English language learners: students reflect on their high school monolingual experiences.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20316540

ABSTRACT The goal of this qualitative study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of former English Language Learner (ELL) students who graduated high school in the last five years who were immersed in English-Only Monolingual settings. The chronic underperformance of English language learners is associated with the language in which instructions are provided to them-that is, English-only instruction. This qualitative work collected data from interviews of former ELL students' experience. The information collected was analyzed and processed through an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) theoretical framework. By understanding participants' experiences and perceptions in monolingual setting, findings in this work identified that the experience of former ELLs in monolingual setting was misfortunate and ill-fated. The findings identified a need to adopt duo language instruction as a mean to better respond to ELL students' academic needs. Keywords: language acquisition, second language acquisition, English language learners (ELLs), English as a second language (ESL), English language development (ELD), cultural diversity, culture shock, achievement gap, and academic achievement.