Speaking about education, a wise school principal once said, “We are in the people business.” This statement is very true, and building positive relationships is a significant aspect of teaching. Using the students’ names is the best foundation for building that relationship. Everyone likes to hear their name. Ask any salesman or person in the hospitality industry, and they will tell you that it is essential to remember their clients’ name and use it whenever they greet them. Names are important in education as well. Whether easy or difficult, teachers must do all they can to get their students’ names right. Correctly spelling and pronouncing English Language Learners (ELLs) names is an easy way to bond with your ELLs. It may not always be easy to accomplish, but that can also be fun for the teacher and the student.
ELLs’ names may be unfamiliar and complicated for many U.S. public school teachers. For instance, most teachers are familiar with the Spanish name Juan. Its spelling and pronunciation should be easy for the average American teacher; however, what if the student is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese? In this instance, the “J” in Juan is usually pronounced like in English. Therefore, although spelled identically, the name is pronounced differently depending on the student’s origin. Still, you can not assume this to be true in every instance because there are always exceptions, even to the most basic assumptions, when it comes to ELL name pronunciations.
Teachers must remember that ELLs will usually not correct the teacher or their classmates who mispronounce their names. Unfortunately, this mispronunciation of ELLs’ names is very common, even among experienced teachers of ELLs. I met a student named Yeimi, the Spanish language equivalent to the prevalent American name Jamie, who had every educator in the school mispronounce her name as “Yimi” for four years of high school. As a new teacher at the school, I could not understand how they never heard the other Spanish-speaking students pronounce her name correctly for those four years. She never corrected any of them.
Make a game of learning the ELLs’ names. ELLs usually enjoy watching their English-speaking teachers struggle to pronounce their names. It is an excellent icebreaker for the new ELLs to see their new teacher attempting to say their names and laughing at themselves. It may take a few days or even a few weeks, but in all my years of teaching ELLs, no matter how exotic the name, I have eventually mastered the pronunciation. This procedure helps the other students in the classroom build a relationship with the ELLs and correctly learn their names’ spelling and pronunciation. This simple process can be surprisingly fun for the teacher and all the students in the classroom.
