Best Practices for Teaching Emergent Bilinguals

Tongue Tied:Richard Rodriguez and Teaching Multilingual Students

By: Ana Santa

Teaching Bilinguals Even If You Are Not One  

By: CUNYNYS Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals

 

 

“Language is enchanting, powerful, magical, useful, personal, natural, all-important”

-Virginia Collier

Richard Rodriguez was native Spanish speaker. In the text, Tongue Tied, Richard shares his experience as an emergent bilingual student attending a school run by nuns. At a very young age richard learned that, “School acknowledges that we have a public identity, and at the beginning of his schooling journey he believed that he “could not speak a single public language”(34) As a student, he quickly was able to identify that there was a difference between classroom language and his home language. One day, his school reached out to parents to ask if they could encourage him to speak more English at home. That was the day that Richard lost a part of his culture and connection with his parents. He quickly began to lose his home language and ability to connect and communicate with his family. One's language is a part of their culture and to disregard the importance of protecting one's ability to speak with their family is mind blowing. This article reminds me of Delpit’s beliefs of a culture of power. Richard attended a catholic school and therefore his parents listened to the nuns because, “how could they have questioned the church authority which those women represented?” The church hold a lot of power within their society and therefore his parents knew that in order for their children to succeed, they must let go of their Spanish and embrace English. Richard entered the culture of power once he accepted the language norms and assimilated into his school community, “That day I moved very far from the disadvantaged child I had been only days earlier. The belief, the calming assurance that I belonged in public, had at last taken hold.”(36)

However, it came with a cost. Richard lost his ability to communicate well with his parents. This caused him to lose his connection with them and a piece of his culture and identity, “as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents. Sentences needed to be spoken slowly when a child addressed his mother or father, the child would have to repeat him/herself, the young voice would end up saying, ‘Never mind’-the subject was closed.” (37) This reinforces the idea that when a bilingual student enters a school it is important for that community to foster an environment that encourages emergent bilinguals to use all of their linguistic repertoire. If not, the result will be similar to that of Richard's experience. As the English language gets stronger, student’s L1 language gets weaker (if not used simultaneously while acquiring English) and therefore, fewer words are passed between the parent and the child. Silence becomes the norm. Bilingual students are born with a first language, which is the foundation to their L2 language learning. Unfortunately, because it is not the language of power, their home languages quickly become their “private language.” There are many kids who are just like Richard. As educators, we need to support these learners in a way that embraces their full linguistic repertoires. In the text, Teaching Multilingual Children, the author speaks to the strategies that would best support the teaching and language development of bilingual students. Bilingual and/or translanguaging classrooms affirm the importance of home language and public language. This text introduces us to seven guidelines to better understand how teaching English to second language learners can in fact be an enriching experience. Of the seven, I found the first one to be critical, “children use first language acquisition strategies for learning or acquiring a second language.”(Collier, 23) As a first grade teacher of emergent bilinguals, I can attest to how important it is for students to use ALL of their linguistic repertoires when learning to speak, read, and write in English. I have to wonder how different Richard’s education would have been if he was allowed to use translanguaging. His entire learning path would have been different and he wouldn’t have lost his ability to connect with his family. I also think it is imperative that teachers, “Don’t teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language…and…teach standard English and students' home language together. ”(Colier, 227) Framing our emergent bilinguals language abilities as a superpower and something to be proud of will help to foster a community that hones in on students funds of knowledge in their home languages.  

“Recognize that English and all ‘spoken languages are constantly in a process of change, and they change when they come into contact with other languages” (Corrier, 227)

The short videos from Teaching Bilinguals Even If you are not one, were powerful to listen and watch. Similar to the text, Teaching Multicultural Children, they provided research that backs up the many ideas for how to best teach our emergent bilinguals. The research shows that educators have to, “leverage students' linguistic backgrounds, use the language that they know to expand their english.” When an emergent bilingual uses all of their languages “critically and flexibly” they are “translanguaging”. All of the short videos emphasized the importance of viewing students' language backgrounds as a resource in their learning. Furthermore, creating a classroom culture where bilingualism is something to celebrate is a must. If more teachers could look at languages as tools that we use to be successful in our lives, education, careers, and communities than students like Richard would have opportunities to gain access to the culture of power without losing their linguistic identities.

One of the suggestions that stood out to me was having students create a language and culture portrait. I think it is so powerful to have students identify their language use and as their teacher, it helps me understand what they will need from me as learners. In conclusion, all three of these texts and videos reinforce the importance for bilingual students to be able to express their ideas in whatever language comes naturally. Similar to the students in the documentary, Going to School, we need to be mindful of how we treat and interact with these students, “a society is measured by what we do for those most in need”(Going To School Documentary). Whether be a developmental, physical, or linguistic need. It is our responsibility as educators to provide these students with the access they need to become successful members of society using all of their linguistic abilities to get there. Resources: Ana, Santa. Tongue Tied:Richard Rodriguez. 2004 Ohio Edu. Anna, Santa Tongue Tied: Teaching Multilingual Children. 2004 Ohio Edu. Going To School Documentary Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV_riKQPtQk Teaching Bilinguals Even If You Are Not One Retrieved from: https://www.cuny-nysieb.org/teaching-bilinguals-webseries/