Reactions to "Aria" and "Teaching Multilingual Children"

     As I read Richard Rodriguez's "Aria", I felt sad.  I just kept thinking of how the parents must feel.  I felt like they were somewhat forced to give up their own identities by those in power, for the "good of their children".  It's sad to me that they had to give up so much of their own language for the Americanization of their children.  The part I felt most heartbroken about was Rodriguez's statement "After English became my primary language, I no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents".  It seems sad to me that he no longer could even use the names he had uttered since he was able to and the American words were "unsuitable" for his parents.  The silence at home is what really made me feel sad.  When parents and children are no longer communicating on a deeper level because of a language barrier that developed within the family.  I had a student in my fifth grade class who's parents decided to only speak English at home starting when he went to second grade.  In three years, he is no longer able to communicate with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  When he told me about it, he was upset.  He couldn't believe that not using Spanish really made him lose it quite quickly.  He explained that his parents want him to go to college and get a good job, and because he doesn't look American (he's of Mexican decent) he needs to sound American.
     In thinking about his last paragraph and his idea that there are two ways a person is individualized he says (to bilingualists) "So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality".  In his story, his public individuality is most important to his success but he still had feelings about his Spanish past.  My daughter's boyfriend is Guatemalan and his parents speak limited English.  He often will not speak in Spanish to them in front of my daughter or other English speaking friends.  He and his sister communicate strictly in English with each other and their friends even at home.  He often will leave the room if he needs to speak in Spanish to them on the phone.  He avoids them being around English speakers as he is embarrassed by their broken English.  Is there anyway to keep the family more united?  Would it help if parents also learned English?

     From "Teaching Multilingual Children" Abridged from chapters by Virginia Collier the seven guidelines are super helpful for my upcoming grade 5 ESL position in the fall.  Keeping in mind her idea "Most importantly, your goal is to help your students master the language used in formal schooling (academic language proficiency) and at the same time give your students language tools for use in all contexts in the outside world".  This made me think of Lisa Delpit and teaching the codes of power.  The codes of power includes when its appropriate to use different forms of language, like using slang is fine in conversation at the park with friends, but not when presenting to the class.  I also thought about "correcting" my students speech.  I explain the correction as formal English and what would be expected in college or a professional community.  Students understand and don't feel as judged or wrong.  I try to use lots of my students work and edit together, allowing students to help each other find a "better way to say something" and we give ideas and examples and the student who's piece we are editing decides.  Referring to these tips will also help me as the ESL teacher.
     The thing that struck me most from this article was the paragraph about how lack of "home language in literacy development instantly places immigrant children at risk".  This is what I see as the BIG problem in Central Falls.  Many of our students come in with little formal schooling and only speaking Spanish.  Because they come in speaking Spanish it is assumed they can read and write in Spanish, but often times they can not.  Most of their parents can't read and write the language any better.  Many aren't literate in any language, so imagine the difficulties they face.  In research by Collier "English reading skills of fourth graders who were not literate in their home language, were three years behind fourth graders who had received three years of schooling in their home language before arriving in the U.S."  In C.F. our school is working to close the achievement gap of our English Language Learners (ELL's) as it has become an increasing problem over the years.  Maybe we need to look at things from another perspective?  This article also state the importance of all four aspects of language together (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) which I truly believe is important.  Research also shows that the listening and speaking will precede reading and writing, yet using Access data we "pass" students out of the ESL program even if all four areas are not met because it goes by the average score of the areas.  I believe this is another factor that hurts my ESL students, as they are weakest in writing and barely on level in reading, but by passing this test they are no longer eligible for ESL support from an ESL teacher.  This happens all too often and the student's continue to struggle and the gap widens.