What Excellent Literacy
Teachers of Immigrant
ELL Students Need to
Know
Robert T. Jiménez
Vanderbilt University
TESOL Conference
Tampa, Florida
March 15, 2006
Rate of LEP Growth From
1993-94 to 2003-04
Total
Enrollment
Growth
Number
from 93-94 of LEP
Growth
from 9394
974,133
–2.3%
19,352
447.7%
1,325,344
12.3%
70,937
470.8%
Georgia
South Carolina
1,513,521
16.6%
59,126
397.8%
676,817
–2.4%
12,653
521.5%
Illinois
2,010,322
-9%
161,700
62.3%
Tennessee
North Carolina
...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.
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.
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, postermaking, group presentations, and other
activities requiring various language,
literacy, and interaction skills” (Duff, 2001,
pp. 114-115).
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).
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).
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
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.
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.
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.
3. Recognize Students’
Backgrounds And Cultural,
Linguistic Abilities
•Build on And Recognize Students’
Literate Heritage
•Learn About Different Literate
Traditions, Ways of Thinking
QuickTime™ and a
Photo - JPEG decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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).
4. Understand that Students
Need Access to their
Linguistic and Cultural
Strengths
•Strategic translation, Cognate
Vocabulary Relationships, CodeSwitching for Thinking
•Opportunities to Use Native Language:
Ask Questions, Clarify Confusion,
Cooperative Learning
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.)
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
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.
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.
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
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 Englishlanguage 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.
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.