I know that for students in the United States, English is extremely important in order thrive in our schools, which is why I had always thought of ESL programs as a positive for students who were not English speakers, however, in chapter 7 of the text, "Affirming Diversity", by Sonia Nieto and Patty Bode, ESL is described as being focused on the need to acquire English, which made me look at this differently.
The need to acquire English can often times turn into the need to replace a native language with English, which could end up being a disadvantage for students who originally spoke there native language. Though I feel it is important for ESL students to learn English, I also believe it is important for them not to abandon there native language. Not only is there native language a part of their identity and culture, but also being bilingual can be extremely advantageous for the future of these students especially when it comes to college and joining the work force.
The text states that research found that parents of higher achieving children preferred a native-language environment to a greater extent than the parents of the lower achieving children. This illustrates another positive of not abandoning one’s native language, which is higher achievement in school. ESL students need to understand that their native language and being bilingual is an asset, which they should be proud of. The authors explain additive bilingualism, which I believe is a better way to perceive ESL students learning English. Additive bilingualism is adding a new language rather than subtracting an existing one. I realize that there are a great amount of English Learners in schools today, and as a future teacher, I agree with Nieto and Bode when they say that the responsibility of teaching language-minority students needs to be shared by all teachers rather than just falling on the teachers who are trained to provide bilingual education and ESL services.
Bode, Patty, Nieto, Sonia. “Affirming Diversity” The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education. Fifth Edition. Pearson Education Incorporation : 2008
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. A student should never be expected to delete or replace their native language with a new language. I did not read that article this week; however, I like this "additive bilingualism" term. I did my minor in Linguistics and received my TESEL certificate upon graduation, and each one of my professors taught us that we should value different cultures, languages, dialects and accents. We should never make a student feel like they are less intelligent because they do share our native language.
Also, since you are doing your topic on this subject, please let me know if you come across any articles that discuss the pros and cons to putting young students in schools that teach in both spanish and english, so that students learn both languages at an early age. I have talked to parents that speak English as their native language but have their children in schools that teach in Spanish. This is a very interesting subject to me, and I wonder if students benefit from these sorts of school?
Lisa, I appreciate your take on learning english rather than replacing a previous language. I personally think there might be some limitations though... especially when we are talking about the "responsibility" and the actual learning. For example: I don't really think its fair for 12th grade social studies teachers to have "responsibility" for the quality of communication skills in their classroom filled with 30+ students. In situations like this teachers can certainly help out and be accommodating, but I think it might actually be better for some students to, say take their economics test in spanish, and maybe learn more about the SUBJECT which is what the teacher should realistically maintain as a priority. Maybe lower grade levels should be handled a bit differently. I honestly see this kind of model distracting from the quality instruction of some high school classrooms, and I don't think it's fair to teachers. Language can successfully be separate from other subjects, especially at a higher level.
ReplyDeleteSounds like no brainer: two languages are better than one. But it is actually more complicated. The languages can interfere one another as bilingual students strive to communicate effectively. A language is also associated with a set of cultural norms that are often different than those of another language. How do bilingual students negotiate between different sets of cultural norms?
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