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Letter: Help students learn English

Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune Sonita Alizadeh, gets instructions from her teacher Angie Christiansen, in her ESL class, at Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Wednesday, January 13, 2016. Alizadeh is an Afghani singer who has been at Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, for 1 1/2 years. She is the subject of a new documentary at Sundance, "Sonita,"

Hola, mi nombre es Tyson Roberts y tengo una consulta al respecto de pruebas en ingles para estudiantes que tienen ingles como segundo idioma.

If you are at all feeling a sense of confusion or even just a lack of understanding after that first sentence, you will understand perfectly the struggles that face English as a Second Language (ESL) students while obtaining an education here in the United States, particularly in Utah.

Personally, I have experienced what it is like to be immersed by an unfamiliar language and forced by society to learn the precepts and culture that accompany it. It is hard and can make you feel hopeless. If you have never had this experience, at least try to imagine the impact that it has on those ESL students while put in a learning environment that promotes excelling academic results.

There is more that we can do to aid ESL students here in Utah. Now, I am not saying that we need to change our state language to accommodate these students. They obviously chose to come here accepting the risks that accompany that decision.

To fulfill this need in our educational system, we could have, as an option, final tests to those ESL students in their native language. That would promote an increase in academic results for all ESL students and give them the opportunity to reach their educational potential. The results that follow would benefit society by educated ESL students obtaining more intellectually stressful occupations.

Tyson Roberts

Manti