Accepting Language Diversity in Classroom
In a world full of language diversity and education, how does language diversity affect one’s education in a classroom? As years went by, the world became immersed in more language diversity than it ever before. Language diversity has become a feature of education more or less everywhere and the notable issue is that it’s starting to become difficult for education to keep up with the current language diversity. While few perceive that language diversity has positively affected one’s education in a classroom, most people believe that language diversity has negatively affected one’s education in a classroom. Even though language diversity is widely known throughout the world, it negatively affects an individual in education.
Two distinguished English professors, Geneva Smitherman and Victor Villanueva, in their book, Language Diversity in the Classroom: From Intention to Practice, published in Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. 2003, addresses the topic of nationalism, racism, and language and argues that teachers have good intentions when it comes to aiding their students in the classroom but they are, at the same time, trying to destroy their “home” language. They support this claim by using examples, then statistics, and finally anecdotes. Smitherman and Villaneuva’s purpose is to have teachers to respect the varieties of language that students bring to their classrooms in order to assert the value of language diversity in a classroom. They adopt a concerning tone for their audience, the readers of Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. and others interested in the topic of nationalism, racism, and language.
A associate professor of education, Amy J. Heineke, and a director of the school, Jay McTighe, in their book, Using Understanding by Design in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom, published in Alexandria, Virginia : ASCD. 2018, addresses the topic of linguistically diverse Classroom, and argues how the backward design process of UbD can help educators effectively meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. They support this claim by using examples, then anecdotes, and finally statistics. Heineke and McTighe’s purpose is to provide compelling examples of how teachers in all grade levels and content areas use the UbD framework in their culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms in order to ensure that all students have equitable access to high-quality curriculum and instruction. They adopt a direct tone for their audience, the readers of Alexandria, Virginia : ASCD, and others interested in the topic of linguistically diverse Classroom.
A professor emerita of language, literacy and culture, Sonia Nieto, in her monograph, published in CAL Digest in 2010, addresses the topic of language, diversity, and education and argues that language diversity in our nation has always been complicated and can affect one’s identity in school. She supports this claim by providing anecdotes, then statistics, and finally appeals to logos. Nieto’s purpose is to advocate for equal and quality education for all students, including students who speak languages other than English, need to use the knowledge, research, experience, and power available to them to work in order to improve understanding of language and culture to ensure that language diversity is dealt with in ways that benefit our nation and all of the students we seek to educate. She adopts an assertive tone for her audience, the readers of CAL Digest and others interested in the topic of language, literacy and culture.
The Europe’s online platform for school education, SchoolEducationGateway, in their video, Embracing Language Diversity in Your Classroom, addresses the topic of language diversity in the classroom and argues that teachers often face a number of complex challenges linked to the increasing language diversity experienced in many classrooms. They support this claim by giving courses, then logics, and finally interactions with the audience. SchoolEducationGateway’s purpose is to enhance teachers’ awareness of the language competences of their students and how to benefit from them, as well as to provide them with different tools and resources to support them in delivering curricular subjects in different languages. They adopt a compassionate tone for their audience, the readers of SchoolEducationGateway and others interested in the topic of language diversity in the classroom.
In the first source, Language Diversity in the Classroom: From Intention to Practice, Geneva Smitherman and Victor Villanueva wrote that, “Another prompt asked these future teachers to take a few moments to imagine the following scenario: You walk into your class on the first day of school. As you look around the room, you notice that the students in your class this year seem to represent an unusually wide range of cultural and linguistic groups—wider than you generally have in your class. In what ways will this change or impact your planning and/or teaching of this class (if at all)?”(84) and “In the 1960s and 1970s, when open admissions and desegregation of schools changed the composition of classrooms, teachers came face to face with differences in their students’ language and began to question how to reconcile such differences with curricular goals”(89). In the second source, Using Understanding by Design in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom, Amy J. Heineke and Jay McTighe, wrote that, ““With Astryd now in 11th grade, her parents have noticed a pattern: her grades overall are average, but her achievement varies within specific content areas depending on the teacher. After her parents discuss their observations with Astryd, she self reflects and realizes that she struggles with teachers who lecture and give traditional tests and quizzes but excels with those who scaffold and support her learning in collaborative, inquiry-based settings. After Astryd shares this realization at school, her guidance counselor works with teachers to recognize and find ways to support her language development within disciplinary classes, including chemistry, physics, trigonometry, psychology, and history”(103) and “By merging the principles of comprehensible input and meaningful output (Fillmore, 1991; Krashen, 1981, 2003) teachers can incorporate authentic opportunities for learners to listen, speak, read, and write from the beginning to the end of every lesson. Students should use language in meaningful ways in classroom instruction as they grapple with essential questions and build disciplinary understandings, knowledge, and skills. This situational factor of daily instruction could be perceived as an inevitable result of UbD instructional design, with its emphasis on authentic learning and communicative experiences invoking the language domains and functions tied to the six facets of understandings ”(213-214). The connections I’m seeing between the two sources are that educational issues such as the rise of language diversity in a classroom has driven some teachers to incorrectly deal with the situation