RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

Natalie-
I completely agree with everything that you said. I also teach at a school where there are many African Americans and Hispanics and I have also adopted the policy to speak only English in the classroom. You are right because at first they are a little shy compared to my students who already speak English well, but eventually they will become comfortable around each other and they will interact and learn from each other. I think the dialect comes from social interaction more so than direct instruction because the students are having fun and they are at ease. In fact they are learning and they do not even realize it.

Natalie,

Unlike you, I teach at a mostly white school. I taught for 4 years before I ever had a student who wasn't white (this is my 8th year teaching). I don't have much experience teaching students who don't use English as their main language. I do have one Hispanic child in my classroom this year, but he speaks English fairly well. His words are spoken with a slight accent, but there has never been a time when he couldn't think of the English to use or I didn't understand what he was saying. I do believe language learning can be social. It's almost the opposite of what you wrote about in your blog with my Hispanic child. The student in my class almost seems embarrassed to speak Spanish. There have been several times I've asked him if I was saying a Spanish word right in a book, or I might say, "what does this word mean?" He refuses to speak in Spanish or tell me anything about the language. He responds, "oh, you're doing it right." His case may be like the articles we read where he wants to fit in with the other students, so, he refuses to speak in his native dialect.

Natalie,
I agree as well that social interaction can have a larger and longer lasting impact on language and speech development. When I am in a social situation I am very aware of how everyone around me is speaking and acting. I want to make sure I "fit in" and am doing the socially acceptable behavior. I believe the same idea can be carried over to speech as well. When interacting with others the students are at ease, they feel comfortable and want to belong to the group so they remain observant of what is being said and how it is being said. These interactions provide the real life application students need and they also recieve the feedback (both positve and negative) about their speech behaviors.
Michael Lemke

I also agree with the Delpit quote about learning language better in a social setting. It is obvious that infants learn language easily and readily from the comfortable, casual setting of their family. Young children who have parents from different cultures are bilingual because they easily pick up both languages from the members of their family who speak them.

I agree with you compeltely. I teach Kindergarten and at the beginning of the year I almost always have at least two students who come to my classroom speaking no English. I am always amazed at how quickly they are able to pick up English. I think a big part is being immersed in the language by their peers. Also anytime I can relate a spanish word to something I am teaching I try to that way they have a connection to the word.

I completly agree with what Delpit quoted in the reading. Students do learn through social interactions. I student taught in a transitional first grade that was composed of "whites" and Hispanics. I had Spanish speaking students teaching my Englsih speaking students how to speak Spanish and vice-versa. This system seemed to work well! The ELL teach prefered having an English student along with a Spanish speaking student so that they could learn faster. I think that Spanish speaking students do learn better through interacting with others that can speak English.

I agree as well with what you have said. I am in the same boat with Jamie, I too teach at a predominantly white school. I have one hispanic student and she speaks English ver well. However, I do feel that students that speak English as their second language do need that direct teaching, but they also need to feel comfortable among their peers. So, the social interaction plays a huge role. In order for them to step outside of their comfort zone and make new friends they need to be able to interact socially, so I think the English only policy in the classroom is a perfect way to accomplish this.

I have noticed this to be true of the students that I teach. They pick up on English much faster with the students at lunch and PE than they do in the classroom. I have had ELL students in the past who I didn't know knew very much English until I listened to them in PE.

I have seen the same thing to be true in interactions with friends of my own children. My oldest daughter was in class with a Hispanic child that had just come to the US. She and my daughter worked all the time on teaching each other the language. She knew more English words from this interaction than were related to anything academic.

I absolutely agree with you that social interaction is much more powerful in language acquisition than direct instruction. When you are immersed in the language and culture, it's kind of a sink-or-swim scenario. If you want to communicate and have social interactions with others and there is a lnguage barrier, that is a much more meaningful reason to learn how to speak a language than just because your teacher told you to. Of course, I am really referring to a totally different language, but I think it is true with any language or just difference in dialect. You learn to adapt or remain the same. I think it is a choice we all make at some point in our lives.