English Language Learners getting Bullied

Haven’t read my first blog? Do it now, just click here.

On my first blog post I introduced the topic I am still researching, ELL(English Language Learners) bullying. For this part of the project I went over to my old school where I interviewed one of my old teachers about my topic. This teacher was actually one of the first people to really help me understand what I was doing. He helped me understand everything I had trouble with and tackle harder books so it could improve my writing. My old school has a lot of ELLs and I figured they had experienced this problem. Click here to read the full interview.

What I found out during my interview is that a lot of students are made fun of the way the look or their accents and face lots of social struggles. ”Well, you know, all students get teased and made fun of as they grow up. This happens to everybody, but there’s a difference between being teased and getting bullied. English language learners are particularly vulnerable to being bullied because bullies generally try to target people that are maybe a little bit different or a little bit vulnerable, and ELLs qualify on both counts. They’re different because of the way they dress, the way they look, the way they talk and they’re vulnerable because their English isn't that good.” So the victim can’t speak up.

As I was doing more research on my topic, I came across this story about a Cuban girl who moved to America when she was eight with lots of excitement. She ended up being bullied because she was different. She went to school and kids made fun of her, put spiders under her desk and the teacher wouldn't do anything. She was hoping things would get better, but they didn't. She had no friends and got bullied even more. They insulted her and she was depressed. She went to a therapist and learned that bullies had their own problems. In high school she changed her outside to make her feel better on the inside. She made new friends and talked to more people. She I realized that she let the bullies take control of her emotions and locked herself in her own world of not speaking, not having friends, and wishing she was another person. Full story lies here.

I also learned that people haven’t talked about the bullying of the ELLs. There needs to be more articles written about that and more publicity about it so the people are aware that it’s a big problems. Here is one about bullying in race, ethnicity and immigration. It talks about the ways that the students are bullied and some ways you can prevent it at school.