Article Review: The ESL Teacher's Role in Heritage Language Maintenance

The article that I've reviewed for this post can be found here.

When families come to the United States, the majority of them have a desire to learn our language and become fluent English speakers. This desire can be so strong that many times the students are encouraged by their families to not use their native tongue at school, and this becomes the expectation from their schools as well. However, the children then go home to an environment which only speaks their first language. This article addresses the issue of children in ESOL classes still needing to maintain a connection to their first language, and ways to help them do this, while still teaching them to be competent English speakers.

The first part of this article speaks of the bilingual classrooms where students are encouraged to be fluent in English by the time they leave elementary school. However, the problem is that parents are rejecting this and saying that only English should be allowed in the school, even at the elementary level. The author says that there are three areas of responsibility that the teacher holds in relation to the respect for heritage language maintenance. The first of these areas that she mentions is communication with parents, where the teacher must reach out to the parents at home and attempt to relate personally with them by hosting a picnic or some other gathering that might be less intimidating than a school setting. Other ways to reach parents is to schedule a home visit or to invite them to come observe in the ESOL classroom to get a better feel for what their child is doing each day. Another area of responsibility the teacher has is to show his/her students that every language is of equal value, and to educate them about the heritage languages represented in their classroom. The third responsibility that the teacher has, according to this author, is to invite that language into the classroom. One method suggested was to have a parent come in and read a poem written in their native tongue and have the student translate it, and by doing so, this would communicate that the thought process is the same, no matter what language you speak.

I appreciated the author’s perspective. Her topic was not one I had thought about, since I've always looked at ESOL as a way to “Americanize” the students. But now I realize that it is important to help the students to maintain an identity with their first language and to encourage them to be proud of who they are and where they came from. I also appreciated her comments about connecting with parents. It’s important to do that with any student, but especially when you are dealing with students from another language background. This whole article held some valuable insight into making the ESOL classroom a place of acceptance and community where there could be isolation and chaos. I will remember these pieces of advice and apply them in my teaching career.