Language Diversity

It is almost unfathomable to me that some people do value and respect second language learning. As somebody who so badly wants to learn how to speak other languages, I do not understand disrespect for any language and especially not for an ability to speak more than one language. I understand when people say that English is the prominent language in America and that students need to learn how to speak it, but I cannot imagine, as was the case with Native Americans in Lomawainma and McCarty, how people can shut down a whole other mode of expression for their students. This saddens me and makes me realize, like Stubbs explains, the “complex sociolinguistic factors [that] lead cumulatively to educational problems for a child” (p. 79).

Haneda’s point about not knowing what our students know out of the context of school is important to look at in light of these complexities. Yes, after reading this, we are aware of some complexities for students who are learning English and for students who know English, yet speak another language at home. How many complexities exist that we may not have read about? Can we ever really understand all of them? What happens outside of school that we cannot be aware of and how can we remedy this? There are so many questions that arise from this. I guess what I am taking away is the fact that it is important to look into my students lives in order to dig deep enough to glean more of an insight on what they do know. As is the case with Baker’s trilingualism concept and Stubbs’ discussion about the different appropriateness of language styles in different contexts, students are using languages in many ways, for many reasons, and in different contexts. These will more often than not, fail to converge into a neat little package that we can stamp literate or illiterate on. We have to combine all the different literacies our students possess and strengthen these together. We have to throw the unfounded notion that there are primitive languages (Baggs and Stubbs) out the window. We have to realize that all forms of communication are valued, serve a purpose to a group of people we may or may not be a part of, and are complex. I think more often than not, a failure to do these things results in our students educational difficulties. It is not our students that fail, it is we who fail our students when it comes to multiple literacies. This is an area that needs much work in our education, but I think, as is evidenced by the rise in ESL and ELL programs, this issue might be ripe for change.