of incorporating language diversity in their learning. The relationship between them is that both involve the topic of language diversity and education. Source 1 talks about how teachers had to face the differences of student’s language since desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s changed the composition of a classroom. Since then, the rise of different language diversity is increasing and becoming hard to be dealt with in the classroom. The teachers need to set new goals and implement a new teaching system to adapt to the sudden changes and help the student’s language diversity. Source 2 extends the passage from the first source by finding ways to support student’s language diversity within all ranges of classes. The Ubd framework that they suggested can help both students and teachers when dealing with language diversity in a classroom. They want to ensure that all students have equitable access to high-quality curriculum and instruction. The students ought to be in a language-rich learning environment in order to improve both their language diversity and education. The two sources allow me to show the readers of my essay the complication of accepting and incorporating language diversity in the classroom in order to further the student’s education. The two sources allow me to do the following task of illustrating the readers of my essay because source 1 talks about how teachers in a classroom are facing the challenge of working with students that have different diversity while source 2 comes in and suggests how to deal with such problems. When I talk about language diversity and education, not only will I talk about the problems and challenges, I could also suggest the solution with the help of the sources. If teachers continue to educate people the same way as they did previously, it would negatively affect the student’s overall education and language diversity. I could use the sources’ examples and anecdotes to show what I mean when it comes to teachers and students, language diversity and education. I could talk about how students respond to this kind of effect that’s bringing them down. There’s a connection between language diversity and education that must be balanced and supported in order to have a positive effect for both teachers and students. The stance I take is pretty much how language diversity negatively affects an individual in education. The stance that the two sources stand on is that there must be a need to change in education because of the variety of language diversity that students bring into the classroom. My stance remains the same even after comparing the ideas of the two sources I presented. Because of the language diversity, teachers can fail to gauge the situation which can lead to a halt to a student’s development in education. This is important to know because education guides students to fight with failure and be successful in life. Education can help solve many problems that our world is having right now. The third source, Language, Diversity, and Learning: Lessons for Education in the 21st Century, Sonia Nieto wrote that, “In 1970, at the height of the public school enrollment of the baby boom generation, White students made up 79% of total enrollment, followed by 14% African American, 6% Hispanic, and 1% Asian and Pacific Islander and other races. Currently, approximately 60% of students in U.S. public schools are White, while 18% are Hispanic, 16% are African American, and 4% are Asian or other races (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). In addition, more than 49 million students, or 31% of those enrolled in U.S. elementary and secondary schools, are foreign born or have at least one parent who is foreign born (Shin, 2005). As a result, schools, like the broader society, look very different than they did 40 years ago, and these differences have tremendous implications for how we define and carry out education”(2). Source 3 supports both source 1 and 2 by giving statistics which show demographic changes that are evident in our nation’s schools. Source 3 talks about our growing diversity over the past years and various approaches have been used over the years to address language diversity in U.S. schools. As new students with different language diversity begin to increase, the struggle for bilingual education manifests and becomes a burden. Source 3 allows me to show the readers how teachers in the classroom would need to adapt to the new changes and implement new alternatives to their course of suitable teaching to a variety of students with language diversity. The stance I take remains the same. Because of the language diversity, teachers would need to carefully guide the students to improve both their education and language diversity. Wide language diversity of students who are learning in a classroom need more than just language instruction, they need help from conditions that pose tremendous barriers to their learning. The fourth source, Embracing Language Diversity in Your Classroom, SchoolEducationGateway, recommends their courses to the teachers to take this course since this can be seen as a benefit for teachers and students. that children who are supported to develop bilingually will be better at learning the language of their host country, they will perform better across the curriculum, and they will also do very well at learning other languages. This course will encourage teachers to think more deeply about the importance of language awareness and to better understand and utilise the linguistic diversity existing in their classroom. It raises awareness about how having students from diverse races and speak different languages in the same classroom can actually be used as an asset providing a benefit and added value to the classroom.
To conclude, language diversity negatively affects an individual in education. The world is constantly changing and people always find ways to adapt to them. In order to challenge this problem of language diversity in education, people would need to find alternatives to help those in need. With the necessary help and preparation, students are negatively affected in education to a great extent because of language diversity. Carrying out the usual education would not benefit the students but instead harm both their education and language diversity.
Works Cited
1. Geneva Smitherman, and Victor Villanueva. Language Diversity in the Classroom : From Intention to Practice. Southern Illinois University Press, 2003. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=960296&site=ehost-live.
2. Heineke, Amy J., and Jay McTighe. Using Understanding by Design in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom. ASCD, 2018. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1867474&site=ehost-live.
3. Nieto, Sonia. Language, Diversity, and Learning: Lessons for Education in the 21st Century, Aug. 2010, eclass.upatras.gr/modules/document/file.php/PDE1439/language-diversity-and-learning.pdf.
4. “Home.” Embracing Language Diversity in Your Classroom – Teachers Academy, academy.schooleducationgateway.eu/web/embracing-language-diversity-in-your-classroom.
