Looking closely and listening carefully: A sociocultural approach to understanding the complexity of Latina/o/x students’ everyday language

Martínez, Ramón Antonio; Mejía, Alexander Feliciano

doi:10.1080/00405841.2019.1665414

Cited by 38 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Effective practices, such as building background knowledge to comprehend a text (August, Branum Martin, Cardenas Hagan, & Francis, 2009;Vaughn et al, 2009), are considered important for all students to develop reading and language knowledge and skill. Drawn largely from interpretive research in classrooms FIGURE 1 Basic Framework of Direct and Indirect Effects of Teaching Reading Equitably using qualitative methods, cultural aspects of teaching read ing, such as incorporating students' everyday languages (e.g., Spanish, African American vernacular ;Baker Bell, 2020;Gee, 2001;Martínez & Mejía, 2020), concern the meaning fulness of classroom interactions by connecting with read ers' sociocultural values, identities, and practices. Teaching reading can be effective but not meaningful, or meaningful but not effective.…”

Section: Equity In Teaching Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the authors did not examine moderation effects, they showed how teachers' (lack of) social awareness moderated their teaching prac tice. Moreover, Martínez and Mejía (2020) found in a sixth grade language arts classroom that supporting agency of bilingual Latinx students in reading activities required being teachable-to listen closely to student expressions in both languages to recognize the "complex and sophisticated language practices that overlap directly with the kinds of close reading, careful listening, and spe cialized vocabulary that are officially outlined in [the Common Core State Standards]" (p. 56).…”

Section: Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moll et al (1992) referred to the rich resources, practices, and experiences minoritized students bring to classroom activity as funds of knowledge . Martínez and Mejía (2020) described a teaching practice they call language mapping to connect with everyday language of bilingual Latinx students—using graphic charts to map the ways teachers and students use language across spaces, places, and interlocutors.…”

Section: Advancing the Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Advancing the Science of Teaching Reading Equitably

Jensen¹

2021

Reading Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Teaching Reading Is ComplexTeaching reading is an "outrageously complex activity" (Shulman, 1987, p. 11). Articles in Reading Research Quarterly's two special issue on the SOR identify various skills and capacities needed to read. The authors show how "reading is not a uniform activity but rather varies depending on purpose, skill, type of material, and con text" (Seidenberg, Cooper Borkenhagen, & Kearns, 2020, p. S121). Shaped by biological, behavioral, social, devel opmental, and cultural factors (Snowling & Hulme, 2005), models portray the act of reading with increasing complexity.Yet, "we know more about the science of reading than about the science of teaching based on the science of read ing" (Seidenberg et al., 2020, p. S121). Most models of reading are not pedagogical (Shanahan, 2020). Identifying the statistical significance of a cognitive skill in learning to read does not necessarily suggest that it should be taught or how. Debates about teaching phonological skill (e.g., Mathes & Torgesen, 2000) are illustrative of this. Models of reading " [do] not yet speak to what to teach, when, how, and for whom at a level that is useful for teachers" (Seidenberg et al., 2020, p. S121).Even SOR models that examine the meaning construc tion process among the reader, the text, and the teacher, such as Ruddell, Unrau, and McCormick's (2019) sociocognitive model, still focus on reading more than teaching reading. These models address a single reader rather than a class room of readers and do not account for the role of peer interactions (e.g., Palincsar, Brown, & Martin, 1987), cur riculum, lesson planning, classroom organization, affective support, questioning, personalized feedback, support mate rials, and myriad other factors that bear on teaching students to read in classroom settings (Grabe, 2004;Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 2005). Addressing the complexity of teaching read ing, Snow and Juel (2005) acknowledged that

show abstract

Section: Equity In Teaching Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Advancing the Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Advancing the Science of Teaching Reading Equitably

Jensen¹

2021

Reading Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Marítnez and Mejía (2020) go further, arguing that academic language, rather than an "empirically observable set of linguistic features," is actually an "idealized notion of the kinds of language valued in schools" (p. 53, emphasis added). If, as Martínez and Mejía (2020) argue, "'[a]cademic language' is an idea," then it is worth interrogating that idea. Educators often confuse the notions of "dialect" and "register" (Ferguson, 1994), attempting to change students' home and community language practices (dialects) instead of working with them to expand their repertoire of language uses for particular audiences and purposes (registers).…”

Section: Conceptual Critiquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The focus on students' use of particular linguistic features often comes at the expense of recognizing what students are actually doing and learning, and talking about. Using disciplinary lenses can help illuminate how students from racially, culturally, and linguistically minoritized backgrounds successfully use language and literacy practices, including those they have expertise in from their homes and communities but that are often devalued in educational settings, to engage in key subject-area practices (e.g., Orellana, 2009;Martínez and Mejía, 2020).…”

