What Excellent Literacy Teachers of Immigrant ELL Students Need to Know Robert T. Jim énez

1. What Excellent Literacy Teachers of Immigrant ELL Students Need to Know Robert T. Jiménez Vanderbilt University TESOL Conference Tampa, Florida March 15, 2006

2. Rate of LEP Growth From 1993-94 to 2003-04

3. ...the more formal the market is, the more practically congruent with the norms of the legitimate language, the more it is dominated by the dominant, i.e., by the holders of the legitimate competence, authorized to speak with authority. Bourdieu, 1991, Language and Symbolic Power, p. 69.

4. Academic and Linguistic Needs Immigrant students who enter American schools in the middle and high school years face a particularly difficult challenge. If they are to succeed in these schools, they must acquire English quickly. They must acquire enough English to participate in everyday social interactions with their peer and teachers, and they must acquire enough English to allow them to profit from subject matter instruction conducted exclusively in this language. Newly arrived youngsters must acquire not only interpersonal communicative proficiency in English; they must also acquire academic proficiency. Interpersonal communicative proficiency involves the ability to speak and understand English in face-to-face interactions, while academic language proficiency involves, for example, the ability to take notes while listening to such extended discourse, the ability to read extensively and intensively and to learn subject matter from such reading, and the ability to display what is learned in both oral and written modes (p. 6). Valdés, G. (2001). Learning and not learning English. New York: Teachers College Press.

5. Academic and Linguistic Needs …ability to question, agree, disagree, interrupt, present an opinion and ask for clarification or assistance appropriately (Harper & de Jong,2004, p. 154). participate in role plays, debates, poster-making, group presentations, and other activities requiring various language, literacy, and interaction skills” (Duff, 2001, pp. 114-115).

6. Social Needs …students’ ‘social’ communication, interaction skills, and cultural knowledge seemed to be as important as their ‘academic’ proficiency (Duff, p. 118) There was an ironic cruelty experienced by the vast majority of students in this study, one that related directly to students’ ability to comprehend content or academic material. They understood well and fervently believed in the importance of English as a key to learning and as a key to success in graduating from high school, getting a job, or going on to college or university. Yet there was little opportunity to learn English or practice the English they knew in the very schools whose policy was English-only instruction (Gunderson, 2000, p. 697).

7. Social Needs There are many things, however, that these legislators do not know. They do not know, for example, that even when programs are conducted entirely in English, children have very little access to English (Valdés, 2001, p. 13). Each child had responsibilities at home. Every day Paw cooked dinner for the family, and the boys helped out with the housework. Homework and housework filled their time; they had little social life and few friends. Their father said, “I told my children to obey their parents to respect the old people, to help each other. That is our tradition” (Townsend & Fu, 2001, p. 106).

8. 2. Consider the Different Meanings and Uses of Literacy •Not Just Something We Know, It’s Who We Are •Need and Desire On Part of Many Immigrant Students to Become Fully Literate

9. INTERVIEWER: Now, I want you to tell me what you think reading is. LAURA: Es para que aprendas mas inglés. (It’s so that you learn more English.) INTERVIEWER: When you read in English, Christopher, does it help that you know how to read in Spanish? CHRISTOPHER: No. INTERVIEWER: It doesn't? Not at all? Ok. That's possible. Umm, Do you think, does it cause problems? CHRISTOPHER: It does. You can forget to read in Spanish.

10. Victor: When somebody asks you to read a paper, to read it for him; or when they send some papers to you, you need to read them, 'cause some papers are important and you don't even know. They're important and you don't know how to read.

11. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me when [you translate], like for example? • LAURA: Like for example I go to the store and I go with my aunt and she doesn’t know how to speak to him/her and I have to , I have to say it to him/her and what my aunt says to me, I say it, I say it to the lady… my aunt says something to me that I say… I say it to her and … and saying whatever the lady says, I say it to my aunt.

