Self-Denial: Schools Devaluing Multilingual Approaches

   
      In an article I found called Translanguaging Practices and Perspectives of Multilingual Teens, the authors interviewed four students of middle and high school age and asked them about what their language practices and strategies are while they are in class. Overwhelmingly they said that they didn't see the point in using their home languages because English is the only language that's going to get you anywhere in that setting. These kids had given up on trying to make school work for them as opposed to them working for their school and that is very disheartening to hear. Early on in the document, Daniel and Pacheco show an excerpt of their interview with a student where she said this:

"Mr. Anderson, he is the English teacher, and he asked us to write an essay, and I had no idea what to write. And he's like, 'You have to turn this in by today!' And he's like, 'Write the essay!' So I don't know. I write all. I write with the Burmese language. And then when I turn it in, he's like, "Can you translate?" So I did translate, but it's kinda wrong 'cause I don't really know how to translate at that time," ( Daniel and Pacheco, 1)."

     There are many things that could have been changed in this example that would have assisted this student in getting the assignment done without adding the extra work of not only having to write the essay, write it in a rush, and translate it because the teacher couldn't be bothered to get the answers for himself. The simplest thing he could have done would be to extend the deadline for her. Just giving more time to organize the ideas can make a huge difference, but there are often pressures to keep moving so content gets covered. With this particular student, she mentions that she knows Karenni, Burmese, and Thai. She naturally translanguages in order to gain comprehension during class. She chooses to take her notes in Burmese, but her other languages are also in frequent use because she communicates with her family in different languages that she knows. That is a lot to be going back and forth between while trying to write.
 
 In this case, writing in a language other than Burmese is challenging for her. One way I think to help her out with this problem would be to instead of having her write out the essay and then inaccurately translate it, she could do an audio essay where she records herself. Then she can speak freely and use whichever language is necessary to get her point across. Then if the teacher needs her to clarify some points or write the essay out and edit it, she has her thoughts already organized and ready to be referred back to as she writes.

     One thing that was in the translanguaging readings for this week was the idea of giving different texts related to the same theme. I think this is a great idea for classrooms in general but this is particularly helpful for emergent bilingual and multilingual students. When students are given texts that match their processing abilities instead of a single curriculum mandated book, they can understand the concepts presented but on the level that they're currently at versus the level that they're expected to be. An example of this would be assigning Romeo and Juliet versus A Fault In Our Stars. One is obviously much more advanced than the other, but the gist is ultimately the same. Two doomed couples. By having more than one text to work with, students get to be an expert in the book that they're reading as well and can demonstrate their knowledge with pride to the rest of the class.
 
A Tovani strategy that I think could be easily adapted to suit the needs of a non-native English speaker would be marking up the text. When Tovani has her students highlighting each portion to explicitly show what the student understands and doesn't, that's how she is able to assess how much is getting through and what the problem areas are. For a student using more than one language, this does double the work because if you have one page with the student's home language and the other with English, then the student can distinguish between what misunderstandings come from content and language.
I also really like the idea of interviewing students to ask them about their coping strategies. Knowing which languages are their preferred ones for certain tasks can help cater to what they're comfortable with and that would optimize their learning.