I begin the conversation about bilingualism with my students before the first day of school arrives. I meet most (if not all) of them when they come for a classroom visit about one week before school starts. During this visit, students become familiar with the classroom and choose/label their cubby. I explain that in this classroom I will speak a lot of Spanish and a little bit of English. This reflects the one-teacher, 80/20 program model I work in, but this can be adjusted to fit any program model (e.g., in a 50/50 model with 2 teachers, you can say that Ms. A will speak Spanish and Ms. B will speak English). I show them my green and purple [1] scarves and explain that they will know if I am speaking Spanish or English by noticing the color of my scarf. For my more expert English speakers and monolingual English speakers (which predominate in my school community), I say that they may not understand everything I am saying when I wear the green scarf [2]. But I also try to allay their fears by letting them know that there are many ways for them to figure out what I am saying. For example, I may draw or point to a picture of what I mean, or I may show them what I am saying by doing it with my hands or my body. I tell them that in this classroom, their ears must listen, but their eyes should listen too.

Introducing…the Magic BUFandas

On the first day, I make a big deal about the green and purple scarves. I tell students that they are magic and demonstrate how the language that I speak changes as I put them on and take them off. I’m very dramatic about it and sort of silly, but in being so, I am speaking the language of five year olds. Throughout this day and the days to come, I am especially explicit about the colors. When I am going to read a story, I notice out loud the color of the dot on the book [3]: “We are going to read a story about some animals. Look, this book has a purple dot so it’s a book in English! The title of this story is…” When I am going to write on the board, I think out loud when I choose a marker to write with: — Estoy hablando en español, entonces necesito mi marcador verde. — We know this strategy well in kindergarten. We think out loud to teach children how to do things. Thinking out loud can also serve as an effective strategy to develop metalinguistic awareness, especially when combined with visual cues like scarves and colors.

Eventually, one day, IT happens. The students come back from lunch and I begin class, but I have forgotten to put on my scarf. A student says, “You’re talking English so you need your purple scarf,” or we come back from recess and it is English time and in my haste, I have forgotten to change my green scarf to the purple one. A student says, “You’re talking English but you have green on.” I have invented a clever response to save the day when this happens: “Oh, yes, no wonder my neck hurts a little…the green scarf is not for English!” I used to think I was making a huge mistake by forgetting to change my scarf, but I have come to realize that on the rare occasions it happens, it just creates another opportunity for students to notice language on a metalinguistic level. It takes more coordination to keep track of two scarves, but in doing so we are making the languages and the process of managing them concrete and explicit for our students.

One Balloon, Two Balloons, Three Balloons…Four?

After I have introduced the colors and the scarves, I want students to begin applying their emerging metalinguistic awareness to themselves and their families. We read a story called Pepita Talks Twice by Ofelia Dumas Lachtman and do an activity called I want to be bilingual. I do this activity during
the small portion of my day that is dedicated to English and the activity spans across a couple of weeks to accommodate both the briefness of English time and the attention span of brand new kindergarteners. Pepita Talks Twice is a bilingual book (Pepita habla dos veces) and this activity can also be done in Spanish and called Quiero ser bilingüe if that is what makes sense for your classroom.

Published by Arte Publico Pr (1995)

I bring balloons to represent the languages we speak. Purple balloons represent English and green balloons represent Spanish. I also have a bag of multi-colored balloons for any other languages that may come up. Sometimes I know from my beginning of the year parent survey if there are other languages represented in my classroom, but not always. I introduce the activity by telling students that I am bilingual and that means I know two languages: Spanish and English. Then I show them what I mean by taking out a green balloon, telling them that I know a lot of Spanish, and that consequently my green balloon is going to be big. I then take out a purple balloon, telling them that I know a lot of English too. I blow up the purple balloon to the same size as the green balloon, but then I think out loud, “Well, I really know a little more English than Spanish, so this [purple] balloon needs to be a little bit bigger.” And I blow it up a little more. I tell them I need to keep practicing Spanish so my Spanish balloon can be a little bit bigger too. Then I tie both balloons to a stick and take a picture with them. Over the course of the following days, the other adults in the classroom each have a turn to do this, and then each student has a turn to tell us what languages they speak and whether they speak a lot or a little of that language. The balloons are a concrete representation of each language and blowing them up to different sizes makes the dynamic nature of bilingualism concrete (i.e., one language can be more or less developed than the other).

