For Somali Student, 'English Is Fun' Now‎‎

(Janet Knott/ Globe Staff)

BROCKTON, May 21, 2006 – Her first day of kindergarten last fall, Hamdi Abdi hardly spoke a word. No one spoke Somali, her native language.

But now she is at ease chatting with classmates at the Raymond School in Brockton.

Last fall, she only could pick out six letters of the alphabet. By January, she knew all but two. Now, she knows all 26 and could read 27 of 36 words on a school district assessment.

The 6-year-old, during her first year of school in America, has shown how quickly a student can learn English and start to flourish in a regular classroom, Brockton school officials say. In Brockton, 21 percent of students were fluent after a year of instruction on the state's fluency test -- more than three times the rate in Boston and higher than the state average.

Hamdi, who came to the United States two years ago after her family fled war-ravaged Somalia, usually holds her own with the 20 other students in the regular full-day kindergarten class, said her teacher, Debbie Campbell. All but four of the children are fluent in English.

Campbell, who has been trained to work with non-native English speakers, talks slowly and gives Hamdi time to answer questions. Hamdi also gets an hour and a half a week of help from another teacher.

Sometimes, she falters. During a recent math lesson, she sat silently on the rug as classmates blurted out names of wooden shapes like rhombus and hexagon.

''She needs more time, and we give her more time," Campbell said. But she said Hamdi's growth has been ''unbelievable."

Hamdi can read ''Clifford the Big Red Dog" and say ''magenta."

Her inability to speak English at first ''made me sad," said Hamdi.

Now, ''English is fun," said the girl who hopes to be a doctor someday.

MARIA SACCHETTI

Source: Boston Globe, May 21, 2006

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives