One Good Question with Karen Beeman: How Biliteracy Supports Social Justice for All.

Karen Beeman

This post is part of a series of interviews with international educators, policy makers, and leaders titled “One Good Question.”  These interviews provide answers to my One Good Question and uncover new questions about education’s impact on the future.

“Voy a una party con mi broder."

When Karen Beeman gave this example of a typical statement from a bilingual student, the room of language immersion educators nodded and smiled in agreement.  We had all heard our students mix languages before.  But Beeman’s point was not about the typical interlanguage that occurs during language acquisition.  Her example was of children whose first language is bilingual.  Kids who inherit this natural mix from their bilingual homes and communities and learn later, usually in school, to separate the two languages.In her practice at the Center for Teaching for Biliteracy, Beeman contends that we need to acknowledge that while bilingualism is a starting point for many of our students, it is not the anticipated outcome.  She prides herself in making education research accessible for K-12 teachers and this workshop exemplified that belief. 

Just a few minutes into her talk, Karen had the audience building linguistic bridges between Portugese and English to understand how the practice would support student constructed learning.  To the untrained eye, bridges look like translations and Beeman knew that, once teachers created their own bridges, they would see the value in leading their students through this construction.Karen has dedicated her career to elevating and protecting the status of minority language in a majority language education system, specifically Spanish in the US.  When I sat down with her to talk about her One Good Question, I assumed that her focus would be on investing in language minority education.  What I learned, however, was far more about her vision for all youth in our country.  Karen grew up the child of Americans in Mexico and when she moved to the States for university, she had the unique perspective of appearing American and having strong linguistic and cultural identity in Mexico and Mexican Spanish.  Karen quickly became an education advocate for bilingualism and champion for elevating the status of Spanish in urban communities with significant Hispanic populations.Karen’s inquiry starts from that place of language specific, culture-specific instructional practice and quickly progresses to questions of social justice and equity: How are we preparing minority students to see themselves in the culture of power ?  For the 71% of ELL youth who speak Spanish[1], access to bilingual academic communities that support literacy in both languages, means that they get to comfortably exist in majority culture.

"When students feel visible and what is going on in school matches who they are, we reach their potential."  - Karen Beeman 

For bilingual and heritage students, this visibility begins with equal access to and respect for their home languages.  Karen is agnostic about the type of academic model schools choose.  Traditional bilingual, dual language, and two-way immersion programs are all built around English language expectations. What makes the biggest difference?   Looking beyond the monolingual perspective and the English dominant perspective.  "We cannot use English as our paradigm for what we do in the other language,"  Karen insists.With respect to the pedagogy and materials in current Spanish-language programs, Beeman contends that  we’re creating our own problem.  Most texts in bilingual classrooms (fiction, non-fiction, and academic) are translations into the non-English language.  This means that they are translating English grammar and syntax progressions into a language with completely different rules.  Bilingual students may miss out on natural, age-appropriate expressions in Spanish and often misunderstand the cultural context of a translated story.  Beeman traveled to Mexico for years and brought back authentic children’s literature in Spanish that also didn’t work for her bilingual American students.  In written texts the academic grammar and syntax is at a higher register than oral language.  Bilingual students whose Spanish-dominant parents may not be literate in Spanish, then have little understanding of the « authentic » text.What Beeman experienced was that neither monolingual contexts work for bilingual students.  If we are to capture bilingual students’ full potential, we need a third way. Enter language bridges : a constructivist approach that showcases the background knowledge and expertise of the students, and allows them to access the curriculum and complex ideas in the majority language. Beeman then takes this perspective outside of the classroom : we need to stop imposing monolingual perspectives on education policy, pedagogy and educator training. When we recognize that

1. We have a language of power (academic register of English) and a culture of power (middle-class, European-influenced discourse) that influence all of our instruction ; and

2. Our country is becoming increasingly diverse linguistically, ethnically, and socially ;

We quickly understand that the need for all types of language and culture bridges in our instructional practice encompasses the majority of the country.  Whether we’re addressing socio-economic status, home language, or student identity, most of our students walk into their classrooms as the « other » in the curriculum.  Looking at the trends for increasingly diverse population in the US, we have to ask ourselves what happens when our education system doesn’t embed respect for minority cultures.

