Interplay of variables in learning English in the US

 Describe the interplay between sociocultural, psychological, and political variables in the process of learning English in US K-12 schools. Analyze how this interplay affects the education experienced by groups of MLL based on your readings and interpretations. Identify major themes.

In the United States, the interplay between sociocultural, psychological and political variables when it comes to language is full of controversy, full of successes and failures. Culturally, the US is becoming more and more diverse every day. In the 2020 census, 61% of participants indicated "White alone", 12% as "Black or African American alone", 6% "Asian alone", and 1% "American Indian and Alaskan native". 10% of our population checked "Two or more races" and many smaller percentages make up mixed race and ethnicity categories (US Census Bureau, 2022). In 2010, the percentage of respondents indicating "White alone" was 72%, an 8.6% decrease, while all the other categories saw increases anywhere from 5% to 35%. The "Hispanic or Latino" categories saw a huge increase as well. In 2020, 81% of people identified as Not Hispanic or Latino and 18% identified as Hispanic or Latino. In 2010 this percentage was 16%, which is a 23% increase from 2010 to 2020 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). If I were to go back another 10 years, the numbers would mostly likely be going in the same direction. In research from Vespa et al. (2018)

As the population ages and grows more slowly in coming decades, the United States is projected to continue becoming a more racially and ethnically pluralistic society. This is not a new pattern. In 1900, roughly one in eight people in the United States were a race other than White. That figure began to rise in 1970. By 1990, nearly one in five people were a race other than White and over the next decade, that proportion continued to rise to one in four people. In coming decades, the racial composition of the population is projected to change even further, so one in three Americans—32 percent of the population—is projected to be a race other than White by 2060 (Table 3).

In the Political realm, unfortunately, these predictions are used to justify racist policies and laws that negatively affect anyone not considered "white".  Of course, what these people don't see is that a "racially and ethnically pluralistic society" will strengthen our country, not the opposite, which is based on fear and hatred.  We have all been taught in elementary school that "Immigrants built this country" and that we should be proud of that. So why would that be different now? We learn every day about achievements (that were previously hidden or repressed) made by people who have been pushed to the margins of our society. These contributions and achievements should be in the middle, not the margins. 

In the US Education system, the problems and concerns of our society are amplified. Educational Policies are slow to change, even when federal and state laws and policies are changed.  The idea that being bilingual is a deficit, as opposed to a strength, was accepted. "At one point bilingualism was believed to result in decreased verbal development and lower IQ" (Cioe-Pena, 2017). But now we know today that this is completely the opposite- that being bilingual or trilingual, etc. means you have increased cognitive abilities. The research was done in the 90s. Bilingual classrooms have only begun to come back to schools and school systems where it had disappeared for decades. But there is a lot of work to be done in this area. Perceptions- social, cultural, political, psychological- need to change in order for there to be more widely available access to bilingual and dual language programs. While major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, New York, Chicago, etc. have K-12 programs bilingual programs in multiple languages, "others, like Arizona which is considered “the most restrictive English-only state”, actively work on abolishing it (Cioe-Pena, 2017).

In How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, we read the story of the a family from the Dominican Republic who are forced to come to America (NYC) during the Trujillo years. The chapter we read, "Daughter of Invention" is mainly the story of the mother and how she copes with raising her girls in America. The oldest sister, Yoyo, has to write and deliver a speech to her school. The mother, who fully believes in the American Dream, is constantly coming up with ideas for inventions- she wants her girls to be fully integrated in the American culture and language, despite the rejections that the girls face.  Yoyo writes a very American speech- inspired by Walt Whitman's poetry- "I sing myself". Her mother agrees and loves the speech, but when they bring it to the father, who is still planted firmly in the DR in both language and political will, he completely flips out. He is so afraid of pushing against the norm, of letting his daughter uses words and sentiments that exclaim American ideas of independence, that he rips up the speech. Mami helps Yoyo to write a more submissive speech, praising her teachers and school. The story speaks to the diversity of thought that Multi-language learners bring with them to the United States. Acculturation happens differently depending on the experiences of the person. Some determine to learn English as quickly as possible to shed their "differentness" and others don't.  Papi wanted his girls to keep their Spanish. He read Spanish language newspapers every day. While Mami only spoke English to the girls, saying "When in Rome, do unto the Romans" (Alvarez, 1992). In school, when Yoyo delivered the speech, the nuns and other teachers were thrilled that she wrote such a speech. 

