their new country
may appear alien to the Mexican immigrant students. The immigrants students are expected to
acclimatize to the dominant culture as well as adjusting to the particular culture of the school
they attend (de Souza, 2017). The American mainstream culture is reflective of the Euro-centric
worldview with which the present-day immigrant students from Mexico often do not identify.
They suffer from a cultural and educational gap while compared to the other students.
In addition, Mexican schools in the urban areas are poor in educational quality. Describe the
classroom environment in this way:
The material conditions in which students were learning to write were similar to those
found in public elementary schools in this region of Mexico. Each of the focal classrooms
had unpainted brick walls and cement floors and included wooden tables at which
students typically worked collaboratively on their assignments in groups of four or five.
Each classroom also featured a chalkboard that spanned the front wall of the room, large
glass windows on the sides, with a metal bookshelf and teacher’s desk along the back
wall. Children were expected to bring to class a personal Spanish dictionary and to keep a
libreta, a small notebook for recording homework and class writing activities, as is
typical in Mexican elementary schools.(p.9).

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Based on the statement above, it has been found that the students find it difficult to cope
with the English language and acclimatize with the American education system (Teague, Smith
& Jimenez, 2010). Therefore, with some awareness of the state of education ELL students may
have received before moving to the United States, it seems important to focus on the issue of
language and literacy that needs to be understood with the aim of preparing the Mexican
immigrant students to adjust to the education system in United States (Scheidler, 2015).
Language learning
Learning English as a second language has become an urgent requirement of modern
society because one language is not always enough with the high mobility and communication
skills of most of the world's population. Over the past decades, English has taken the place of the
world language, without which it is impossible to imagine many areas of human life, including
the Internet (Baker, 2011). Therefore, in all educational institutions, both in the secondary school
and in higher education, English is taught according to a structured and planned curriculum.
Being a rather labor-intensive process, teaching English requires a teacher to have a different
attitude and approach to the learning process. For Mexican students, learning a language that
does not resemble their native language is a serious problem. Unlike the native language, English
represents for Mexican students a certain social, cultural and cognitive reality, with which
students do not have the opportunity to contact with maximum people in English. A significant
proportion of the Mexican students experience a lot of challenges in adapting to the school life of
the United States of America. The challenges are mostly attributed to the little proficiency in
English language as well as the fact that they possess little knowledge of the system. The
difficulty in adapting is compounded by the need for adjustment to a new socio-cultural context
that is different from the one in Mexico. In most cases, these students experience a lot of anxiety

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as a result of the difference in the teaching methods. Teaching practices that are common to
American-born students may be unfamiliar to them, causing them anxiety that can inhibit the
learning process.
The process of teaching English is complex and time-consuming, because the study of
English is always based on the transfer of some linguistic and speech skills from native language
of students – Spanish. This phenomenon in some cases produces a positive effect (transposition
phenomenon), but in most cases brings negative results (interference phenomenon), and
interferes with the correct perception of linguistic material (Shin, 2017). When studying English,
there is such a phenomenon as transposition. Transposition is a positive transfer of students'
knowledge, abilities and skills in their native language to the language they are learning, and the
use of existing linguistic experience in foreign language lessons, without causing violations or
errors in the target language (Hoffman, 2014).
In addition to transfer, while teaching English, there is interference, which is manifested
in the violation of the norms of English under the influence of linguistic phenomena of Spanish
or other language being studied (Heyman, 2017). The more differences between language
systems are, the more frequent interference is observed. The phenomenon of interference is
observed in the process of teaching phonetics, vocabulary, grammar – language skills, and in the
process of teaching speech skills – listening, reading, writing, and speaking (O’Neil, 2008). In
addition, interference is often manifested at the sociocultural level due to insufficient knowledge
of the specific features of the culture of the U.S.
In the process of learning English, the occurrence of speech errors is entirely natural.
Errors at the phonetic level arise because of incorrect identification of phonetic means
influencing the meaning of the word in different languages, if the audio differences in languages