It is true that some children become focused on having large balloons, and their initial self-assessment of language expertise is not representative of their true abilities. When this happens, I make an observation like “I notice that you speak English a lot during the day like this purple balloon has a lot of air in it, and sometimes I get so excited when I hear you singing songs and saying hello in Spanish.” Then I blow up the green balloon a little and say, “ So I hear you speaking a lot of English and a little Spanish” and I hold up the balloons side by side. Sometimes others students chime in to let us know what language they speak with that child. Usually this is enough to ‘convince’ the child to accept this truer assessment of their language abilities, but sometimes they insist that the Spanish balloon needs to be bigger. I don’t belabor the point…I blow up the balloon until the child is satisfied. The point is that we have engaged in a conversation about language in a way that is understandable to kindergarteners, and we have protected any sense of efficacy and pride related to Spanish (which will feed the child’s future risk taking).

This year, I had a child who said he knew Italian and proceeded to tell me words he knew in Italian: caramella (candy) and Mamma Mia! I excitedly acknowledged his language skills, but knowing that this child did not have Italian ancestry, I asked him (in a delightedly curious tone) where he learned Italian. His reply? “On TV from the Ninja Turtles.” I was tempted to explain to him that knowing a language is so much more than knowing a few words, or that the Ninja Turtles don’t know ‘real’ Italian…I can’t believe I had that thought, but I did! This line of thinking continued with the notion that balloons are very appealing to young children, and this child may have simply wanted more balloons. But I put that line of thinking aside (thankfully!) and instead focused on the fact that he had made the connection that knowing more languages translated to having more balloons. This is a child-centered understanding of the idea that knowing more than one language is better, and that knowing more languages means having more of a desirable commodity. This year I had several students with three balloons…in addition to English and Spanish, I have families who speak Arabic, Greek, and Mam (a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala), and each of these languages got its own color balloon. This is the first year I have had so many multilingual families in my class, and it has made me consider that perhaps next year I should share that I know American Sign Language and identify myself as multi- (not bi-) lingual.

English, Spanish and Italian

Spanish, English and Arabic

Spanish, English and Greek

Spanish, English and Mam

This one activity serves several purposes:

•  It contributes to our efforts to make the idea of a language concrete.
• It introduces the concept of language strengths and the idea that knowing more languages is better.
• It invites conversation about language and contributes to our students’ newly emerging  metalinguistic awareness.
• The conversations instill pride in children for knowing more than one language. As their teacher, I establish a very positive climate around these conversations. I make sure to express wonderment and awe when students speak of knowing another language…and the children catch on to this very quickly.

Involving Families in the Conversation

Families are also invited to join in the I want to be bilingual activity. I send home a letter explaining this activity and asking them to have a conversation with their child about bilingualism. On the bottom of the letter, I include a form for parents to return with their answer to the statement: I want my child to be bilingual because… As these come back to school, I read them to the students and I ask the child to share about the conversation he/she had with the parent about bilingualism.

Parents’ reasons they want their children to be bilingual

The conversation about bilingualism that students have with their families extends the development of early metalinguistic awareness into the home, but it also invites families to share their hopes and dreams for their bilingual child. It creates a space for families to explicitly state the reasons they have chosen to place their child in a program that teaches or preserves a second language.

After this letter goes home, I also find that parents approach me to tell me about their language history or to give me information to share with students. This year, the mom who speaks Mam took the time to write a list of words in Mam that I could teach the class. Ideally, I would have invited her to come teach the class herself, and although schedules did not allow for this, her daughter was a great teacher of Mam. This mom is an example of how small actions like my letter can open lines of communication with families. This is not only because we are asking them a question and they are answering it, but because in asking that question, we are acknowledging the role of their history, experience, language, and culture in the development of their child. We are also saying that it is so important, that it has a place in the school and with all students who are learning with their child.

Angeline and her mom

A list of words in Mam with their English and Spanish equivalents

It might be interesting to extend this activity by asking families to share pictures of family members or ancestors, and asking them to identify the languages these family members speak. This would go nicely with a unit that explores family relationships or similarities and differences between families (in the classroom and around the world). I have tried many times to have parents share stories, songs, or games from their childhood too, but most of my school community are second and third generation parents who have (sadly) already lost some of that history. If you are fortunate enough to be in a community with many first generation parents, inviting them to share pieces of their childhood would be another powerful way of involving families in the conversation about bilingualism.

Wrapping Up the Conversation and Making a List

All of the activities described thus far prepare us for the day when we, as a class, declare why we want to be bilingual. After all students have had a chance to share what languages they speak, and I have read all families’ reasons for wanting their child to be bilingual to the class, we have a final conversation about why we want to be bilingual. I use this opportunity to introduce the globe in a meaningful way. I tell them that the globe shows all the different places people live. I point to Chicago and tell them that we live in Chicago, where many people speak English, but that there are many other places in the world where people do not speak a lot of English. I identify the places where my students’ families are from. For example, I say: “Angeline’s mom is from Guatemala, and in Guatemala people speak Mam. If Angeline goes to Guatemala one day, she will be able to talk and play with the people there because she knows Mam.”