But the Garcia Girls' school experiences are indicative to what was happening in the US in the 90s. The girls "were trying to fit into American among Americans; they needed help figuring out who they were, why the Irish kids whose grandparents had been micks were called them spics" (138). Fear of newcomers is what causes one group to oppress another. Irish were the victims, then the Germans, then Chinese, then Italians, and so on. Immigration acts barred certain people from certain countries and set limits because of the fear that the new immigrants will take away jobs from "Americans".  New York was not immune, despite it being a city of immigrants. And even though the public schools had programs for Spanish speaking students where they could learn both their native language and English, this wasn't the experience for the Garcia girls. Their parents sent them to a private Catholic school, and there, they faced prejudice from the Irish kids. The eldest sister embraces English. The narrator mentions that Yoyo, much like the author, Alvarez, "took root in the language" (141), embracing English and writing. For the sisters, the trouble doesn't seem to be with bilingualism, but with biculturalism. They want to be American, English, but their father wants them to keep their Spanish identity. Our students in schools today face the same challenges. The prejudice and racism, and anti-Spanish/anti-any language other than English sentiment, is still present. Policies are changing- slowly. Today there are more programs for students, but there is a lot of work still to be done. 

References:

Alvarez, J. (1992). How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents. Plume.

Cioe-Pena, M. (2017). Bilingualism, disability, and what it means to be normal. Journal of Bilingual Education Research and Instruction, 19(1), 138–160.

US Census Bureau. (2022, February 5). Race and Ethnicity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census. Census.Gov. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-united-state-2010-and-2020-census.html

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States. (2021, July 1). Census Bureau QuickFacts. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221

Vespa, J., Medina, L., & Armstrong, D. (2018, March). Demographic turning points for the United States: Population projections for 2020–2060 (No. P25-1144). US Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.pdf

A Case for Bilingual Education

Blog about a Landmark Case Ruling

Our assignment for this blog was as follows:

ProMISE means: “ A proactive journey towards examining and understanding Moral, Intellectual, Social, and Emotional foundations required for racial healing to occur”, (Singleton & Linton, , 2006, p.r151). Highlight sections that correspond to the 4 points. The text should be provocative and should lend itself to reflection and interpretation.

I chose the landmark case, Aspira v. New York for this blog. According to Colorin Colorado, "Aspira V. New York was a legal action taken by Puerto Rican parents and children in New York in Aspira v. New York (1975) resulted in the Aspira Consent Decree, which mandates transitional bilingual programs for Spanish-surnamed students found to be more proficient in Spanish than English" ("Landmark Court Rulings Regarding English Language Learners", Colorin Colorado). I did some quick research online, found the original decisions, and looked through the information on the Aspira website. The article that I focused on is:

De Jesús, Anthony, y Pérez, Madeline, y "From Community Control to Consent Decree: Puerto Ricans Organizing for Education and Language Rights in 1960s and '70s New York City." Centro Journal, vol. XXI, no. 2, 2009, pp.7-31. Redalyc, https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37720842002

This case was interesting to me because it set in motion events that would provide equal opportunities for Puerto Rican students so that they could fully realize the promise of the "American Dream" (De Jesus, 5). The article reviews the history of the neighborhoods of Harlem, the Lower East Side and Brownsville, and how desegregation affected the NYC schools. The result of this court case was the Aspira Consent Decree which forced the schools to create bilingual programs for students who were proficient in Spanish.