Karen’s One Good Question : « How can a student’s experience build on his/her fount of knowledge, both linguistic and cultural ? »[1] Ruiz Soto, Ariel G., Sarah Hooker; and Jeanne Bataloca. 2015 Top Languages Spoken by English Language Learners Nationally and by State.  Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institue.

Karen Beeman provides national professional development for teachers and administrators in bilaterally and bilingual education. Karen is co-author, along with Cheryl Urow, of Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages."

Is Academic Language Enough? Social Capital and Minority Languages.

When I first listened to Suzanne Talhouk's Tedx Talk "Don't Kill Your Language," I selected the Brazilian Portugese subtitles.  I have been learning Portuguese for the past three months and it made sense to practice my reading comprehension.  But I mostly chose Portuguese because, of the 28 subtitles possible, my heritage language, French, wasn't an option.  What an ironic way to begin a reflection on the importance of language protectionism!As a language advocate, I'm accustomed to language protectionism arguments, but what I appreciate most about Talhouk's work, is that she isn't preaching to the choir at an academic conference.  She originally gave this talk at TEDxBeirut and is admonishing her peers for elevating the status of English and French over Arabic.  Talhouk gives familiar positions about native language fluency supporting mastery of additional languages (Cummins, 1994), and the emotional link to language and memory (Schroeder & Marian, 2012).  These are widespread logical reasons that we should maintain our heritage languages.  Talhouk herself is a poet and also invokes Khalil Gibran's work and complexity of thought in their language.  Essentially her argument is that Lebanese people are deciding that their language is less professionally and artistically valuable than English and French. She urges her peers to publish research, create art, and engage deeply in their language.  Don't take my word for it, let her tell you about it directly.[ted id=1803]My biggest idol in language revitalization work is New Zealand's Maori advocacy community.  So much of the success of New Zealand's Maori renaissance is due to the language immersion and korero maori community.  It's possible to study from preK through university and receive all of your instruction in te reo maori.  New Zealand has strong national policy to protect te reo maori and support the work of language advocates.  Picture the language revitalization platform as a three-legged table: policy and education institutions are significant.  In my native Louisiana, we have similarly strong policy and education movements for French heritage language.  New Zealand however, has made greater advances in their third prong: social capital of the minority language.In my parents' generation, we have artists and language activists like Zachary Richard and David Chéramie, who committed to writing in French before, and in great anticipation that, we would eventually be able to read their work in our language.  They were sowing the seeds for social capital and heritage language legacy.  Where New Zealand has created more momentum, is in inspiring my generation of artists to be equally committed to language activism.  Maori Television (especially their Te Reo channel) and Huia Publishing are institutional examples of promoting social capital of the minority language.   They produce a wide range of programs, texts and develop maori-speaking artists to reach broader audiences in te reo.  Rob Ruha, is a contemporary singer-songwriter, who writes traditional waitas, choreographs kapa haka and writes pop songs in te reo.  He believes strongly that he is writing in te reo to reflect our generation's experiences and inspire our children's generation to enjoy and value te reo.My children, now 10 and 7, are used to the fact that, whenever given the choice of language, we choose French.  From the check-out at Home Depot and the ATM, to our movie audio tracks, musicians and greeting cards, we're intentional about making memories in our language.  Speaking, and certainly raising my children in a minority language in the US, requires an effort on my part.   The irony is not lost on me though, that I'm writing this blog in English and not French.  Duly noted.If you are a champion for your minority language, ask yourself, who are the artists, poets, singers, actors, who are carrying the social status of your language for the next generations?  Then ask what legacy are you leaving the next generation now via social media platforms that will keep your language relevant?  Talhouk cautions Arabic-speakers in their use of social media.  She gives the example of transliterating an Arabic word in a tweet. "Whatever you do, don't write Arabic in Roman characters! That's a disaster!  It's not a language."  Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi are just a handful of languages that succumbed to Roman script long before the influence of social media.  On that point, she may be fighting a losing battle.I would love to follow Suzanne on Twitter, but, as you can imagine, her feed is entirely in Arabic.

Do Struggling Learners Belong in Language Immersion Programs?

