Beyond theEnglish LearnerLabel: Recognizing the Richness of Bi/Multilingual Students’ Linguistic Repertoires

Abstract

The terminology that we use to refer to English learners has shifted over the past two decades, from limited English proficient to English language learner to what is now the preferred term in California and, increasingly, other states: English learner. Yet, what has not changed is how this category continues to limit our thinking about bilingual/multilingual students. English learner is a label that conceals more than it reveals. It emphasizes what these students supposedly do not know instead of highlighting what they do know. As a category, “English learner” constrains our ability to perceive the many strengths that bilingual/multilingual students bring to the classroom—strengths on which we might build to support their language and literacy learning. The author describes how this label distorts our view of bilingual/multilingual students and proposes an alternative perspective that highlights the richness of these students’ linguistic repertoires.

Bringing Bilingualism to the Center of Guided Reading Instruction

“…However, emergent bilinguals’ reading profiles are dynamic and complex, and their overall development as readers is not solely dependent on their English language acquisition (Martínez, 2018). For this reason, understanding the role that students’ bilingualism can play as they develop literacies is critical for teachers.…”

“…Rebecca noticed that from lessons like these, in which students were prompted to make connections between strategies that they use in different named languages, students were more aware of how the strategy works and when to apply it. She noticed that Yesenia’s ability to solve words in both languages improved, thus shedding light on Yesenia as a bilingual reader—one who not only struggles to decode but also needs strategies that support her emerging bilingualism (Martínez, 2018).…”

“…Grounding teachers’ understanding of reading instruction in a deep understanding of students is critical. Although emergent bilinguals are often positioned as struggling readers when viewed from a position of deficit (Frankel & Brooks, 2018; Martínez, 2018), their bilingualism and bilingual identities can be a critical element in the development of their reading processing systems.…”

Expanding the Knowledge Base in Literacy Instruction and Assessment: Biliteracy and Translanguaging Perspectives From Families, Communities, and Classrooms

“…I use the term emergent bilingual (García, 2009) to refer primarily to children who grow up in households with family members who may be English–Spanish bilingual and/or Spanish dominant. Like Martínez (2018), I acknowledge that this term may not be inclusive of children who may speak an Indigenous language in addition to Spanish. The literature cited reflects the experiences of families from Spanish‐dominant countries migrating to urban centers in the United States with established immigrant communities, borderland regions, and newer migration destinations.…”

A Second Lens on Formative Reading Assessment With Multilingual Students

“…Having determined a need to help teachers identify students’ linguistic strengths, we completed a study and developed a tool to help teachers distinguish between language‐related (LR) reading errors and more traditional reading errors. As Martínez () suggested, we use the assets‐oriented term multilingual students to refer to the students in this study. Employing second‐language acquisition (SLA) research and running records as lenses, this article explores how teachers can recognize and draw on students’ linguistic capital to challenge deficit notions that often surround multilingual students (Gutiérrez & Orellana, ) and to facilitate multilingual students’ literacy development from a perspective that values students’ language capital (Yosso, ).…”