Separation of Language vs. Translanguaging
The topic keeps coming up. “I have kids in my class who don’t know English yet. Why can’t I just give them work in their native language?” “I have kids in my class who prefer English. Why can’t they translanguage during Spanish time?” Who said you can’t or that they can’t? Of course, translanguaging is…
How to Ensure Our Students’ Second Language Acquisition Success – From Soleado, DLENM
Hi, everyone. Today, I would like to share an article I wrote for Soleado that discusses how to ensure our students are successful learning their second language regardless of which program they are in. Thank you to DLENM for publishing the article.
Celebrations That Build Sociocultural Competence
Sociocultural competence, one of the three pillars of Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) and encompassed in the 5 C’s of World Language, is more than creating a Cinco-de-Mayo style afternoon of activities. It is more than an International Day where there are various activities from different countries with no real discussions about the practices. And…
Similarities Across Multilingual Programs
by: Dr. Aradhana Mudambi So for starters, my apologies for not being on target with my weekly blog. I’m determined to be back on schedule from here on out. An early New Year’s resolution, shall we say? But the good news? For the past year, I have been working on my book, and it’s out! …
Multilingualism in the United States Does Not Threaten The Status of English
The idea of “English only” evokes a sense of nationalism and nostalgia for many, but in reality, the United States is a multilingual country and always has been. The majority of our founding presidents were in fact multilingual. For example, President Thomas Jefferson spoke French and Italian and had some literacy in Greek and Spanish.…
Translanguaging in Multilingual Education
In my last post, I talked about the importance of avoiding consistent translations. This topic tends to be a source of debate as people wonder where translanguaging fits into the conversation. Therefore, also in my last article, I promised that my next piece would be about translanguaging. In this article, we will discuss the difference…
Why Translations Hinder Language Acquisition in the Classroom
This topic comes up often when I conduct professional development sessions. Can’t we just provide translations for our emergent bilinguals or our multilingual learners? And the answer is no. Translations are not a language acquisition strategy. Whether you are teaching in a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) classroom, an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom,…
Why Multilingualism Matters: Lessons from Pope Leo XIV
The world is celebrating the election of the first United States-born pope, Robert Francis Prevost, to the papacy. Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, there is no doubt that many Americans are proud of this achievement, nor is there any doubt that multilingualism helped propel the Illinois native to this role. Born in the 1950s midwest…
Maximizing Emergent Bilingual Students’ Potential
If you are a teacher of emergent bilinguals, you most likely have a natural sympathy that propelled you into this field where you can help those who most need the support. I make this assumption because I am confident that it is neither the money nor the prestige of teaching that attracted you to education,…
Emergent Bilingualism: Lessons from President Van Buren
Did you know that the first president to be born in the fully-formed United States of America was also an emergent bilingual student? Let’s let that sink in for a little bit. During a time that our founding fathers were getting the United States up and running, a little boy destined to become the 8th…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Language and Equity Blog 