Spanglish is a term that is used in the Hispanic community when a person is speaking and mixes both English and Spanish words, either creating new words like "troca" for truck or buy interchanging languages as they speak through out the same sentence. This is a term I am incredibly familiar with since it was a big no-no in my household growing up. Even now as a dual language teacher my mother will still regañarme when I do it, but sometimes it feels almost necessary. For example using the word "regañar" for me felt more familiar and accurate; I could have said "scold me" but it wouldn't have been as natural. While of course there are times and places to use specific language over I agree with Dr. José Medina's Twitter post when he speaks of that when people, like my mother, have issues with the use of Spanglish they are linguistic oppressors when in reality it is higher cognitive skill to do so. (Kim et al., 2021)
The American school system sees as English and monolingual learning as being the only way to advance academically without considering that by allowing students to utilize all of their language repertoires, known as translanguaging, students will be able to grasp concepts with more ease. As Dr. José Medina mentions in his interview with Notices Telemundo, "Investigations show that when Spanglish is being used we are amplifying the conversation and utilizing our entire language repertoire, showing their domain over each language." (Https://Twitter.com/Telemundonews/Status/1347925101661052935, 2021)
I have been fortunate enough to have been trained by Dr. José Medina and been able to put many appropiate practices in place through my teaching. One visual I make sure to always make sure to share with parents, especially when I taught in Kindergarten, is The Iceberg Analogy. I hope to help parents understand that the use of translanguaging is encouraged because students are showing their knowledge. When looking at the icebergs the peaks that stick out above the water "surface level" are the oral language that is being produced in L1(a student's first language) and L2 (a student's second language). Many times that language produced is first social language, but under the water their iceberg is comprised of conceptual understanding and academic language that will eventually make its way above the surface level. I wonder if my mother's generation would have been exposed to Dr. Medina's teachings if things would have been different by now both in schools as well as households. Personally, it is exciting that he is being invited to share on a platform like Noticias Telemundo reaching such a large amount of Latinos.
What has your experience been in the building with English language learners or maybe even personally.
References:
https://twitter.com/telemundonews/status/1347925101661052935. (2021, November 9). Twitter; Noticias Telemundo. https://twitter.com/TelemundoNews/status/1347925101661052935
Kim, Y.-S. G., Wolters, A., Mercado, J., & Quinn, J. (2021). Crosslinguistic transfer of higher order cognitive skills and their roles in writing for English-Spanish dual language learners. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000516
I especially loved reading this post. In my class of 19 students, 17 students speak Spanish as their first language, and I have noticed the Spanglish appear very often. I am always amazed at the ease of language switching - whether it be full sentences, between words, or in the same conversation with different people, of whom speak both languages. I do my best to encourage speaking both languages, but I am always curious about the benefits of using Spanglish.
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