Article Review: Sustaining multilingual literacies in classrooms and beyond

Article Review

Martinez, D.C. & Caraballo, L. (2018). Sustaining multilingual literacies in classrooms and beyond. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(1), 101-104. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.764

Have you ever been corrected in how you say something? Did this ever happen to you in school? Perhaps you are an educator and correct students in how they say something. If any of the above applies to you, you may want to read the article above. I recently read the following article and I highly recommend!

Multilingual and multidialectal literacies are often used by youth, particularly youth of color. However, in the classroom, educators may correct students to match those of the “dominant” group in the classroom. The authors, Danny Martinez and Limarys Caraballo both worked in two different settings to explore how they sustain multilingual literacies. Danny looked at high school ELA classrooms in Northern California. Limarys looked at Cyphers for Justice, an after-school program in New York City. Both Danny and Limarys are former ELA teachers and now work as literacy teacher educators and scholars. Their research interests include equity and are committed to socially just teaching practices, as well as humanizing research traditions.

In the suburban Northern California community where Danny conducted his research, there are almost an equal percentage of Black, Latinx, and Filipino/a youths which account for 90% of the school’s population. Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander and white youths make up the remaining 10%. The two teachers in the study included Mr. Michelson, a white teacher, who is bilingual in Spanish, and Mr. Alcordo, who is Filipino. Freshman students in Mr. Alcordo’s class were introduced to Romeo and Juliet and worked in pairs. As the teacher walked around and asked the students to make predictions about the play, one student said, “They Beefin!” How do you think Mr. Alcordo responded?

Well, he responded with “Yup, there’s beef of some sort!” After he returned to whole group discussion, he began with “There’s definitely gonna be some beefin’!” Mr. Alcordo clearly illustrated that rather than changing their language into academic language, he legitimatized and welcomed the term in his classroom.

In Mr. Michelson’s classroom, he uses Spanish with emergent bilingual students whenever necessary. It’s important to note the term “emergent bilinguals” rather than “English learners”. This legitimizes knowing two languages, rather than the emphasis on learning English. Students use a range of languages in Mr. Michelson’s classroom and multimodal texts are used, such as films, short stories, poems, and even TED talks. Mr. Michelson “treats students’ contributions as worthy pits of knowledge, seeds that will bloom into ideas that can be displayed and shared however possible. Most important, he treats youth contributions as worthwhile of his own learning” (p.102). One more example in Mr. Michelson’s classroom was the use of the word “Slap.” The student was asking for free time to listen to music or chill, but Mr. Michelson didn’t know what it meant. The next time the word was used, Mr. Michelson asked what it meant. By the third time, Mr. Michelson used the word “slap” saying, “They can slapat the end of class.” The students accepted him using the word and Mr. Michelson demonstrated his willingness to learn from and with them. An important point the authors make is that not all educators will feel comfortable using youth language, nor should it be done unless it is in solidarity or alliance with communities whose languages have been stigmatized.

Cyphers of Justice includes researchers working on social justice issues in context of after-school seminars. They focus on critical and youth literacies, research, and social action. High school students and preservice teachers are introduced to traditional research methods and explore opportunities to report and act on research results using a range of rhetorical modes, including digital literacies, hip-hop, and spoken word. Youths are invited to examine their own diverse experiences critically as they collaboratively develop inquiries focused on issues most relevant to them.

One of the students, Wintress, is a young African American woman and was interested in exploring female body image, ideals about beauty, and notions of self-acceptance. She collected data from interviewing female, male, and nonbinary classmates and was presented her research to peers and educators. Here is an excerpt from her:

“I think girls do feel pressured [by the media] …like with rappers and having certain girls in their videos. They see and want to be like those girls.”

She used collage and poetry to more accurately represent the multiple perspectives about body image that emerged from her research. The freedom to choose how she wanted to convey her findings allowed for a more inclusive and culturally sustaining engagement with literacies and social action.

As educators, it’s essential that we foster multilingual literacies in our classroom. While we are mandated to teach state standards, there are ways to do this while we foster students’ multiple ways of learning and the language they use. For youth of color, who are in particular often marginalized in the way they speak, it is essential that we break through “business-as-usual-practices” and embrace multilingual literacies.