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or words that have correlated cognates in different languages or international words are not
observed. (Figure 1 demonstrates some of the English-Spanish Cognates found picture books).
So the Spanish word Europa can be transformed into Uropa according to the pronunciation of
the phoneme / eu / in English. Errors at the lexical-semantic level most often arise in the
following groups of lexical units:
1. Words subject to interference of the first foreign language. For example, bate - bat, troca -
truck, torque - turkey, escore - score. In all borrowings, there are no signs of the model by which
they were formed. Here one can talk about direct lexical transfer.
2. False cognates. “False friends of an interpreter” are quite numerous, and in some languages,
even voluminous dictionaries are composed.
3. Use one lexical unit of one language, which corresponds to several lexical units of another
language. These errors are expressed in the mistakes of non-consumption, for example, the
frequent non-use of the negative adverb of the Spanish language tambien / tampoco - no and
neither is, because in English there is such a phenomenon.
Errors on the lexical-grammatical level arise on the morphological sublevel and the sublayer of
structural compatibility. Errors that occur at the morphological level most clearly illustrate the
integration of the lexical and grammatical meanings of the word. Thus, nouns in Spanish can be
feminine and masculine. For non-derivative masculine nouns, the most characteristic ending is –
o: el hijo - son, and for feminine, ending -a: la hija - daughter. However, there is a group of
nouns of masculine gender of Greek origin ending in -ma: el sistema - system or -ta: el poeta –
poet. This fact often provokes the occurrence of speech errors in the students of the Spanish
language as the second foreign language after English. Figure 2. explains some of the errors that
Spanish speakers do when learning English.

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Figure 1
Examples of Latin and Greek Roots Words in the Texas 2x2 Award Picture Books
Picture Book Root Meaning English Spanish
Cognate Cognate
Iguanas in the Snow and Other - Ling- Language bilingual bilingüe
Winter Poems
Diary of a Worm -anni- year anniversary aniversario
LMNO Peas -astro- star astronaut astronauta
Texas Journal of Literacy Education| Volume 3 Issue 2 |Winter 2015
Figure 2
Examples of Cognate Morphological Regularities from the Texas 2x2 Books
Picture BookMorphological RegularitiesExamples from Book
Come On, Rain! -ect ecto insecr insecto
Dog in Boots -ic -ico fantastic fantástico
Texas Journal of Literacy Education| Volume 3 Issue 2 |Winter 2015
LinguisticsAspect Common Error in English Explanation
Nouns:
From
Not including’s to describe possession
The car of my parents.
Instead of
My parent’s car.
In Spanish, a prepositional
phrase structure is used to
express possession.
El carro de mis padres.
Possessive Learners may not understand that the
possessive pronoun does not need to
agree with the object
The pencil is my
These candies are mines
In Spanish, the possessive
pronoun refers to (and agrees)
with both the “person” and the
“object”.
El lapis es mio
Esas velas son mias
Subject
Pronouns
Subject pronouns, e.g., he, she, I, you
are obligatory elements
Is my uncle
Left early
In Spanish you can “drop” the
subject pronoun. The verb
carries the person and number.
Es mi tio
Sali temprano

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Articles Overuse of articles
In the Cuzco we saw a llama.
The price of the gas
He brushes the teeths
Definite articles are used
differently
En el Cuzco vimos una llama
El precio de la gasilina
El se lava las dientes
Adjectives Adjectives appear before the noun
that is being modified
The star bright
The actor handsome
The dog black
In Spanish the adjective goes
after the noun in modifies.
La Estrella brillante
El actor buenmoza
El perro nego
Figure 3
The table above shows the common errors made by Spanish-speaking students learning English. Adapted from
Views from Inside, p.176.
Teacher-students relationship
The divergence in the worldview of the Mexican students with the American educational
system may cause misunderstandings and cultural clashes that are an outcome of the cultural
differences emerging from the different notions of students from different socio-cultural
background. There are generally some challenges that influence the teacher-students relationship
on academic performance. The difference in academic achievements between students of
different races is obvious. It is proved that school performance depends on students’ color and
socioeconomic status (Valencia, 2015). It is especially important in case of Mexican Americans,
African Americans, and other minorities. The African belongs to the black race and they have a
poor economic and social background. It is usually seen that the students who have a strong