When I look at this case from the ProMISE lens, it is clear that racism is at the heart of the issues. But this case had positive influence on law and on the lives of the families and students it represented. Historically, Puerto Rican students had been forced into schools where their language was seen as a detriment to their learning. They were forced to learn in only English, with no supports. Spanish speaking students were often placed in lower level classes because they were thought to be slower than their English speaking peers. They weren't given the opportunities that we take for granted today in our public schools (supports, scaffolds, and accommodations). According to DeJesus, schools thought that "the educational difficulties of Puerto Rican students were a result of their presumably inferior culture, language, and socioeconomic backgrounds" (10). Today we know this was a horribly wrong, racist attitude (well, they knew it then, too, but too many people in positions of power held these beliefs for there to be real change). Due to studies in the last 30 years, we know that students who acquire more than one language are activating more of their brain. We have read over and over again in our textbooks that being proficient in their home language is an asset to second and third language learning students. Despite studies and recommendations that urged NYC schools to provide support for these students, they didn't. As a result, organizations, like ASPIRA, emerged to provide programs to help Puerto Rican students and their families (DeJesus, 12). Desegregation was still inherent in the NYC school system in the late 60s and early 70s, and the Board of Education wasn't providing what the law required. None of this was surprising to me as I read about the case. But it is infuriating. I know it was a different time period, but the inherent racism and bias against Spanish speaking students in the schools, despite the other landmark cases like Brown and Lau, just struck me as particularly hard to understand. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in schools, but it continued in NYC. 

Interestingly, I recently watched the beginning of the remake of West Side Story. The original Jerome Robbins version is troubling, as it promotes many stereotypes and used white actors to portray characters with ethnic backgrounds. This new version is much more "accurate" and it realistically demonstrated the racist attitudes of the white cops and gang members, the hostility they directed towards the Spanish speaking newcomers.  I can imagine this atmosphere as I read about this court case and the struggles of the families to get what their children need from their schools. One of the cops says, "We speak English here" among the many examples of these racist attitudes. 

What astounds me, over and over, is that the schools themselves were perpetuating the racist attitudes towards non-English speakers. Teachers are supposed to be nurturers, supportive of students. According to Antonia Pantoja, a social worker and the founder of ASPIRA, "This brings me to the fact that the schools have mounted an attack on the child who speaks Spanish and who is different; an attack to force him to give this up. What happens as a result is that the child is ashamed of himself and his parents, and ashamed of his speaking Spanish. This hurts these children’s motivation and ability to learn" (DeJesus 12). Morally, this is reprehensible, but this is what was done to immigrants coming to America for over 100 years. Italian immigrants in Providence were made to feel the same way, which is why my grandmother learned English and not Italian. My great-grandfather insisted that his children learn only English. I don't know whether this made them ashamed of him and themselves, but I imagine it would have, to some degree. I can only imagine what they might have become, what choices they would have had, if they had been encouraged to learn both Italian and English (I can only think of my cousins in Canada, who were not forced to give up Italian, and who continue to speak Italian in the home, with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren learning both languages).

In New York, the parents and communities rallied, over the course of the decade before the ASPIRA case, to create community schools where the parents could have influence over the quality of the education their children received. This was in response to the Board of Education's lack of action on Desegregation. They ended up setting up three special schools that would be community run instead of centrally run (DeJesus, 18). Although ultimately this failed, it did have one benefit: "Although the Por los Niños slate was eventually defeated as a result of limited resources and the resistance of elected officials, educational bureaucrats, and leaders from the teachers union, it was successful in increasing awareness of the educational needs of black, Latino, and Asian schoolchildren, and especially the needs of English language learners" (DeJesus, 19). Finally, the needs of the students for a culturally sensitive curriculum were beginning to be seen as important. And Spanish speaking teachers were seen as crucial to this fight. "Fuentes also supported bilingual education because he believed that an increase in Spanish-speaking teachers strengthened the home-school-community connections in the Lower East Side" (DeJesus, 21). Unfortunately, at this time, across the nation, having a first language other than English continued to be seen as a "deficit" rather than a benefit (Affirming Diversity, 12).  

As we have read in our texts and articles, this notion of a students' first language prevailed well into the 2000s. When I first started teaching, I can remember hearing teachers tell students to "speak English" in their classes only, no Spanish allowed. I don't think this changed until the last 10, maybe 15, years in Providence. And really, it wasn't until I started my TESOL certification that I learned how detrimental this is to our students. 

As I have continued in my coursework, I have lamented that I don't know a second language. I wish I could teach in a bilingual classroom. I wish we had a high school program in dual language or bilingual. I have a student this year who is brilliant. She is a high achieving student in Spanish, but in English she is truly caught in the middle. She writes her work in Spanish and translates it, checking the Google Translations for fluency and competency. She would thrive in a dual language or bilingual program, as would many of my students. Today in NYC there are Dual Language programs in all grade levels all over the city- in Spanish, Chinese, French and Russian- and that's just in Manhattan!  

