Week 14 Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Language Education

Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Language Education

This article describes the different ethnolinguistically diverse student population in the US classrooms. So far, researchers or theorists have been discussing more effective methodologies of SLA for a long time. I realize that it is difficult to change the present situation. For example, many people fall into Native Speakers fallacy. In this article, there are still language ideologies such as standardization, purism, and monolingualism. These ideologies will cause us to discrimination against those who non-native speakers.

Now, I am studying at both IUP and ALI, and I feel the diversity of language and ethnolinguistic diversity. ALI class consists of Spanish, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Saudi Arabians, Africans, and so on. We have each different accent, a kind of vernacular dialect, and can communicate each other. I, myself, am often disappointed with myself, because I cannot say what I think in English. However, I do not feel any discrimination. It is natural for each of us to have different accents. All ALI students try to improve their English skills. What do we need is to be accepted as a member of this society and to help us improve our English skills such as reading, speaking and writing. If we do not have any help from teachers or classmates, it will be difficult to keep studying in the U.S. The Statistics shows that a great number of Spanish students are in the U.S., especially in California and New Mexico nowaddays. In ESL situation, all students are non-native English speakers, but in K-12, most of them are native speakers. In this article, the author says “to provide these children with as many as fair opportunities as possible, so that they can excel in their academic and life careers.” Therefore, teachers or scholars, especially in K-12, should pay much attention to non-native speaking students. As the author says, they use ethnolinguistic resources to support the students’ schooling and academic development.

It will take much time to accept and understand ethnolinguistic diversity in language and literacy education. Teachers or scholars should change their attitude. I think people who have vernacular dialects need much help in school or community. One solution is that school gives them a tutor or additional class. Then I would like to ask you a question. Do you have another idea or solution to help such students in K-12?