"Teaching Multilingual Children" by Virginia Collier

Context/Premise:

“Teaching Multilingual Children” by Virginia Collier expressed many themes, including:
Teaching styles, teachers, students, students learning abilities, English, cultural values, ESL, bilingual, respect, home language vs. school language, learning, how students learn, techniques, factors (social and emotional), academic language vs. casual language, communication, stigmas, appreciation, recognition, code-switching, borrowing, literacy, successfulness, speech, children, methods and using available resources.

Argument:

Virginia Collier argues that teachers must recognize and obtain a “true appreciation of the different linguistic and cultural values that students bring into the classroom” and “be critically aware of the social and emotional factors which affect the second language learner”; as well as, how to accurately teach the child/student that both home and academic languages are important and should not be disregarded.

Evidence:

Evidence which suggests what Virginia Collier argues:

1. “Teachers must serve as a catalyst for discovery as students learn to operate effectively in their multiple worlds.” {pg. 223}
Teacher’s jobs are to help direct their students without discouraging their own creativity and sense of self. In order for children who have learned English as their second language to become successful citizens they must understand the codes of power as Lisa Delpit would argue. However, the question of “how to teach (standard) English in a way that respects and affirms the multiple home languages and dialects represented among students in class” is still being asked, which Collier answers in the above quote. She believes it is up to the teachers to “serve as a support base” and encourage the students individuality and or identity.

2. “The critical distinction to maintain is between how children acquire the capacity to converse casually in a second language and how they learn to become proficient students using second language.” {pg. 225}
The ability of the student or child to communicate affectively in the outside world is much different than the development of speaking in the appropriate academic language style. Collier examples that “teachers are responsible for facilitating academic language development” in their students. Academic language does not come as easily or quickly to children as “context reduced communication” does. Context reduced communication is another way of saying casual or outside world talk, which tends to rely on linguistic cues such as gestures and intonation from the other speaker, rather than abstract thinking.

3. “People untrained in linguistics tend to believe that if limited English proficient students can converse with their monolingual English-speaking peers, then these English-language learners can compete with them on equal footing.” {pg. 225}
This idea that just because the students can converse easily with other students who speak English as a first language means that they can compete with them equally in society or school is not an educated assumption. It is much easier to speak with peers than it is to speak accurately in the academic world. The skills needed to compete can sometimes be lost in transition from native language to academic language.

4. “Don’t teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language.” {pg. 227}
This is a question which I have been asking myself. How exactly am I supposed to teach the culture of power without offending a student’s culture or heritage? Virginia Collier would argue that a teacher’s most important goal is to “help their students master the language used in formal schooling (academic language proficiency) and at the same time give their students language tools for use in all contexts in the outside world.” But, exactly how should this be done? Throughout the text Collier gives different methods which can used to teach students the ways in which to effectively learn English, however, it seems to me that it has more to do with experience. Through experience and reading these sorts of text a teacher will learn how to effectively get through to their student so that they are not ashamed of where they come from and how to be successful in the world which is dominated by the culture of power.

5. “Do not forbid young students from code switching in the classroom. Understand the functions that code switching serves.” {229}
When is it incorrect to code switch? How is the teacher to know whether the student understands what they are trying to say if they are code switching to something which is familiar in order to get their point across? Collier states that “code switching also should not be confused with borrowing.” How is a teacher to know whether they are code switching or borrowing? Does code switching also mean that they do not know how to say whatever it is they are trying to say in English so they revert to what is comfortable? I recognize that it is not a linguistic weakness and that “accepting code switching might produce better academic results than a constant preoccupation with maintaining a single language.”

6. “The most successful long-term academic achievement occurs where the students’ primary language is the initial language of literacy.” {233}
Collier provides evidence in which students learn English literacy better when they are first taught it in their native and or original language. She says that “using the home language for literacy builds the self-worth of language minority students.” The first language transfer to the second is actually quite swift and easier than may be assumed. For this reason the student should learn literacy in their native language so that they can easily transfer what they already know into the second language.

- Ultimate goal ~ “It is hoped that the learning process will not only enrich the life of the student, but also that of his or her teacher.” {pg. 235}
Both student and teacher have the ability to learn from one another and that is something which should be greatly encouraged in the world of academics.