The Court case and the Aspira Consent Decree were the result of the hard work and political action of ASPIRA, a program to "aspire" youth in the Puerto Rican community (DeJesus 22). They wanted bilingual programs and teachers to aspire their children. 

"The ASPIRA Consent decree mandated that the Board of Education provide English-language learners with access to a bilingual program and that ELL students be identified and classified as such annually (by no later than the first week of enrollment). It specified that these students receive the following: (1) a planned and systemic program designed to develop their ability to speak, understand, read, and write the English language; (2) instruction in substantive courses in Spanish so that they do not receive instruction in any substantive courses in a language that prevented their effective participation in any of those courses; and (3) a planned and systemic program designed to reinforce and develop their use of Spanish (ASPIRA 1974: 3)" (DeJesus 23). 

The social action of ASPIRA and other groups that began in the 60s and 70s continues to today.  They laid the foundation for continuing efforts by other ethnic groups to advocate for equality in education and other areas of society. The Decree continues to be in effect and therefore, dual language, bilingual and ENL (English as a New Language - which is what it is called in NYC) programs are available to Latino and other language communities.  

Providence (and the urban districts) would be better served by offering greater access to Dual Language programs. Currently, there is no high school program, and only a few elementary/middle schools offer dual language or bilingual programs. The state is investigating increasing the number of dual language programs in RI. According to Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green, “Growing up multilingual is a strength, not a shortcoming, and we’re excited to provide our MLL students with programs that affirm that principle" ("Rhode Island Foundation and RIDE Announce Bilingual/Dual Language Program Planning Grants to Four RI School Districts"). Considering that the Commissioner sees that advantage of such programs, I hope that we will see more in the future.  We know that these programs are better for students, that being multilingual is an advantage in our world, and we need to turn the narrative around so that everyone sees this as a strength, not a deficit. 

Home Culture to School Culture

 

       Home Culture to School Culture       

As we go through our courses this summer, it has become extremely apparent to me how important it is that we all, as Providence teachers, earn our ESL certification. I am learning a great deal about our MLL population and what it takes to help them to become English proficient. English Language acquisition or learning (whichever you call it) is crucial for our students. Our job, as ESL educators, is to guide them, coach them, help them to reach proficiency in English, but it is so much more than that. We also have a responsibility to help them navigate the cultural divide between school culture and home culture, but in a way that celebrates their home culture, making that culture and language an asset in learning a new language. My job as an educator is to increase classroom conversations so that my MLL students move from relative silence to conversation!

As I head into my 28th year of teaching in Providence, I am comforted that many of the classroom strategies and routines that I have established are called out in the texts that we read. In Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners' Success, we recently read about the importance of "classroom conversation practices" (89). Soto and Singer argue that "Students learn language by using language, and ELs learn the academic language of school but using the academic language of school" (90). They suggest three strategies that are high yield for EL students- Think-Pair-share, Frayer model and Reciprocal teaching.

All three of these are VERY familiar to Providence teachers, or at least they should be if they, like me, have been in the district for more than 5 years. Getting our students to speak more in class, especially academic conversations are critical.  I use Socratic Seminar quite a bit in my classroom (and many different forms of it). I find that I like being the outsider, listening in to conversations. But I think this year, I will try to focus more of my observations on those MLL students that I have- to listen for what they say (or don't say), and think about the supports that they need in order to speak up and not stay silent. 

Grouping students, of course, is really important. I always try to group students heterogeneously, unless I have a really good reason to group them homogenously.  I've always had level 3 and 4 MLL students in my classes (at least the last 6 years, and probably before that, but before that, a lot of them weren't identified properly). I think the difference now, is that I plan to use those home language survey results to make sure that my language learners (and some may not be identified MLLs and some may be exited MLLs) are grouped with native English speaking peers.  We watched a really great classroom video in our Curriculum class "Integrated ELD in ELA Classroom" where the teacher talked about grouping kids. She said it was "important for an English Language learner student to be grouped with somebody who is proficient in the language so that way they're hearing that academic register from a fellow peer."  In other words, it isn't enough for the teacher to speak to students using academic language- they also need to hear it from their peers. 

