Teaching Multilingual Children by Virginia Collier- Reflection

When I read Teaching Multilingual Children and  Aria,  I automatically began to remember my times in elementary school. When I entered school I was placed in a bilingual classroom. But as I got older I was placed into an English classroom. And in the moment where I was placed into an English classroom, was where many of our (my mother and I) difficult nights began. I remember when I assigned homework in English I would sometimes have difficulty understanding the homework. That was when my mom would bring out her dictionary, where she was also trying to learn english from. And with this dictionary we would look up words and we would learn together. Now that I am older I have noticed that many of these situations occur frequently. 

 

"It is worse for many students who are placed in English-only classrooms with teachers who have no training in second language acquisition and who use an English-only curriculum." In elementary school I remember there was a classmate of mine who had been placed, I believe by her parent, in a English-only classroom. In that classroom she had difficulty expressing herself. It was not until the school year had begun that she had been moved into our classroom and was actually able to engage in it. 

Also as I read on I began to think about families who can't help their children outside of school. Not because they're bad parents but due to the fact that there are barriers. Collier stated "It is distressing state of affairs that teachers must encourage immigrant parents to promote home language literacy, not because it is a best practice for English-language learner literacy development, but because some states forbid schools to offer these tools directly to the children."  I know a couple of families who can't provide this for their children.  I know a specific family who can't really help their children with reading or writing. Because when she was younger she was not able to learn these. Which might make it difficult to acquire the power. They may know that knowing English gives them power and access to things in this country but might be able to acquire because of these factors.

Also when I read that teachers "..see themselves as the tools by which a particular student can rid himself of stigmatized dialect  features and become a speaker of the 'right' type of the standard language -the passport to achievement, success, and acceptance."When I read this I thought about Delpit's piece where she says, "If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rule of that culture makes acquiring power easier." In school teachers are telling these students the rules in order to succeed. Such as the way Richard's parents in Aria, were told that they should  practice English with their children.  Which also reminds me of SCWAAMP. Where America-ness and speaking English is encouraged in order to fit in our society.

This is an interesting website I found that discusses the Bilingual Education Controversy that was discussed in our articles.