<p>Necessity is the mother of all invention. If you have to learn English, you will. It is the same with students. In schools in a nearby city, there are enclaves of Albanians. Their kids are 14 and up when they came here and they learn the language. They have to because nobody is going to speak to them in their language in school. A number of Hispanic students can’t speak because they have teachers etc communicating to them in their language.</p>
<p>I think programs who teach hispanic students in Spanish are such a disservice to them.</p>
<p>In this city I speak of, there are students born in the this city who are in ESL classes. Those Albanian students who I’m referring to are in the ESL classes for at most 1 year. Some of the Hispanics are there for their entire educational career.</p>
<p>I know a local mom who was a Vietnamese boat person…she finally arrived in the US at 16. She was educated in English and is an ER nurse. Yes, she has an accent, but she is supporting her family with a challenging job. What in the world would she be doing now if she had not learned English? I’m sure we are all aware of examples like mine.</p>
<p>Starbright, </p>
<p>There is definitely a difference between an immersion school program and real immersion. Obviously, a student, even a young child in an immersion program in school who is not immersed in the same language outside of school, will not be anywhere near fluent in a year. However, when you put a student in complete immersion in and out of school, most are functional (I perhaps misused the word fluent because its definition is unclear) after a semester. Of course, there are some students who will take longer, and functionality and real fluency are two different things, as is writing ability. </p>
<p>Age definitely makes a difference as well as your native language and if you know other languages. If is no more difficult for a speaker of Portuguese to learn English than it would be for someone whose native language is French/Spanish or Italian (other Romance languages). Age probably has more to do with it than anything else and perhaps educational background. The older you are the less likely it will be that you will acquire a new language without an accent.</p>