12. 3. Recognize Students’ Backgrounds And Cultural, Linguistic Abilities •Build on And Recognize Students’ Literate Heritage •Learn About Different Literate Traditions, Ways of Thinking

14. As far as writing goes our goal is that the child achieves success in writing with good handwriting, has good spelling, and maintains his or her notebook in good condition. That is starting with the forro [plastic book cover], that he/she brings it neatly done, that he/she brings it with all the notes in order. Yes, that he/she writes with good handwriting and without spelling mistakes, it’s all of that, that the titles are underlined in red. That’s included, let’s just say, in what we call writing……(4/10/2002).

18. 4. Understand that Students Need Access to their Linguistic and Cultural Strengths •Strategic translation, Cognate Vocabulary Relationships, Code-Switching for Thinking •Opportunities to Use Native Language: Ask Questions, Clarify Confusion, Cooperative Learning

19. Pamela: Like “carnivorous,”“carnívoro.” OK, some words like I know what it is in Spanish. Some words I go, what does that mean in Spanish? Samuel: No, porque no hay ni una palabra en inglés que se parezca a esta palabra. (No, because there isn't even one word in English that looks like this word.)

20. 5. Access to Curriculum of Power and Native English Speakers •Do Not Water Down Curriculum •Contact With Native English Speakers •Opportunities to Use Native Language Without Barriers •Central to Mission of School, Not Peripheral

21. Luis: I feel that those placed in bilingual education are kind of held back. I think that while they're in bilingual education their peers are surpassing them educationally and they are being held back, and not being challenged enough to explore their skills. In the end, they are not going to be at the same level as their peers and they might not advance because of it. Think about this, what if while I am learning the abc's my counterparts are learning advanced math or science skills? Right away because I participated in bilingual education I got screwed out of going to college.

22. Leti: I speak Spanish as well as I speak English and that’s because of bilingual education. A lot of people only speak a little Spanish; they can’t read or write. For me, I can read it and I think it helps me be in touch with my own identity. I am really grateful for that. I would have never learned English as effectively if not for the bilingual education classrooms because I remember in the beginning. It was really hard. I was lost, it was traumatic, emotional, hard for my parents. A horrible experience, it sets you back because I could hardly communicate that well in Spanish at that age and to be asked to speak in a totally different language? I wouldn’t be able to communicate with the majority of my family had it not been for speaking and being literate in Spanish. If you can’t communicate, then you don’t bother to keep up with the news. I read newspapers on line from the D.R. and check up on politics and other important issues.

23. Next Steps: Where To Go From Here • Need to find ways to teach academic language as part of daily routines in ESL and mainstream classes • Need ways to encourage social interaction in ways that require sustained, intensive linguistic interaction • Need models of how to use valued and recognized literature with ELLs • Need models for teaching academic genres of writing to ELLs

24. References Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Duff, P. (2001). Language, literacy, content, and (pop) culture: Challenges for ESL students in mainstream courses. Canadian Modern Language Review/Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 58 (1), 103-132. Gunderson, L. (2000). Voices of the teenage diasporas. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 43(8), 692-706. Harper, C. & de Jong, E. (2004). Misconceptions about teaching English-language learners. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48 (2), 152-162 Jiménez, R. T. (2005). Moving beyond the obvious: Examining our thinking about linguistically diverse students. Naperville, IL: Learning Point Associates. Jiménez, R. T. (2001). “It’s a difference that changes us,” An Alternative View of the Language and Literacy Learning Needs of Latina/o Students. The Reading Teacher, 54 (8), 736-742.

25. Jiménez, R. T. & Gámez, A. (1996). Literature-based Cognitive Strategy Instruction forMiddle School Latina/o Students. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 40 (2), 84-91. Jiménez, R. T., García, G. E. & Pearson, P. D. (1996). The reading strategies of bilingual Latina/o students who are successful English readers: Opportunities and obstacles. Reading Research Quarterly, 31 (1), 90-112. Townsend, J. S. & Fu, D. (2001). Paw’s story: A Laotian refugee’s lonely entry into American literacy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45 (2), 104-114. Rate of LEP growth 1993-1994/2003-2004. Office of English Language Acquisition. http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/stats/statespecific/ Smith, P. H.; Jiménez, R. T.; & Martínez-León, N. (2003). Other countries' literacies. What U.S. educators can learn from Mexican schools. The Reading Teacher, 56, (8), 2-11. Valdés, G. (2001). Learning and not learning english. New York: Teachers College Press.