Hello my blog followers! Last week I discussed E.D. Hirsch’s theory that literacy instruction can be improved by teaching students content or background knowledge for a national literacy. Much of the content knowledge was specific to the U.S. culture. This week I would like to discuss the concept of using students’ multiple literacies and cultures to improve literacy education. The concepts and theories I will be drawing from come mostly from Mari Haneda, but I will be discussing other professionals as well. Mari Haneda’s theory is about multiple literacies used by English Language Learners.
Haneda and other professionals have stressed that students use multiple languages or literacies. She states, “the concept of multiple literacies is important because ELL inevitably have to engage in a wide range of literacy practices –across contexts, in different languages, in different domains, and for various purposes” (Haneda 338). In essence, Haneda claims that there are literary practices at home, in the community, and school. Similarly, Baker introduces the concept of trilingualism, which is the idea that students use different languages/literacies according to the home, school, or professional settings they are in. The basic idea is that people use multiple litercaies depending on the environment they are in and who they are communicating with. One example of how an ELL used literacy at home is the following, “Nan was able to draw on her existing artistic and performance skills to compensate for her limited English, whereas at school she was not able to access them fully” (Haneda 138). Nan uses her artistic skills with her English skills to communicate with her family at home. Another example used by Haneda is a student that communicated on his own website. Outside of school, “ELLs strategically and agentively use literacy for their own personal purposes to express their personal feelings and opinions, seek and exchange information, maintain and develop social relations, construct desirable identities for themselves, act as language brokers for the family, and improve their English” (Haneda 340) . It is clear that students have the skills to communicate when literacy serves a purpose and benefits them. The examples that Haneda provides support that all of the literacies are effective to the purpose they are being used for. I believe that this proves that there is no such thing as a primitive language and that “languages reflect, in vocabulary, the needs and interest of their speakers” (Stubbs 71).
I think if we want our students to master literacy than we must do as Haneda suggests and “boundary cross” or help students make the connection between home and school literacies. The first step to boundary crossing is acknowledging and respecting the literacies that students use at home and in their community. Part of a teachers’ job is to communicate with students, and communicating with students is difficult if we do not acknowledge their multiple literacies. Learning about students’ multiple literacies is discussed in “English Language Learners in the Class Room” when the professionals share the differences between Chinese, Spanish, and English languages. For instance, it is explained in their discussion that a complete sentence in English requires a subject, verb, and object while some Chinese sentences do not require a subject or verb. I have found that knowing some basic rules of other languages such as Chinese has helped me tutor writing ELL. For instance, I know that some cultures do not cite sources and it is believed as an honor to copy someone’s work. When I tutor someone that believes this I must respect their culture while explaining the concept of citing sources to them, so that they do not get in trouble for plagiarizing. Baker also gives examples of how educators can learn about their students’ literacies. In particular, Baker asks her students to get into groups and discuss how they communicate at home. This activity could definitely be used in an English or AIS Literacy class as a way for the teacher to get to know students. The importance of learning about our students’ literacies and cultures is that we are able to communicate with them and help them further improve their literacy skills.
After we have explored our students literacies and culture we are then able to create lessons on literacy that unify the literacies. By connecting the multiple literacies in the class room students will be open to learning about literacy. One example that Haneda provides is about a group of teachers that “…collaboratively created lessons that drew on community resources in order to make learning personally relevant to their students” (342). In other words, home community, and school are linked making lessons significant and valid to students. Another example of how this linkage can be achieved is the Indigenous schools discussed by Lomawaima and McCarty. The students in the Indigenous schools are taught a bilingual and bi-cultural education. The linkage of the litearcies and cultures requires that we invite members from our students’ communities. I agree that we should make an effort to bring in the outside communities to support students and educate students on diversity. Providing students opportunities share and analyze art work, literature, and other forms of communication from their cultures would show students that there are diverse forms of literacy that are equally effective.
The term multiple literacies springs to mind various languages and how we adapt those languages based on the settings we are in. However, I would also like to point out that media literacy should be addressed in the class room as well. Video clips, word processors, social networks, texting are all forms of literacy. Our students use media every day to communicate at home and their community, so we should use media literacy in the class room. Please take the time to watch the following video clip that argues media is a valid literacy that students use along with their other multiple literacies; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQicn2WwTo. One way we can intergrate the multiple literacies is by having students create their own blogs about their culture, make a website about family traditions, compose their own bilingual short stories, make dictionaries with vocabulary from their multiple literacies, and write a paper on how they choose what literacy to use in certain social settings.
All in all, I think teachers should acknowledge students’ multiple literacies. Students will appreciate the fact that we welcome their multiple literacies and cultures. Moreover, integrating multiple literacies in the classroom will improve the education of literacy. I hope you have gained something from my literacy blog. Please check back next week for my new post!
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