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A community in the southern state of Alabama is experimenting to find a better way to teach students who are learning English as their second language.
阿拉巴马州南部的一个社区正在尝试寻找一种更好的方法来教授把英语作为第二语言的学生。
To reach its goal, the school district is hiring more local, Spanish-speaking workers.
为了实现这一目标，该学区正在招聘更多说西班牙语的当地员工。
More than half of the 2,500 students in Russellville City School district are Hispanic.
拉塞尔维尔市立学区的2500名学生中，超过一半是西班牙裔。
About 25 percent of them are learning English.
其中约25%的学生正在学习英语。
The district is using federal aid money aimed at helping communities hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.
该学区正在使用旨在帮助受新冠疫情影响的社区的联邦援助资金。
Kathy Alfaro is one of the teachers.
凯西·阿尔法罗是其中一名教师。
She was a Spanish teacher, but took a new job teaching children the English language.
她是一名西班牙语教师，但找到了一份教孩子们英语的新工作。
Students learning English are called EL students.
学习英语的学生被称为EL学生。
Russellville at times has struggled to find the workers and money needed to help EL students.
拉塞尔维尔市立学区有时很难找到帮助学习英语的学生所需的员工和资金。
It usually takes five years of intensive study to help a student learn English and perform well in a regular classroom.
通常需要五年的强化学习才能帮助学生学习英语并在常规课堂上表现良好。
Russellville hopes to help its students and be a model for the rest of the country.
拉塞尔维尔市立学区希望帮助其学生，并成为全国其他地区的榜样。
“We were trying to teach an increasing number of EL students with predominantly white teachers that speak English,” said Superintendent Heath Grimes.
负责人希思·格莱姆斯说：“我们试图用会说英语的白人教师来教越来越多的学英语的学生。”
“And I’m like, ‘Why are we not using resources that we have in our community?’”
“我想，‘为什么我们不利用我们社区现有的资源呢？’”
As a group, English learners performed lower on language proficiency tests during the pandemic.
作为一个群体，英语学习者在疫情期间的语言水平测试中成绩较差。
Experts said that may be because many students did not have good online classes.
专家表示，这可能是因为许多学生没有上好的在线课程。
Schools may have struggled to teach English by video link.
学校可能很难通过视频教学的方式教授英语。
But test scores at Russellville schools have improved.
但拉塞尔维尔市立学区学生的考试成绩有所提高。
Across the district, the percentage of students who met language requirements increased from 46 percent in 2019 to 61 percent in 2022.
在整个学区，满足语言要求的学生比例从2019年的46%上升到2022年的61%。
At the two elementary schools, proficiency increased by nearly 30 percentage points.
两所小学的学生的英语熟练程度提高了近30%。
Grimes said the increase was likely because of new EL teachers and aides.
格莱姆斯说，这一增长可能是因为有了新的EL教师和助手。
The non-profit group Education Trust found that some of the nation’s largest districts used pandemic aid money to give jobs to bilingual employees.
非营利组织教育信托发现，美国一些最大的学区利用疫情援助资金为双语员工提供工作机会。
Bilingual describes a person who can speak two languages.
双语指的是能说两种语言的人。
However, federal aid money is starting to be used up and schools are preparing for budget cuts.
然而，学校目前开始用完联邦援助资金，正准备削减预算。
Some experts warn against reducing support for EL programs.
一些专家警告称，不要减少对EL项目的支持。
Carlos Alemán is the director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.
卡洛斯·阿莱曼是阿拉巴马州拉美裔利益联盟的负责人。
He said that as federal money is no longer available, the state should “review what it can do to make sure that these programs can remain in place.”
他说，由于联邦资金不再可用，该州应该“审查它能做些什么，以确保这些项目能够继续存在。”
Russellville school officials are working on ways to keep the new positions.
拉塞尔维尔市立学区的官员正在想办法保留这些新职位。
They are also hoping the state will increase long-term funding for EL education.
他们还希望该州能增加对EL教育的长期资助。
State support for English language programs is limited, but growing.
州对英语项目的支持是有限的，但却在不断增加。
The state legislature approved $2.9 million for schools with large numbers of students learning English as a second language in 2018.
2018年，州立法机构为有大量将英语作为第二语言的学生的学校拨款290万美元。
That amount grew to $16 million last year.
去年，这一数字增至1600万美元。
Leaders at the Alabama State Department of Education are asking for more money in this year’s budget for EL specialists.
阿拉巴马州教育部的领导要求在今年的预算中为EL专家提供更多的资金。
Supporters say money for EL students often falls short, especially in rural districts.
支持者表示，提供给EL学生的资金经常短缺，尤其是在农村地区。
“It takes a lot more money to educate a child that does not speak your language,” said state Representative Jamie Kiel, a Russellville lawmaker of the Republican Party.
州众议员、拉塞尔维尔市立学区的共和党议员杰米·基尔说：“教育一个不会说你的语言的孩子需要花更多的钱。”
He has called for spending more money on EL students in the state budget.
他呼吁在州预算中增加为EL学生投入的资金。
At West Elementary in Russellville, Elizabeth Alonzo is in her second year as an EL assistant.
在拉塞尔维尔市立学区的西部小学，今年是伊丽莎白·阿隆佐担任EL助教的第二年。
She said there were few bilingual teachers in her school when she was growing up.
她说，在她成长的过程中，学校里几乎没有双语老师。
“Whenever I started kindergarten, I didn’t know a word of English, so I struggled a lot,” Alonzo said.
阿隆佐说：“当我开始上幼儿园时，我一句英语都不会，所以我很吃力。”
“That was one of the reasons why I wanted to do this, because I want to help those students.”
“这是我想做这件事的原因之一，因为我想帮助那些学生。”
I’m Jill Robbins.
吉尔·罗宾斯为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
