Bilingual Students

Aria by Richard Rodriguez

This article is from the author Richard's point of view, explaining the positives and negatives of being a bilingual speaker in the American school system.

Quotes to share;

"... it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom". 

I picked this quote because I believe it is something that is often overlooked. I used to work with children and I had a Spanish student named Mariana. Her name was pronounced "mardi-ana", although the whole staff besides myself pronounced it "mary-ana". They made it sound very white. Most of the time, she would not respond to it, because thats not how you say her name. Regardless of her language background, if her name is pronounced a certain way, a way that is it not pronounced in english, why are we changing it? There is a difference in a name and a vocabulary word. These types of actions in school can make children feel uncomfortable, and not confident considering the teacher is not only changing their whole language, but changing their name as well. 

"Is it possible for you and your husband to encourage your children to practice English when they are home"?

To some extent, I completely understand why the teachers had this conversation with Richard's parents. A child will have a very hard time learning english if they are only exposed to it at school. Parents should be teaching their kids, or speaking to their kids in english to help them learn. Although, this is not an option for all students. I believe that instead of banning the child's primary language, the teacher can use different strategies in the classroom to help the student understand. There could also be a Spanish speaking TA. The teacher could also try learning some key words in Spanish that may help her communicate with the students. 

Points to share;

Being understanding of a chads cultural background is very important. We can not teach the student if we do not know the student. As stated in the article, we should be encouraging the parents to speak english with the children at home, but teachers should not be against learning basic words in other languages their students are speaking to help their students learn and engage during class. Children can be easily shut down, so we should think of ways to be lifting them up and not making it seem like their culture or language is "wrong".