Bilingualism & Literacy

In many of our readings today, there is a portrayal of how the so called standard English has been used in various K-12 educational settings to assess actions appropriate for ESL students. These students’ conformity to this vaguely held belief (standard) often forces researchers to find what they believe are practical solutions to the ‘ever-lasting system’ that is resistant to any challenge. This often results in limited recommendations such as those dealing with strategies ought to be employed during transitional processes or finding supportive educational elements of survival in the face of the mainstream student community. Rarely does it lead to forcible changes to the system itself under which the notion of standard is preserved.

I see that it is imperative that bilingual studies direct their research more toward attacking the status quo or the staying power of tacitly viewed literacy. As there is a tendency that each individual is affected by the dominant form of literacy, he or she would tend to adhere to what they think is an unchallenged or given view of intellectuality, sense of academic, and standardization and which prevents them from venturing outside this box of thinking. Therefore, emphasizing on the relationship between bilingualism and literacy development from a postmodernist or poststructuralist perspective to educators and decision makers may save some efforts of needing to fix every bit and piece of the breakdown.

So much as we want to fix some problems residing ‘in’ students as portrayed in the labeling of Spanish speaking students, teachers should not receive any less of our attention. We should emphasize the need for more research into teachers’, educators’, and decision makers’ interpretations of literacy and bilingualism as frequently as how researchers emphasize the need for more research into bilingual students’ experiences. The research that looks into the representation of ESL students’ identity is a good example of this kind of effort that directly links between educators’ role in forming this representation and its repercussion in ESL the students community. Although research into students’ performance is important, perhaps when paralleled with research into educators’ intellectual repertoire, more insight and, in turn, more effective actions may be revealed that can smoothly and justly position ELS students in relation to their native speaking peers.