Section: Recognizing Strengthsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dismantling Persistent Deficit Narratives About the Language and Literacy of Culturally and Linguistically Minoritized Children and Youth: Counter-Possibilities

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite decades of efforts, deficit narratives regarding language development and use by children and students from historically marginalized backgrounds remain persistent in the United States. Examining selective literature, we discuss the ideologies that undergird two deficit narratives: the notion that some children have a “word gap” when compared to their White middle-class peers, and students must develop “academic language” to engage in rigorous content learning. The “word gap” concept came from a study wherein a group of young children in low-income families heard fewer words than those in middle-class families. It assumes that language can only be acquired in one way—vocabulary exchange from one parent to one child—and ignores decades of research on diverse pathways for language development. We highlight an alternative perspective that language development builds on children’s experience with cultural practices and the harm on minoritized children by privileging a specific form of vocabulary acquisition. The second deficit narrative concerns “academic language,” a concept championed by scholars aiming to address educational inequity. The construct runs the risk of undervaluing the potential of students from historically marginalized backgrounds to engage in learning using language that is “informal,” nonconventional, or “non-native like.” It also is sometimes used as a rationale to relegate students to special programs isolated from more rigorous academic discourse, thus ironically removing them from opportunities to develop the academic registers they are deemed to be missing. We explore alternative frameworks that shift the focus from linguistic features of academic talk and texts as prerequisites for academic work to the broad range of linguistic resources that students employ for academic purposes in the classroom. Finally, we turn to a positive approach to youths’ language development and use: translanguaging by multilingual learners and their teachers. Translanguaging demonstrates the power of a resource-oriented perspective that values students’ rich communicative repertoires and actively seeks to disrupt language hierarchies. We argue that this approach, however, must be considered in relation to the broader social context to meet its transformative aims. Together, our analysis suggests counter-possibilities to dismantle deficit-oriented narratives and points to promising directions for research and practices to reduce inequity in education.

show abstract

“Because we have lived it”: Chicanx/Latinx Youth Multimodal Literacies in Youth Participatory Action Research

Ybarra

2021

Reading Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article highlights how Chicanx/Latinx youth draw on their lived realities as lenses to guide their inquiry and share their findings in a Youth Participatory Action Research project. In this project, youth collected testimonios from residents and staff within their migrant housing community to better understand histories of migration and community building. Drawing on a critical multimodal analysis framework which centers Chicanx/Latinx youth literacies and epistemologies, this article focuses on how youth drew on their community cultural knowledge and lived experiences in multimodal creation to bring attention to sociopolitical issues they cared about and impacted their community.A fter collecting oral and written testimonios from residents at Comunidad Miravalle, a migrant housing complex, youth researchers spread their data across a large table to collectively analyze the lived experiences of their community members. They highlighted excerpts of printed-out testimonios in different colored markers, cut up pieces of text, and made piles according to themes that emerged. During a break from this youth-driven data analysis, I posted a question on the dry-erase board that asked, "How is your interpretation of the data different than if someone else was looking at it?" In his journal response, David stated, "Because we have lived it and we studied all these things. " Similarly, Rolando's journal response read, "Because [the other person] is just reading it, not knowing […] all that the people that live here go through. " Through their writing, David and Rolando both highlighted the epistemological orientations Latinx youth bring to youth participatory action research (YPAR). Their words emphasized the knowledge and expertise that comes from living one's own reality and bringing that understanding to inquiry. Like David and Rolando, other youth in the group recognized the sensibilities they carried with them as assets to their research. They agreed that being members of Comunidad Miravalle offered them a unique perspective that others would not have when looking at the data. This knowledge is central to understanding how literacies are embodied, reflective of lived experiences, and leveraged by youth who are given the opportunity to participate in community research.Scholars have looked at the unique knowledge Chicanx/Latinx 1 youth bring with them to their literacy practices, especially how those literacies reflect the experiences of navigating racialized, gendered, sex-

show abstract

Looking closely and listening carefully: A sociocultural approach to understanding the complexity of Latina/o/x students’ everyday language

Cited by 38 publications

References 22 publications

Advancing the Science of Teaching Reading Equitably

Advancing the Science of Teaching Reading Equitably

Dismantling Persistent Deficit Narratives About the Language and Literacy of Culturally and Linguistically Minoritized Children and Youth: Counter-Possibilities

“Because we have lived it”: Chicanx/Latinx Youth Multimodal Literacies in Youth Participatory Action Research

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About