#enl

In the last few years, I have started teaching more about Lunar New Year as the time draws near to the holiday or when we study winter celebrations.  And on three separate occasions, three different teachers have made a specific point to talk about Chinese students, asking whether or not I had them, and remarking that they did not have any Chinese students and did not think to teach it because those students were not in front of them.

All three times, I have found this very strange, but could never articulate an appropriate response or even the reasons for my own personal bristling.  

First, Chinese students are not the only ones who celebrate Lunar New Year.  There are plenty of other cultures within and without Asian countries that celebrate this holiday.  Part of my internal bristling was probably due to some of the ignorance, perhaps...?

Second, since when do we only teach holidays that are celebrated by those in front of us?  I understand that we want to connect to holidays in which they are personally invested.  But are we also not responsible for expanding their knowledge base, teaching them new things to connect to the old, and sending a message about respect by exposing them to and normalizing a variety of cultures, lives, and traditions?

No, students do not learn English faster if you ban them from using their native language in the classroom. The “English only” approach is racist and xenophobic, in addition to being ineffective.

Think of it this way, you’re at the edge of a cliff -- your language. On the other side if the language you intend to learn. You use your native language to bridge the gap. I take that away. That’s “English only.”

English Language Learners (ELLs) have a right to maintain their native language while residing in an English speaking country, and disallowing that is a basic human rights violation. 

Language facilitates one’s access to their culture and history. By disallowing one to use their own language, you are denying them the ability to communicate across generations and maintain their identity.

Not everyone’s goal is to master English, but learning English is necessary in order to access many of the resources in English speaking countries. Learning English is about survival, not about pleasing you. 

In the case of refugees, many want to return to their home country. They can’t due to natural or unnatural causes. Some choose to stay and become citizens, others only want to learn what they need to survive.  

Being bilingual or multilingual doesn’t significantly delay one’s ability to get work done. It doesn’t make one deficient, and treating multilingualism as a problem has ableist, xenophobic, and racist implications. 

While appreciating the skill it takes to be able to communicate in more than one language isn’t a bad thing, treating monolingualism as inferior can have ableist, xenophobic, and racist implications too. 

Not every language has a writing system, so don’t be surprised if you run into adult ELLs who do not have fine motor skills. That doesn’t mean they’re less intelligent than you, though.

Some may have stronger oral language capabilities because oral tradition is more important in their culture. Some may have stronger memorization skills because rote learning is valued. etc. etc. etc.

Similar to evolution, while some languages are certainly more complex than others, complexity =/= superiority. The effectiveness of a language isn't measured in its complexity. It merely needs to be useful. 

Language needs to be explicitly taught to make content accessible. Math English is different from History English is different from Science English is different from English Language Arts. 

If you want someone to understand a concept taught through English, you need to understand that it’s your job to explicitly identify terms, explain relationships between words, etc. in order to make it accessible. 

Finally, English is not “the most difficult language.” The difficulty of a language is all relative to the learner, e.g. how closely related languages are in orthography, grammar, context, mutual intelligibility, etc. 

Signed,