As an English Language Learning (ELL) student, she faced lots of challenges because of language problems.

“I did not understand most of what the teacher said in the first several months,” Mengling Wang said.

Her sister signed up Newswriting class for her and it turned out to be a special learning opportunity. Wang became the photographer of the school newspaper.

“I like photography and I enjoy what I am doing now,” Wang said. “I can also learn English from writing captions.”

Wang improved her English by asking friends and teachers, as well as looking up words on the dictionary on her phone. She suggests students in the ELL class to get more reading materials outside of the textbook.

ELL teacher Seamus Puette said “It usually takes two-three years to learn conversational English, but it takes seven years or more to learn academic English.”

He suggests ELL students is “to use English as much as possible”.

“If you never have a reason to use English, you will never learn it. Find someone who doesn’t speak your language and be friends with them, because eventually you are going to use English and that will be a source to practice all the time,” Puette said.