ELL paraprofessional sees learning journey come full circle

Josue Arias has gone from being an English language learner to tutoring students who are learning English as a second language.

“Since I was one of those kids, I can relate,” he said.

Josue, who was recently hired by the Loyal School District, lives in Marshfield. However, his hometown is about 3,700 miles away (traveling by land). Josue is from Rivas, a small village in Costa Rica. The Rivas district, which the village is part of, has about 6,600 inhabitants.

More than 15 years ago, Josue’s mom got into a relationship with a guy from Medford who was living in Costa Rica but had a business back in Medford. The two of them moved back to the United States and Josue’s brother and sister moved with them. However, Josue decided to stay in Costa Rica with his dad. Nine years later, he moved to the U.S.

“When I was about 11, that was when I let my mom know that I actually wanted to move here. It took about two years for me to get my visa. I was halfway through sixth grade when I moved,” said Josue.

When he came to live in Medford, the school put him in seventh grade, because he had been held back in Costa Rica and the school wanted to get him caught up to the correct grade. He finished out the school year in seventh grade and then jumped into eighth grade the following school year.

“I was only in seventh grade for about two months,” said Josue. “It was quite the transition going to seventh grade, eighth grade and then ongoing because my learning levels were really, really low. Because I was basically a sixth-grade kid at that point.

“The first two months I was in seventh grade, I really didn’t have any help whatsoever. I also didn’t know any English at all. I always tell people, the most I knew was how to say ‘hi’ and ‘apple,’ and that was about it.”

For those first couple of months, Josue took regular classes in the morning and English lessons in the afternoon.

“For most of my classes, it was really, really hard because they basically expected me to perform like a normal student, where my knowledge and my understanding wasn’t there at all,” said Josue.

In the afternoons he would sit at a computer in the library and take English lessons on Rosetta Stone or Duolingo. He said those lessons were of limited value, because there was no one to practice with, especially when it came to pronouncing certain sounds used in English but not in Spanish.

In eighth grade, things got better when Josue’s school district hired an English language learner (ELL) staff person, Nicole Hoppman. Josue had a class with Hoppman in which he worked on English every day. It took him about two years to learn the language. He said there were four phases to the learning process: understanding the language, reading it, writing it and finally speaking it, the most challenging step.

Through persistence and putting in daily practice, Josue gradually gained confidence in speaking English to the point where it’s now second nature for him. He defaults to thinking in English, although he can think in Spanish if he tells himself to do so.

As Josue’s English skills improved, he also experienced personal growth, said Sarah Hamland, Josue’s Spanish teacher in high school.

“I had Josue for four years of high school, where I saw his English abilities flourish. Josue really seemed to come out of his shell because of being bilingual. He was able to guide students who had questions in Spanish class with his knowledge. He has always been great at getting people to use their resources and knowledge to figure out the material versus just giving them the answers.

“He was also continuously looking to improve his Spanish. Even though he knows more Spanish than I do, he would come in to class with questions on how the grammar worked or what the rules were for accents. He always wanted to know more and do better,” wrote Hamland in an email.

After graduating high school, Josue worked as a salesperson for Cellcom in Marshfield for about two years. Then Hamland, who now works for the Loyal School District, contacted Josue about a job opening for an EL paraprofessional in Loyal. She told him there was a high school student who was facing the same situation Josue had dealt with: not knowing English and struggling with academics because of it.

“That kind of resonated with me, because I know what it feels like to be in that position. So I decided to take it upon myself to apply for the job and see if they would take me,” said Josue.

He did, and was hired for the position. He now spends about half of his day helping a student with English, and other half doing IT work for the district. He hopes to eventually become an IT technician.

In Josue’s role as an ELL paraprofessional, he is able to answer questions the student may have on a certain subject or translate as needed. He and the student work on English together. He has room in his schedule to take on more English language learners, should the need arise.

Josue also communicates with the parents to make sure everyone is on the same page. He has helped translate for another Hispanic student’s parents as well. He said it’s been a good experience.

He knows what it’s like to be the only one who doesn’t understand the language, and experienced some bullying growing up, as kids would take advantage of him not understanding to make jokes about him. He encouraged the school community to support English language learners.

“You need to have patience with the person. There needs to be a level of care — it’s not their fault that they don’t know,” said Josue.

Even though it was a huge transition coming from what he considers a third world country to the U.S., replete with challenges such as fitting in, learning a new language and adapting to the culture, Josue said it was worth it for what he gained.

“I’m really glad to have been able to move here — there are a lot more opportunities,” he said. He also was grateful for the one-on-one help he received from an ELL teacher, so he could move forward in his schooling and career. “I don’t think I’d be as proficient with the language if I hadn’t had that experience, no matter how much Rosetta Stone or Duolingo I did,” he said. Hamland agreed there was no replacement for person-to-person language learning, and said schools have a responsibility to provide students that opportunity so they can go on to be positive, contributing members of society. “It’s tremendously important for schools to have ELL/ESL (English as a second language) support for students because it ensures that all students can learn. Without that support, many students flounder where they would normally flourish,” she wrote. “All students should have an equal and equitable opportunity to learn. That means we need to put supports in place so students don’t keep running into barriers. We want successful students in both school and in life. Giving students who don’t speak English at home a resource to learn and improve their English sets them up for success.”

Josue Arias