I try to impress on them how wonderful it is that knowing more languages means you can talk and play with (because that is what five year olds like to do) more people. Some of my students can relate to this because they are aware that their grandmother in Mexico doesn’t know English and they can’t speak to her in English. I spin the globe around and invite students to point to a place…then I tell them what language is spoken in that place (and when I don’t know, we use the Internet to look it up!). I end this exploration of the globe by telling them that there are many places in the world and that the world is a very big place. Kindergarteners are not cognitively ready to understand that the globe is a representation of the Earth or to know the magnitude of the world. But they can understand that there are places you can walk to and places that are so far away that you need to take a car or even an airplane to. I tell them that if they know more languages they can ride in a car or an airplane for a long time to visit those far away places.

After this discussion, I begin a list titled We want to be bilingual because… and I ask students to give me their reasons. Students readily participate because they have been talking about language and bilingualism at school and at home for the preceding two weeks.

This year’s list of reasons we want to be bilingual

Inviting the School Community to Join the Conversation

My first bulletin board of the year outside of my classroom, the one that families and students see on the first day of school, is titled –¿Por que quieres ser bilingüe tú? — ( “Why do you want to be bilingual?”). It displays factoids about the benefits of being bilingual. It is a placeholder with a purpose: to let families know that I recognize the gift that they bring us by speaking another language, and to advocate for the important role our program plays in the future of their children and of our world.

Once we generate the list of reasons why we want to be bilingual, this board changes and becomes a way of sharing this important information with the school community.

The list of reasons we want to be bilingual is posted on the wall next to the bulletin board

The board has many purposes:

• It introduces my students to the school and it lets everyone know what their language strengths are.
• It gives families a voice in the school because we display their handwritten reasons for wanting their child to be bilingual for all in the school community to read.
• It elevates the status of minority languages because the pictures of the children who speak them are surrounded by more circles, and the children are holding more balloons in their picture (i.e., knowing minority languages gives you more, thereby making these languages desirable).
• It communicates the message that we, as a class where many languages are represented, have more and that we are proud of it!

I make the board interactive by including blank speech bubbles on the bulletin board and inviting teachers and staff to write their answer to the question “Why do you want to be bilingual?” on a speech bubble. I also read these to my students when we are lining up in the hallway. This final step is a way of encouraging the school community to stop and take in the message of the board that is communicated in words and in pictures. It also allows students to get to know other teachers and staff in the context of learning about languages.

Other Strategies for Nurturing Early Metalinguistic Awareness

Assign each language its own color and wear the color that represents the language you are speaking. Use these colors throughout your program, not just in kindergarten.

I wear these beaded necklaces when speaking each language. I also use scarves, but the beaded necklaces are good when it’s too warm for scarves!

Write with colored markers that represent the language you are using.

A morning message in Spanish using green for Spanish text. I also try to consistently color code other things to help students notice them (here, names in black and punctuation in red).

This is a group story dictation using green to write Spanish and purple to write English. A major focus of dictation in kinder is capturing exactly what the students say. This means that their approximations are included in the writing piece.

 Label books in your classroom library with colored dots that represent the language of the book.

Colored dots on the spine alert students to the language of the book. Bilingual books get both a green and purple dot. See [4] for citations of the books pictured here.

Use colored bulletin board paper or borders to designate spaces for work in each language on classroom walls. Consider how much of each language is displayed and whether it matches the language allocation of your program model.

January is a great time to revisit and renew things in our classrooms. Just as I revisit and remind students about our classroom promises (rules) when they return from the holiday break, I also plan to revisit the list of reasons that we want to be bilingual. And if you have not yet begun the conversation about bilingualism with your students, consider getting 2015 off to a great start by helping them identify their language strengths and understand that more is better when it comes to languages! I hope you’ll let me know how it goes (or ask any questions that may come up along the way) by leaving a comment below!

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[1] In my classroom, green represents Spanish and purple represents English.

[2] Likewise, if you have more expert Spanish speakers or monolingual Spanish speakers, you can do the same in reference to English or your purple scarf.

[3] In my classroom, all books are labeled with a dot on the spine: green for books in Spanish, purple for books in English, and both colors for bilingual books.

[4] These are some of my favorite books! From left to right:
Cuando deje de nevar by Komako Sakai published by Corimbo; 1ra .EDICION edition (2006)
Corre Corre Calabaza by Eva Mejuto and Andre Letria published by OQO; Tra edition (2006)
Rosita y Conchita by Eric Haegar and Eric Gonzalez published by Muertoons; Bilingual edition (2010)
Gracias.Thanks by Pat Mora and John Parra published by Lee & Low Books; Bilingual edition (2005)