Transcription
Hello everybody. My name is Julie Lent, and this is my presentation over my sociolinguistics and bilingual education class. This presentation will cover my three takeaways from the class and overall highlights or special points from my literature review. So let's get started with my first takeaway, which highlights critical literacy.
Critical literacy involves the process of reading articles thoroughly to make sure children understand every point of view in the article. This can be a really sensitive teaching strategy that I believe teachers should all implement in their classrooms, because of—especially because of—the world we live in today, where there are so many social justice movements taking place. This day and age, there are so many different cultural aspects that I would want people to learn about and respect, and to make sure we understand everybody's point of view. This can even be taken into consideration: the author's perspective—what is the author's perspective on this article? What is their cultural background? Why would they feel this way? Who was their intended audience? There are so many things behind reading for critical literacy, which also feeds into critical language. This helps our children be able to speak in a correct way where we can understand that everyone's point of view and the right takeaways are accented in this, and no one's feelings can get hurt because we can learn how to talk sensitively to people without getting our feelings hurt while also respecting other cultures. So this is a very important takeaway that was highlighted in Chapter two in our book. Critical language is also talked about in Chapter eight, but this was a big takeaway that I had from this book. So that was our number one.
My second takeaway comes from Chapter three: “Minority Languages and Code-Switching.” I learned about code-switching before in the past, but I just loved learning about it. I even catch myself code-switching because, well, I’ve been taking six years of Spanish, and I can see myself—I’m typing a paper, trying to find a fancy word or a more sophisticated word, and I’ll be typing in Spanish, and I’m like, “Wait a minute!” I catch myself. But this is very common when you’re learning a new language. So, us as future ESL educators have to be very cautious of this because this will happen a lot, especially if our kids are trying to be confident in their learning. They’re not going to want to screw up, and they want to get their point across, so they’re going to just start talking in English. They might not know the English word, so then they’ll switch to their native tongue to say that word. So I just have to watch out for that. I mean, it’s just so common, which then leads us into code-crossing.
So I was learning about this. I never heard of code-crossing, and I just figured it was the same as code-switching, which it’s pretty similar. I mean, you know, they do with like native tongue versus the language that they’re learning. But code-crossing can be defined as code alteration by people who are not accepted members of the group associated with the second language that they employ, which is the definition provided by the textbook. The way that I viewed it was: code-crossing is restricted to individuals who share the same expectations, rules, and interpretations for those two languages that they’re using. Um, which then leads us into borrowing across languages. I found this really interesting as I was doing my own research, diving into borrowing across languages. The book defines borrowing across languages as the introduction of single words or short rows in idiomatic phrases from one language into another. This is very common in transportation or traveling languages. So the example that I chose to talk about was “taxi.” This word, “taxi,” is like a cab, you know, like a ride that you can call, and they’ll come pick you up. But this is the same for many different countries. It’s “taxi” in Spanish-speaking countries; it means the same as that in English, same in German and Russian. You know, it’s used all over Europe, and I just—I’ve never really even thought about that. So there are so many words that we borrow from other languages that are the same. I thought it was really cool, like special traveling languages. I figured I could share that with you.
My third takeaway is pidgins and creoles. I have never heard of these before, and I was so fascinated about learning about them because I could never really picture a language being forbidden, secret, or kind of in a way abandoned. You know, I learned the basic definitions of pidgins and creoles and the disagreements between the definitions of the head and the users and the current status, like how they are used in the world. One of the many things that I find interesting about these was that they’re restricted, like I said, and it amazed me how a language can be considered restricted. I mean, I also learned that these are implemented in the classroom. I mean, there are only four countries in the world that actually acknowledge pidgins and creoles and instruct them in the classroom. So, it’s like, as a future ESL teacher, I found that was really cool. I mean, the U.S. even has pidgins and creoles of its own, and there’s one that’s from the southern region; it’s called Gullah, something like that—that’s not even heard of. Like, I’ve never heard of it, which I just thought—I thought that was just really cool. That was a really cool takeaway for me from this class.
Now it’s time for me to talk about my literature review. I have it in Part One, Part Two for the two big highlights that I researched. So my literature review, I decided to focus on bilingual education: justice and injustices and the policies behind it. Because, you know, I’ve never really understood the policies. I don’t really know why these policies are put in place. All I know is that they’re there and that I have to follow them. So I know—I know that fair—oh, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. So, the first thing that I really wanted to research was Lau plans, which I’ll cover in my next slide. But for bilingual education policy, I learned that fair is not equal. So in the past, an equal education opportunity was allowing students who did not speak English into the same classroom as English students and allowing them to have the same education. But that’s not fair to them because they don’t understand English, so they weren’t learning anything in this classroom. So it was setting them up for failure. So this has been put in place: many different amendments and remedies and then, on and on, after 1974, the Bilingual Education Act, which promoted administrative support—allowing the funding and materials to go into public school districts to help them teach culturally relevant education, which allowed them to have our ESL programs, like how they were willing—how they were able to be inducted into schools. You know, there are just so many things behind that. Like, I never knew the history behind them that I just loved learning about. But a lot of the history comes from Lau plans, which the Lau plan comes from the Lau versus Nichols Supreme Court case, which happened in 1974. This was such a big training movement for the Bilingual Education Act. This allowed English curriculum to be taught to non-English-speaking students, too, in public school systems to give them a fair chance at academic success. Look, I never really heard of Lau plans until my field experience at Fredericksburg Elementary, where my teacher actually set this big binder of their Lau plan on my desk. I’m like, “Here’s our Lau plan if you want to look through it.” And I’m like, “What’s a Lau plan?” So I read through it, and I was like, “Oh, okay. This basically—they’re saying that they have a right to an ESL program and how long they can stay in it and what credentials they would need to be in it.” So I was like, “Oh, I kind of want to learn more about this.” So I was really glad that I had the opportunity to research Lau plans and get some experience and knowledge on those. So I mean, I’m willing to open up to have more conversations about them because they really are important to us ESL educators because we will either be the ones helping draft up these rules in this school or will be the ones implementing them and enforcing them. And it’s just something that I was really glad I had the opportunity to become familiar with.
Lastly, here are my references that I used in both my quizzes and this presentation. I included the pidgins and creoles book that I found my hope—I gave them the reference to our class—to Miami because she had some questions about pidgins and creoles during our weekly discussion. So I wanted to bring that to you all as well because it really is a great resource if you’re trying to find more—learn more about them. Here’s some more of my references. You know, I just had so many for my lit review and from this presentation that I want to share with you guys. I’m so grateful I had this learning opportunity with you guys. I really took a lot away from this class and I really enjoyed every minute of the readings. I mean, the book was really—it gave a lot of great insight on critical language and codes, which—so many important aspects and details that us future ESL educators really need to take with us. So thank you for listening and watching my presentation. It was really a great experience working with you all. Thank you.