Talking Point #2: Teaching Multilingual Children

Teaching Multilingual Children
By: Virgina Collier


Author’s Argument:
In this article the author discusses the different approaches and aspects of being a teacher with bilingual students. The article talks about the “romanticized” view of teaching, and the reality of it being much harder then that ideal.

Quotes:

1. “Teaching is complicated, but it is also rewarding in ways that many other jobs can never be. You have the chance to interact daily with live, growing, thinking, maturing human beings, and that time is special despite the complication of managing bureaucratized, overcrowded classroom of over tested, underchalleged students.”

• This is probably my favorite quote out of this entire piece. To me this quote sums the entire article up and I cant think of a better way to define teaching. When I’m at my elementary school doing the reading buddies program, as stressful as it becomes sometimes, this quote is something I try to always be thinking of. Teaching IS complicated, there are a lot of different events that occur every day that need to be dealt with, and the children are at all different education and learning levels then the others. But the way you choose to teach will have an effect on each child. You make an impact on their life every day. It’s a special thing to be able to mold the minds of children that are “growing, thinking, and maturing” every day. Who knows what you may influence to do, and become in their future.

2.”Caregivers repeat themselves using the same syntactic patterns, not through exact repetition, but through rephrasing.”

• This quote really stood out to me because it’s actually something I took a note of today at the elementary school I’m at. As I’m working with the students I have for reading buddies, I also try to pay attention to and take things from the way the teacher in my classroom teaches. Today, one thing I happened to make a note of was her use of repetition with the other students. They were discussing the calendar and how they had days off coming up, and two birthdays in the classroom occurring this month. The teacher repeated the things she was saying, but rephrased them each time, as a way of expressing the information was important, and to put it a few ways so as to stick in the mind of the children.

3. “Instead, whether in English, Korean, Spanish, Greek, or Portuguese, you are working to develop the child’s language as an effective instrument of intellectual growth.”

• To me, this quote is saying that no matter what language you are teaching or working with you should view it as a tool you’re teaching a child that will help them learn and grow forever. Language is the base of everything. You need language in order to continue learning and developing your mind. So a teacher should view teaching a student another language as a catalyst to bigger things.

Questions/ Comments:

I enjoyed reading this piece. It was a little tough to get thorough some of it, but being able to pick out certain parts of it that I could really relate to the classroom work I’m doing felt great. It’s one thing to notice things in the classroom that you feel may important knowledge to hang on to for the future, but it’s nice to be able to relate it or see it in a piece of writing that is gauged towards teaching and teaching methods.