ESL students are glad to be back at Naugatuck High School where they can improve their English skills in a productive environment after a global pandemic.   

During the pandemic, a lot of ESL students were struggling to learn English because they were not around as many English speakers.

According to Mercy Dos Santos, ELL student, “The biggest challenge of learning English during the pandemic was because we were not around English speakers, so [we] don’t force [ourselves] to learn.” 

Sometimes it is hard for them as ELL students to say what they want to say in English, and with some English speakers that don’t try to help, it makes it harder because they often feel neglected. 

“I think most of the English speakers act like we don’t exist, and  they know that we don’t speak the language, and just ignore the fact that we need help or even be our friend and talk to us. This makes it harder for us mostly in high school,” said Mercy Dos Santos, ELL student.

After the pandemic, a lot of people are trying to socialize more than before the pandemic, and the ELL students are able to make more friends with English speakers; this is making it easier for them to improve their English and know a little bit more about their cultures. 

During the pandemic most of the people were at home without contact with others so that makes them want to socialize more now.

When students returned to in person school, Mrs. Salgado, ELL teacher, saw a lot of improvement in some of her students because they found some ways to enhance their English skills. Some of those ways are reading books, watching movies and shows in English, listening to music, and trying to think in the language that you are learning.

“I think like the most effective ways to learn English  for me was reading, I was reading a lot mainly during the pandemic because I couldn’t  talk, but that is the way I found myself to learn but depends a lot how you learn and what type of learner are you,” said Mercy Dos Santos, ELL student.

All through the year ELL students will have a lot of improvement and a lot of help from teachers and students because people are more comfortable to socialize, so with this we are more comfortable to speak with them and this will make it easier to learn more.