TeachersTopic is a periodical feature about a subject of interest to the teaching community written by a prominent expert in the field. This month, Patricia M. Cooper, Ph.D answers questions about literacy education for children whose primary language is not English. Dr. Cooper is an Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, where she teaches courses in various aspects of literacy education. Cooper began her work in schools as a kindergarten teacher on the south side of Chicago. She founded the Trinity School for Young Children in Houston, TX. Next, she founded the School Literacy and Culture Project, a school-based teacher education project, located in Rice University's Center for Education. She is currently writing a book on Vivian Paley’s impact on early childhood education. Other research interests include a focus on White teachers of Black children, race, and literacy education.
Many children in U.S. schools have one or more parents whose primary language is not English. What effect does this have on literacy education for those children?
Research in reading has established a link between children’s success in reading and writing and their literacy experiences at home prior to the kindergarten year. The value of these home experiences around reading and writing is naturally enhanced when the language of home and school are the same.
That said, it is extremely important to note that there is ample historical and longitudinal evidence that children can learn to speak, read, and write in a language different from the one they speak at home or when home literacy experiences do not meet school expectations. It is a mistake for educators to allow these differences to color their perceptions of their own role either in the literacy learning process, or children’s abilities to learn in and outside the home.
What challenges do educators face in reaching these students?
First, working with second language learners is most effective in a “dual language” environment in which native English speakers are learning a second language, while non-native English speakers are learning English. In practice, part of the instructional day employs English, and the other employs the targeted second language. In this way, both groups of children learn to move easily between the two languages, valuing both. For several reasons, however, this approach is not available to most teachers and children. First, America does not have enough teachers who speak a language other than English.
Second, often schools have classes in which multiple languages are represented. Third, in some cases, school districts are not committed to second language proficiency. A second type of approach is the more common bi-lingual classroom. In this, literacy instruction centers on one home language (e.g., Spanish). English is phased in over time. Most bi-lingual programs aim for children to be English proficient in reading and writing by third grade. The third approach is the English-as-second-language (ESL) classroom, where instruction is in English with special considerations given to the needs of the children’s home languages.
Challenges in all three settings include the need for teachers:
- To be sensitive to the emotional, physical, and cognitive confusion children confront when they do not know the dominant language of the school. Children should never be seen as less able or intelligent because of a language barrier.
- To make every effort to help second language learners build a two-way vocabulary (for example, labeling objects in the room in two or more languages, noting different words in different languages in conversation, providing books in two languages, allow children to write in two languages as necessary).
- To see the parents as partners in establishing the legitimacy of the home language. Parents should be invited in to talk about their home or ethnic cultures. Every attempt should be made to work with translators, when necessary
Is it important for their parents to become literate in English?
