International students share experiences in American schools

"Dobro dosli mosete sjest," Kristijan Jurisic said to everyone who walked into the room.

The welcome, spoken in Croatian, means "Welcome, have a seat," and was meant to give a small taste of what students go through when they first come to the United States, he said.

On Friday, Mr. Jurisic, a junior at East Ridge High School, was among four international high school students who shared their experiences in an American school during a session titled "A Professor's Confession: Immersion Experiences from the Student Perspective."

The session, held in the Chattanooga Convention Center, was part of the 34th annual Tennessee Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages conference, hosted by Hamilton County Schools.

"It's a conference in which we basically come together and share best practices, different strategies, ideas and research that has come out over the year to help our ESOL students," said Alicia Hannah, ESOL teacher at East Ridge High.

She brought her students from Brazil, Croatia and Mexico to the conference. More than 400 teachers from throughout the state and neighboring areas are participating in the three-day conference this weekend, she said.

The original idea of the immersion session was for Ms. Hannah and Dr. Janetta Bradley, associate professor in the Teacher Preparation Academy at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, to share their experiences learning another language in a different country.

But they wanted to offer participants a unique perspective, Ms. Hannah said.

"The main point we want to make across is: What can we go back and tell teachers, not just ESOL teachers, but regular classroom teachers, that will help them with their ESOL students?" she said.

"Too often teachers do what we learn in teacher preparation or what we read," said Dr. Bradley. "But to hear the actual student say what helps, what is not helpful, it's much more powerful and meaningful."

Raquel Bomfim and her sister Beatriz came to the United States from Brazil three years ago, and they have one word to describe their initial experience: Awful.

"I remember I used to cry all the time," said Raquel, 17. "Every day we wanted to go back."

The message the students wanted teachers to understand, said Mr. Jurisic, who came from Croatia as a second-grader, is that "we are able to learn anything as long as we get the time to do it."

"Teachers should also pay more attention to beginners," added Adriana Gomez, a ninth-grader at East Ridge High who came from Mexico two years ago.