I've been also thinking that it would be important to have someone in their group who they might be able to communicate with in their home language- to help them "BRIDGE" (class notes on Ausubel's Subsumption Theory) between the languages if they need it. In order for a learner to really learn something, they have to attach it to something they already know.  The theory suggests that learners have preexisting Cognitive Structures that they can then attach new learning to (and if they do, they'll remember if better). This is kind of what we do when we use a KWL chart- connect previous learning to new learning. So if a student knows some concept or idea in Spanish, then we can attach the English to that. But this can't happen if we keep separating our MLLs (level 1 and 2) from our regular ELA classrooms. They're fully integrated into math, science, social studies and the electives, but not in ELA. I think right now, that's because most of our ELA teachers are not ESL certified, but three of us may have emergency certs this year. So for now, the 1s and 2s are in their own classes, without native speaking students. I am not part of those conversations about scheduling the MLL students- I am the ELA Teacher leader. The ELL TL and Literacy coach are part of those conversations. I just hope that I will be ready when they finally do make out departments fully integrated!

Another strategy that the textbook suggests we use to improve our classroom conversations is the three step "Engage, Observe, Support" model (105). This is a protocol to use within the classroom The idea is that we engage with students, providing the supports they need for their conversations in the classroom. Then we observe the students in their conversations and gather whatever data we can while they are having those conversations (this might be during group work using the Frayer model, for example). Then the teacher should review the data collected and either add or remove the supports- whatever is appropriate- so that students can be more successful. This might mean that a student who sat silently during the group work might need sentence frames to help her figure out how to start speaking up. Maybe a student needs to respond using pictures instead of words. It really depends on what the teacher observes. All in all, it's about gathering data to inform practice- which is what all teachers do constantly- sometimes I change my lesson up between periods because something didn't quite work. I change groupings all the time- trying to find the fit for the activity. I change my scaffolds and supports - looking for new ones all the time. 

Finally, the chapter in the textbook also refers to some teacher actions that can be taken to collect more data- ELL Shadowing (92), and the Open Inquiry (105). Both of these strategies are about collecting information. In the shadow, teachers follow an ELL student for a couple of hours taking note of language struggles and inequities that the student faces. I can see where this kind of teacher activity can have a real impact, if it is done right. We have to use the kind of impartial process that we use for our learning walks in the district. When teachers come back to discuss, we have to make sure that classroom and teacher names are taken away, and that we focus on what is going on with the students. The second action, Open Inquiry, involves teacher collaboration and using the 5 step process mentioned in the text (106). Again, these conversations help us to refine our understanding of what is is like to be an EL student and help us as educators to be more reflective, and to try new strategies in the classroom. As a TL, I am committed to the practice of peer observations. I am lucky that I work with an amazing group of educators who are ALWAYS willing to open their doors to others. I can see using the OI strategy with my department to help us to improve our work with MLLs.  I know that our new principal will probably have his own way to doing things like that, but I will be ready with a couple of suggestions if he asks. 

One last note. The TED video- "How language shapes the way we think" -was fascinating- Boroditsky showed examples of 5 different ways that language can shape that we think. They were all fascinating, but the one that really struck me, and it seems obvious now that she pointed it out, is how grammatical gender can shape how we view something. We just studied grammatical gender in our Linguistics class on Language process. But the idea that a word like "bridge" can be masculine or feminine, and that German speakers will use more "feminine" words to describe a bridge because of its grammatical gender, while Spanish speakers use "masculine words- wow. 

Like wow. I never thought about that. I think we have holdouts in English. We think of the "moon" as feminine. But I've always thought that was because of mythology- Diana is the moon goddess. We describe the moon as being shimmering and round and has soft light. Whereas the "sun" is bright and hurts. It "beats" down on us. These are all masculine ideas. I really don't know how to apply this knowledge to my MLLs except that this awareness might help when students are expressing themselves or writing. But again- it is a bridge between home and school culture that we should be more aware of so that we can help our students to traverse back and forth in a positive way. 

 Welcome!

I created this blog as a part of a course (Sociocultural Foundations of TESOL) I am taking to become ESL certified in my school district. I look forward to sharing reflections as we continue this course over the course of the summer and school year.