A Superpower Hidden in Plain Sight
By Adeola Whitney
Whitney begins her article with statistics such as in Fall 2018, 10.2% of students in public schools in the United States were emergent bilinguals, and about 75% spoke Spanish.
She discusses the importance of naming them as emergent bilinguals rather than ELLs because they should not be defined by their lack of English ability but by their cognitive and cultural strengths.
She summarizes the historic role of government efforts to eliminate languages other than English, and then explains how this causes not only a loss of language, but also diminishes students’ views of themselves.
Since students need to learn English, and the ability to read is vital, she suggests methods to adapt reading instruction such as using books with content that students can relate to. She also recommends choral reading and vocabulary building.