Teaching Emergent Bilinguals




Last semester, I had the opportunity to teach a 7th Grade Writing class at Davisville Middle School in North Kingstown. In one of the classes, there was a young boy, V, who had just moved to the country and was still learning English. I was talking to his teacher about supports that were available in the school, and unfortunately, she said that there was not much support. He received a little support from and English Learning Specialist, but it was not as much as a student in Elementary School would have received. This student was brilliant, and could always convey his learnings in Spanish, but was bound to the use of a translator for every single assignment. This frustrated me beyond belief because the student was not really learning the English language, he was simply translating, and I did not see the code-switching process that Danling Fu mentions in his book Writing Between Languages, happening at all. His native language was suppressed, and he was forced to use the English language in all of his assignments, even though he was using a translator the entire time. My CT was frustrated too- you could tell that she wanted to help him more, but because she didn’t know any Spanish herself, there was little she could do. She understood that he came in to her class with a wealth of knowledge and was proud of his determination, but she was also frustrated that there wasn’t more support available in the school for him. A quote from Danling Fu really stuck out to me and reminded me of how important it is that there are supports available for all students so that situations like V’s do not happen.
            “Rather than using English to replace the ELLs’ first language, students ideally will continue to develop their first-language writing skills while learning to write in English” (22). I voiced my concerns to my CT while I was in the classroom. How was V supposed to learn any English if he was only relying on a translator to do his assignments? In what ways could teachers allow him to use Spanish in the class while learning English, and simultaneously learning how to write as well. When reading his work, you could tell that it had been read through a translator. The content was beautiful, and he had the right information, but he wasn’t learning English writing concepts or ideas because he was only writing through this translator. Fu states that “If we make them wait to engage in meaningful writing until they develop their English proficiency, the lack of patience in their writing would result in the loss or decline not only of their native language but also of their newly gained skills as writers” (29). So, while I think that it was important that he was allowed to write in Spanish, his native language, I believe that more emphasis should have been placed on the code-switching process, teaching him vocabulary words that he could use in his writing to gain confidence in doing so on his own.
            Another quote from Fu that stuck out to me was “We, as educators with conscience and responsibility, should always find ways to reach our students. Otherwise, we may lose ourselves and our students by losing our heart and mind in teaching”. I was able to compare this with the Conceptualizing Artifactual Literacies: A Framework, by Pahl and Rowell. They state that “memories of objects are powerful pulls on identity” and this can easily be brought into the classroom. I remember in high school we had to write a narrative about a family artifact, telling the story of where it came from. We brought the artifacts, or pictures of the artifacts into school to share when we read our narratives aloud. Students brought in family heirlooms, photographs, passports, artifacts from their native country and more. The stories spoke life and truth about the students’ cultural identities, and it was a great way to learn more about myself and my peers. This is an activity that EB’s can easily partake in as well, as it allows for students to share a part of who they are, it encourages cultural pride and strengthens one’s identity. Students could write a story about the artifact in their native language, which would bring light to the history behind the artifact. I would hope that this activity would make all students comfortable with sharing their stories and where they came from.
            While the situation with V was very frustrating, I was able to learn a lot about what I want to be able to do as I have my own classroom. For example, encouraging use of the Native Language, Code Switching, and providing both visual and audial supports for students are all things that I hope to be able to do to encourage EB’s to not lose their Native Language while learning a new one.

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