Why am I called an ESL student?

Answer 1

Hi! ESL stands for English as a Second Language. For example, the United States is a country where English is dominantly spoken. If you are a student who moves to the U.S. from a country where English is NOT the official or dominantly spoken language and are learning English here, you would be considered as an ESL student. I hope this helps :)

Answer 2

You haven't given any information about yourself, but I can answer your question in a general way. In the U.S. a student is classified as ESL if their first language in not English. In other words, if the language spoken at home is not English, you would be an ESL student. Sometimes, a student's parents may speak English, but they may have another language background. ESL programs in the US tend to be somewhat political, and there have been court cases in which the parents didn't want their children to be put in an ESL program (or didn't believe they belonged there), but the school wanted to put the children there.

I hope this helps.

Julie