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cultural background have performed well in their academic career. The cultural background of
the family members plays a major role in this.
There are various factors affecting the educational process of Mexicans in American
schools. They include adaptation process of immigrants, skin color, economic and language
issues, etc. Edward Fergus in his research pays more attention to skin color (Fergus, 2009). He
claims that teachers and students often expect specific behavior according to the skin color of
other students. In such a way, Hispanic-looking students may be treated differently than their
White-looking classmates.
Mexican students are interested in learning English language, since this knowledge will
give them better economic opportunities (Borjian & Padilla, 2009). That is why, American
teachers should understand cultural difference, and value biculturalism. They also should create
the right learning environment encouraging Mexican students to develop their English language
skills and motivating their educational success.
The teacher-student interaction is also extremely important. There is a study
demonstrating that interaction with Mexican students often differs from communication with
American students (The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1973). According to the research,
there is a significant difference in such important types of interaction in classroom as praising or
encouraging, acceptance or use of student ideas, questioning, positive teacher response, non-
criticizing teacher talk, and student speaking. Mexican students are given less attention in terms
of interactions listed above, which definitely affects their school performance.
Some of the main reasons behind this bias include cultural mismatch between Mexicans
and Americans, and differences between the home and school cultures (Losey, 1995). Studies
proved that there is considerable difference between mainstream and bilingual classrooms.

17
Mexican students are more likely to answer questions asked by bilingual teachers than teachers
of mainstream classrooms. Thus, Mexican students feel themselves more comfortable within the
bilingual environment.
One more significant factor is the involvement of Mexican parents in the education of
their children (Marrero, 2016). However, the link between Mexican children’s learning and
parents is often weak. In addition to that, many of the parents in Mexican communities are not
bilingual (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2002),.” but I not being able to help
my children with their schoolwork because of my language difference has been hard. (31-year-
old mother of two)” (M. Helms, 2017. Thus, this process of involving parents is complex and
challenging. In order to enhance this involvement, schools must reconsider a number of
sociocultural factors including language, customs, relationships, etc. Mexican families and
customs are different, and schools need various programs, policies and strategies in order to
change the situation.
Mexican students often have difficulties in mathematics and science. The problem is that
mathematics requires critical thinking and its development (Gutstein, Lipman, Hernandez & de
los Reyes, 1997). The main goal of teachers in math is to encourage students think critically
about the world and form their own ideas about surroundings. However, as we have discussed
earlier, the perception of Mexican students within American schools, lack of interactions and
involvement of parents, and other factors complicate the process of education, and result in
difficulties in both mathematics and overall school performance.
Connecting with ELL Mexican students
Since it is the teachers who spend the maximum amount of time with these students, it is
important for them to understand the uniqueness of personal backgrounds of these students. In

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addition, the teachers to study and search into the earlier school experiences of the students by
developing culturally competent and culturally responsive instruction that may bridge the
cultural gaps that that would encourage the immigrant students connected towards the American
school system. Accordingly, teachers should encourage Mexican students to “build on their
bicultural and bilingual experiences to develop academic English” (Rubinstein-Avila, 2003,
p.43). Teachers can incorporate the students’ funds of knowledge as it helps them bring elements
from their culture to school. However, for the teacher to be able to accommodate the cultural
aspects, those aspects should be first identified. In that regard, a good approach can be seen
through conducting home visits and getting acquainted with the local community, as well as
determining the skills that students developed at home (The Education Alliance at Brown
University, 2003). Teachers can design lesson plans that include a combination of lived
experiences and the information which is congregated from homes, such that students may
connect what they learn in school to the teachings of elders in their household (Kiyama, 2011).
For example, learning about the fact that Mexican students have knowledge of carpentry from
their community, the teacher might utilize such knowledge in constructing a reading or writing
lesson that utilizes such information. Meanwhile, the teacher shall learn from the community
what restrictions are there concerning topics that should not be discussed in school.
In honoring the collectivist value system of Mexican culture, teachers can establish a
difference between cases when either approach is preferred or condemned. For example,
cheating should be clearly defined, with situations in which collective work can be considered
cheating should be clearly articulated to students (Trumbull & Rothstein-Fisch, 2009, p. 325.).
The collectivist mindset of Mexican group can be utilized in making the typically individual
activities like group work. For example, the teacher can construct a lesson in which students will

