"Think about what you have read about language learning or language use and any explicit and/or implicit messages you have heard about language? And what have you seen and heard in your fieldwork and mentoring experiences?"
"How do these different “voices” contribute to your understanding of the bilingual education issues? How does this impact the education of linguistic minority students?"
One thing that I have heard repeatedly in my field work is bilingual conversation amongst students. There have been times at St. Martin de Porres where kids will be talking to me in conversational English and then will switch into conversational Spanish. These students do not struggle to speak in English, and yet they will still bring in a few Spanish words into our conversation. I can’t help but notice that this has occurred more than a few times. I feel that the students who switch between English and Spanish do it to form a closer connection between me and the student. These students know that I can speak both Spanish and English and I can’t help but wonder if they speak to me in Spanish to create a friendlier conversation between us. I feel that they aim to establish a sense of cultural familiarity with me.
From my observations at St. Martin’s, I noticed that there is no real language barrier between students and teachers. However, in previous schools that I have mentored in I have encountered a growing number of students that struggle to communicate through English discourse. I believe that bilingual education can be a great tool in schools that have a population of students that do not claim English as their first language. I feel that the lack of bilingual education will only hinder these students because they need a scaffold that can communicate to them in their own language throughout the learning process. I have come to see English-only teaching as a dangerous path in education because it forces students to either sink or swim. I think that students who are not native English speakers will struggle in English-only classes because they will not be able to communicate with instructors. As a result, they will be forced to either quickly assimilate into the English language (which gets harder as you get older), or simply quit and stop trying to assimilate in the new language. On the contrary, through bilingual education students will be taught in their native language and their target language (English) will only be their subject material in school. Through this, students will have an easier time learning the English language because they will have someone to assist them while they learn the language.
What do YOU think? Do you think bilingual education should be implemented in every school? Do YOU see a language barrier at YOUR school site?
I see that happen a lot as well. When you have students who speak the same language at school outside of english and they tend to speak in there language. You cant really blame them because that is what they speak when they are home most of the time.
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