Most of the migrant children had no English when they arrived at school.
The term ESL meant English as a second language teacher and that was me.
My job was to give intensive language instruction to new non English speakers in small groups so they could join mainstream classes as soon as possible.
I soon found that the children who had been taught to speak their native language with correct structure and grammar spent the least amount of time in those classes.
They had little trouble picking up English quickly.
One particular day we were talking about Australian animals. I had a few pictures of different Australian animals when it suddenly struck me that they had no idea what I was talking about.
They had never seen a real kangaroo, koala or platypus!
I knew immediately I had to take them on excursion to Taronga Park Zoo. The only trouble was that we were about 500 kilometres from Sydney and the nearest airport was Canberra!
All of the arrangements were soon in place. With the help of parents from the migrant school community, the permission note was translated into three languages and sent home. Permissions granted , arrangements were made and we were off.
We caught a bus to Canberra airport, a plane to Sydney, a coach to travel to Circular Quay and then a Ferry to the Zoo.
Little did I realise that most of the children had never been outside of their country town since arriving in Australia.
Most of them had never been on an aircraft and all of them had never been to Sydney or on a ferry before.
A simple trip to the zoo turned out to be the most wonderful stimulus for those children to talk about, write about, draw and paint each other ( as well as me ) that I have ever seen before or since.
Their use of English exploded and most of them made the transition to the mainstream class well before I expected them to.
If your child is a non English speaker starting school this should not be a problem IF you have taught them to speak theirhome language ,with correct structure and grammar. They just apply what they subconsciously know about the structure of their native tongue to English.
If you have two languages at home choose one to be the main language you teach first .Do not mix and match languages! This can cause big problems.
When children are learning to speak, they need one set of language structures to embed in their brain first.
I hope everyone takes their children on similar adventures to the park, the beach and the Zoo if time and money allow.
These experiences are wonderful stimulus for the development and use of language.
teachbabytotalk 
Thanks Sandra for the beautiful analysis, I would say that even if the grammatical structure is different from one language to the other, brain neurons if they get used to one type of grammar they can make new connections in order to learn another language. I have one question if you dont mind: i am Algerian and i am moving my family to Malaysia, my 2 sons dont know any English one of them is in the first grade and the second is still a toddler. from your own experience, what will be the necessary time for a 6 years and a half child to catch up and learn English, considering intensive courses. my son is a fast learner and has a good memory. thanks and kind regards, Fares
Thank you so much Fares for your kind comments. I’m sure your children will pick up English very quickly, within 12 months as you obviously have excellent English skills. I would reinforce your spoken English to your children by reading English language stories to them every night .I am sure they will excel in English before they finish elementary school if you read to them on a regular basis from the moment you arrive in Malaysia. Good luck and keep me informed on your children’s progress. I would be very interested to see how quickly they adapt.