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collaborate to write a story together, and in which the appraisal for the work will be collective,
rather than the individual. Focusing on the integration of the male role model in the curriculum
should be necessary for the Mexican group. One way of utilizing the cultural characteristics of
the group could be engaging the father more in the education process, including such aspects as
modifying the educational activities so that students’ fathers will be able to participate.
Additionally, an important element of such a cultural background in the teacher-student
interaction is avoiding misinterpretation of students’ actions. For example, when a student helps
another student, the teachers might interpret such action as cheating. The same can be said about
praising one’s accomplishments, which might lead to a student’s embarrassment and confusion.
The religiousness of the cultural group can also be used in constructing the curriculum, where the
selection of stories, events, and narratives can utilize the biblical descriptions. In thematic
connections, teachers can integrate religion into a literature discussion which can be used to
engage students in topics on class, race, or current social and political issues. In an English class,
for example, the teacher and the students can discuss the struggle between good and evil, the
themes of free will vs. determinism, or compare and contrast the Church to the State etc.
Adapting Language Instruction
There have been several teaching methods that have been developed over the last several
years that seem to offer promise for teachers who want to provide support for ELLs. These
methods have been field tested, implemented, and modified many times in a bid to design the
most effective method for teaching the immigrants. While the model of Sheltered Instruction
referred to as the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) has been deemed the most
efficient strategy in helping to teach the grade-level students in content area classes, the model

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has come under mounting criticism (de Souza, 2017). The method aids by integrating various
components of differentiated instruction, cooperative learning, as well as principles of second
language acquisition.
In addition, similarities and differences in the phonetic, lexical and grammatical systems
of Spanish and English not only help students to better understand and assimilate the studied
linguistic phenomena and processes, but also contribute to the development of linguistic abilities
and increasing motivation (Gonzales, 2009). Also, a comparison of Spanish and English allows
the teacher to determine the difficulties associated with the characteristics of heterogeneous
systems of languages, and to find ways to overcome difficulties. In addition, for Mexican
students who learn English as the second language, a training manual is required that is based on
the results of a comparative analysis and takes into consideration the differences and similarities
of the languages studied. In addition, using multimedia and technical teaching aids, teachers have
the opportunity to create an authentic language environment in the classroom for learning
English.
In order to improve the learning experience for these immigrant students, the teachers
must make the teaching as visual as possible. The students tend to have challenges in listening to
and understanding the spoken language. As such, the teachers must write all instructions on the
board to enable these students to comprehend. All challenging and complex concepts must have
diagrammatic representations (de Souza, 2017). Moreover, the teacher should integrate more
group work. Group work is important in many ways. Firstly, it helps keep the students engaged
which boosts the learning experience. More importantly, it enables the students to practice
language in a personal and low-risk setting among the peers. Additionally, they should be
allowed, occasionally, to communicate in their native language. Research conducted by Yigzaw

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supports the notion that allowing the second-language learners to write their assignments in their
first language helps in developing their ability to write (Miller, 2016). This is because, in as
much as they are not able to write in English language, they are still able to participate in the
writing task.
In addition, the language usage of such groups can be filled with code-switching,
alternating the use of language, which is a characteristic phenomenon of Mexican families.
Students’ knowledge of Spanish can be utilized in learning English. Students might identify
students’ reading strategies in Spanish and build on the same experience in English reading.
Other approaches can be seen in integrating discussions in Spanish about English texts. The
students’ code-switching linguistic experience can be utilized as well through the use of content
area cognates. Rubinstein-Avila, 2003) recommend teachers to incorporate family knowledge
and culture into instruction, use their native language as a resource and print clues in your
instruction to make the meaning clear, and incorporating relevant prior knowledge into
instruction. For example, the teacher might use cognates, i.e., the words which are similar in
pronunciation and meaning in English and Spanish, to build students’ vocabulary.
As the teacher reads aloud to the class, he asks the students to raise their hand when
hearing a cognate. After discussing that cognate, the teacher points out to the subtle differences
between the Spanish and English words. For following up, the teacher can pair students
according to their language abilities and give each pair a set of cognate cards in Spanish and
English. Another teacher may think of incorporating different modes of learning in the classroom
such as picture books, bilingual books, modeling, and videos.
Curriculum for Mexican Students

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The curriculum of Mexican students’ needs to be designed after the test of their abilities, so the
teachers can create special modification that will provide the proper education of the subject.
Thus, teachers need to use cultural background in the process of learning English; they can find
similarities between Spanish and English so that the children can draw the parallels between two
languages, understand and learn these peculiarities. Although research recommends the mother
tongue as a bridge to learn the target language and content, according to the curriculum for
kindergarten one of schools, Madriñan (2014) states that “the number of hours in English and
Spanish are not equivalent. As students are learning a second language, most of the classes are in
English” (p.52). Teachers should also include activities that strengthen Spanish abilities while
learning English – reading and speaking processes. In addition, curriculum can concern serious
subjects that have a certain importance for Mexican children such as the notion of good and bad,
the notion of religion, racism, traditions and cultures. After that, children can write small reports
about what they have learnt reading this or that text. In addition, to interest children, the teacher
can arrange the days watching cartoons in English with Spanish subtitles, and then the children
can learn easy dialogues from the materials.
When constructing a curriculum, teachers should carefully study any opportunities for
developing the abilities of children in the conditions of studying at school with in-depth study of
the target language. In this regard, the school conducts research on the factors that determine the
success of mastering the target language; various methods for diagnosing the prerequisites for
such success are tested (Gutierrez & Zavella, 2010). Therefore, teachers can select suitable tasks
that match the students’ abilities and support of the learning process; more importantly, teachers
need to work with teachers of the school such as professional development preparation of
teachers for work with ELLs.

