Quotes: Rodriguez and Garcia

Rodriguez

“In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family’s closeness.”

To help their children Rodriguez’s parents agreed to try to incorporate more English into their daily life. By doing so they accidentally divided their family due to a language barrier. They did understand English but could not use that language to emphasize how they really felt as well as they could with Spanish.

“The family’s quiet was partly due to the fact that, as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents.”

The closeness that the family once shared is now gone because in trying to help their children they also lose the bong that they shared with them. The author tells that if neighbors were not over hanging out with the children then the house was silent. Without the proper words to communicate how you really feel, and parents who do not speak a language you fully understand the family was divided.  

“In Spanish, he expressed ideas and feelings he rarely revealed in English.”

The father of the author did not know much English and would be embarrassed to speak it but when he used a language that he could connect with he was “less shy.” Rodriguez’s family confused the father’s lack of words with being timid to share when he was actually timid to seem unintelligent. Therefore when he used Spanish his real feelings and thoughts were properly expressed.

Garcia

“If students do not understand the language in which they are taught, they cannot possibly understand the content and learn.”

Students learn best in an environment that they feel safe and comfortable in. If a child speaks another language with their family and then their teacher speaks only English to the class and they do not understand the student could become frustrated and feel left out. They can then not tell their teacher how they feel and will not understand what they are learning. Once the child has been included they will then embrace the content they are being taught.

“Translanguaging provides a way of ensuring that emergent bilingual students receive the rigorous education that will allow them to meet Common Core State Standards, even when their English language is not fully developed.”

From a young age, many students learn a new language because that is when their brains retain the most fundamental knowledge. Students need this for the real world and to develop fully as an academic achiever. Common Core Standards expect students to have a wide array of understanding and if a bilingual student is testing they have more than one perspective on a subject. Although only English speaking elementary students do have a better understanding of the English language, they are not fully aware of it.

“Both bilingual and monolingual teachers can carry out translanguaging strategies if they consider the bilingualism of their student a resource for teaching and learning.”

If an elementary school teacher has a monolingual classroom and a new student who does not speak English joins the classroom that teacher can incorporate the new student's language into a lesson. By putting up word cards in both English and the student’s first language the teacher could work on spelling, sounding out, and also learning/teaching her classroom a new language while welcoming that new student and teaching them as well.

Question about BOTH author’s articles :

Both Rodriguez and Garcia are saying that educators are missing an opportunity by either eliminating the use of a language in a classroom or not being open to learning new things in order to make the class feel more welcome. Rodriguez tells of how when he was in school he wishes that his teachers would use more Spanish to make him feel more comfortable instead of pushing the use of English on him and his family. By doing so he said that his family became a lot more distant because of the loss of their common familial language. The author said that his mother felt left out and would enter herself into conversations, while his father would have little to say unless in Spanish because he was embarrassed by his lack of English. When using Spanish through the author's father could communicate feelings and ideas that he did not seem to have when he used English. By Americanizing his family Rodriquez felt individualized instead of being welcomed and accepted as a Spanish speaking American. Garcia gives a step by step guide on how educators can also incorporate their student’s knowledge of language into the classroom instead of just teaching one where they do not understand. Like Rodriguez, Garcia says that if a student feels safe in a classroom they will learn better. The difference between the two though is that Rodriguez’s article was a personal story in which gave details of how schools should stop trying to make everyone speak English in classrooms. While Garcia gives a guide to educators on how to incorporate other languages into the classroom through defining strategies and facts. Both of these articles were very eye-opening to read, and I hope to get the chance to have my future students to educate me about new subjects.