The question of how long it should take the average child to learn English is one that has plagued researchers and policymakers for many years. Professor Kenji Hakuta of Stanford University and a team of researchers recently issued their own analysis of the length of time it takes English-learners to learn English. They concluded that this process takes five years or longer and that a one-year program was insufficient. This report by Professor Christine Rossell of Boston University, criticizes the methods used by Hakuta et al. to reach their conclusions. Dr. Rossell is also critical of Hakuta et al.'s criterion that looks at parity with native English speakers.
Children can understand and function effectively in English long before they have achieved parity.
It is also important that this research meets the requirements of scientific validity and reliability and be peer reviewed by others in the field. Dr. Rossell's critique seeks to do just that. But, there is no research presented in this paper that tells us how long LEP students should be in a sheltered English-immersion classroom. After all, half of all native English speakers cannot achieve the average standardized test score for native English speakers. The publishers select a score on the English proficiency tests that they claim denotes whether a student is a fluent English speaker, but there are, in fact, English monolingual students who will score below whatever score they select unless it is zero.