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Assessing Mexican students
The creation of a system for assessing the Mexican students’ knowledge, skills and habits is
today one of the most important problems in the organization of learning activities in the
classroom. For example, in a multilevel classroom (students of different level of knowledge of
language, different-level groups). The class divided into several groups with different knowledge
of language. However, the disadvantage of this method is that group formation can greatly
facilitate the work of the teacher, but will not contribute to the real progress of the students
(Heyman, 2017). Yes, they are different, their abilities are also different, but if the teacher
divides them according to ability level, then the so-called “weak” students will remain “weak”
because the requirements that have been stated below have never led to real progress. Another
thing is that they need to be competently encouraged to reach the level of “strong” students. A
“strong” student will be learning, seeing how “weak” students catch up.
Therefore, I do not think that multilevel groups in English is appropriate. As for
mathematics, all Mexican students have different abilities, but we do not divide the class into
different-level mathematical groups. Another thing is that there are schools with in-depth study
of mathematics, but then it is a question of different-level schools. However, the problem
remains unsolved – how to assess the children with low level of language knowledge.
In order to help low-level Mexican students, we can ask them to work with high-level
students on a certain project. Then the assessment would be collective and not an individual one.
Nevertheless, the low-level student works on the project as well as high-level student does. This
can help a novice in his language abilities and meet his language needs. Then the level of the
novice can accelerate over time. Teachers can also create differentiated tasks for different-level

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students of the same group based on the same material. For such tasks, teachers can modify the
assessment using pictures, bilingual materials, simplified language, etc.
It is important for these students to reflect on their progress, set small goals, and experience
reaching those goals. It is also important that students take an active role in their learning,
participating in language development activities that have learning outcomes that are
recognizable. Portfolios can help students to reflect, redirect and conform their learning
(O’Malley and Pierce, 1996). Thus, for evaluation, teachers might have Mexican students create
personal documents, portfolios, that allows them and their parents to assess their own English
competence and their contacts with other cultures. It allows them to track progress in learning
English and develop individual language abilities (Shin, 2017). The sequence of evaluating the
portfolio is as follows: first, the teacher explains to the students what tasks they are to solve.
Then they agree on what materials will constitute the criterion for evaluating the portfolio. When
the class on the topic come to an end, the students will, first, select the best of their work on the
material studied, and secondly, compile a report on the work done, and thirdly, to make an
assessment of themselves. Letting the students take the wheel and evaluate where their strengths
and weaknesses are throughout the year can greatly enhance student learning and comprehension
of the topics throughout the year. (O’Malley and Pierce, 1996).
Lesson plan in action
This literature review has revealed the socio-cultural factors that influence the academic
achievement of the immigrant Mexican students. There needs to be a deeper understanding about
the unique world of the Mexican students and identification of possible gaps in the learning. The
disparities between the American education system and the Mexican one might be the motivation
for creating a lesson plan that would be culturally responsive and uses the appropriate assessment

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tools that are sensitive towards the learning capacity of the immigrant students. It is clear that
there needs to be improved communication between the teacher and the student that would
promote a positive learning environment and minimize the feeling of alienation among the
immigrant students thereby facilitating their academic outcome. Thus, lesson plans would be
tailored according to the unique biographies of these students. As part of my project, I have
attempted to create a model for doing so.
There are several tips suggesting how teachers should adjust their teaching methods to
students of ethnic minorities. Teachers should realize that Mexican students are may be
different from Americans culturally and mentally emotionally, yet they should believe that all
students can succeed, and their expectations must be equally high. In this say, teachers should
be interested in providing equity for all students, and be able to adjust their approaches to the
need of minorities by forming close bonds with all their students, without discrimination of any
kind. Moreover, the curriculum should be designed taking into account different ethno-cultural
groups.