Yes.  But what about the students who have weak L1 skills?  Them too.  Our students in poverty don’t have the home supports to be successful in language immersion.  Isn’t this a hardship for them? Nope.  These students need longer time to get academic concepts, won’t language immersion delay them in comparison to their peers?  Uh, still no.Academic conferences are typically places to validate our perspectives, and, when we least expect it, really challenge our beliefs as well.  Genesee’s opening keynote for the Brazilian Immersion Conference (BIC) was about the striving (struggling) learner in immersion settings.  In North America, this work urges us to being more inclusive of ethnic minorities, children in lower socio-economic environments, students with special education services.  I appreciate Genesee’s keynote even more in the Brazilian context, where virtually all language immersion programs are in independent schools that serve affluent majority culture kids.  All educators needs reminders and inspiration that increase their expectations for all students.Genesee’s research addresses the dissonance between popular thought and research implications for language immersion.  Common sense argues that language immersion is not successful for students with perceived hardship: academic delays, low socio-economic status, new or poor speakers of the majority language.  Why add to their struggle?  Genesee compares language immersion students with similar demographics of non-immersion students and native speakers of the immersion language.  His results consistently demonstrate that L1 performance, when compared with peers in the control group, are not diminished for “struggling” students (Genesee, 1992; 2007a; Genesee, Paradis, & Crago, 2004).

“It’s important to believe that what we’re doing is right.  If deep down teachers worry about [whether these kids should be in language immersion], it compromises their students’ performance.”

The primary message of Genesee’s talk was that building strong literacy skills in L2 not only supports literacy development in L1, but, more importantly, it increases student access to and success in the academic curriculum.  Students in language immersion are expected to study complex academic topics in the immersion language by the end of elementary schools.  The primary academic reason that students leave language immersion programs in public schools in Canada, is due to reading difficulty and related frustration in the academic curriculum. Committing to and developing literacy skills in L2 unlocks deeper learning for students over time.Genesee addressed the four most common questions raised by language immersion educators:

1. What levels of proficiency in L1 and L2 can we expect?

2. Is it preferable to teach reading in L2 first or L1 first, or both from the beginning?

3. Should we keep the L1 and L2 separate when teaching?

4. What is the importance of oral language for L2 reading competence?

Based on the research demonstrating that language immersion education (L2 literacy) doesn’t diminish the learner’s literacy skills in L1, Genesee advocates for greater, concentrated exposure to the L2 as early in the program as possible. Literacy skills transfer from one language to the next, particularly in languages with similar alphabet characters.  Once a reader learns reading fluency skills in one language that they speak, they apply that literacy understanding to another related language. If your English teacher teaches you to that you can blend letter sounds, your Portugese teacher doesn’t need to reteach that same skill.  That said, he would encourage teaching reading in L2 first, and keeping L1 and L2 separate when teaching.  Genesee cautions that elevating the status of teaching reading in L1 risks reducing L2 reading competency and related academic access in higher grades.Proficiency levels in L1 and L2 vary depending on the structure of the immersion program.  Language immersion educators often fall prey to the myth of the “perfect bilingual.”  Even with high functionality, immersion students still make grammar mistakes in both languages, and have less idiomatic language than same-age native speaker peers. Within environments where L1 and L2 language instruction are highly distinctive (two different teachers in two different spaces), constructivist instruction and cross-linguistic connections support learners in scaffolding specific concepts and vocabulary development.According to Genesee’s work, language immersion students struggle more with reading comprehension than with decoding skills.  It is much more complex to diagnose reading comprehension difficulties if students have inadequate vocabulary and incomplete complex grammar.  These two deficits become the biggest barriers for students to access academic language by grade 5.  Genesee advises that teachers explicitly teach academic language starting in kindergarten and across all disciplines.  This includes complex grammar as well as discipline-specific vocabulary.  Language immersion teachers need to know, understand, and teach academic language from the early grades to give students the tools to thrive in reading comprehension, not just reading fluency.  Early grade teachers in particular should constantly teach phonological awareness, word knowledge, content, and complex grammar to give students the specific tools they will need for reading comprehension.Fred Genesee is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at McGill University.  Prof. Genesee's primary research interests focus on bilingualism and bilingual first language acquisition in normal and impaired populations. In particular, his research examines the early stages of the acquisition of two languages with the view to (a) better understanding this form of language acquisition and (b) ascertaining the neuro-cognitive limits of the child's innate ability to acquire language. He is also interested in second language acquisition in school and the modalities for effective acquisition in school contexts.