No resource I am aware of better addresses this topic than Teaching for Biliteracy Chapter 5: Language Resources, Linguistic Creativity, and Cultural Funds of Knowledge. This semester, participants in Edgewood College Biliteracy Development course drew from this resource and others and shared their impressions:

Why honor student language?

Antonio Morales-López is a bilingual resource teacher at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin. He writes:

During my childhood, I remember my mother saying “cualli tonaltin” (good morning) to my grandparents every morning and my friends singing “MEXICAME XIUIKI XITKAMAKI…” (Mexicans, at the cry of war), which is the first sentence of the Mexican national anthem. I never realized that they were speaking their home language, Nahuatl, but I knew that it was part of their identity. Unfortunately, this language was considered inferior to many people in my town. As a result, my mother tried not to speak Nahuatl, unless her parents (my grandparents) were present. People who spoke this language became ashamed of their heritage and began to lose it, including my mother. Recently, I spoke to my mother about her home language and she replied “ya se me olvidaron muchas palabras, y me arrepiento de no practicarlo cuando estaba joven.” Sadly, my mother has forgotten a lot of words and she regretted not practicing when she was younger. Allowing code-switching in schools is a way to honor minority language.

Gabriela Puente is a bilingual resource teacher at Chavez Elementary in Madison Metropolitan School District. She agrees with the Antonio’s stance of valuing student language:

Unfortunately, too often what bilingual children know and have to share in their writing is devalued because of the undue emphasis placed on form and convention, without regard to the ideas and voice.[1] It is an injustice to undermine student voice for the sole purpose of using perfect form. Students’ voice is the essence of any child and it should be valued and appreciated regardless if it is displayed through code-switching.

Gabriela also raises the question: How can code-switching serve as a formative assessment? Writing products in a bilingual classroom give an insight as to how a student is processing their thoughts as well as language. Writing samples should be used as formative assessments to find what the students’ needs are and in turn give the opportunity to the teacher to plan instruction that will target those needs.

Emily Urquizo is a world language teacher at Heritage Elementary in Waunakee School District. She adds to Gaby’s ideas about using information from student writing:

Some strategies for addressing these code switches might be collecting evidence and taking notes on the code switching that is occurring and planning mini lessons that focus on strengthening students’ weaker areas. Beeman and Urow recommend dialogue and content area journals as strategies to gather more information about students as writers, having a dialogue with them that includes modeling, and planning instruction that targets the writing skills that they are struggling with. [2]

Antonio concurs. Even though some linguists argue that an open view towards code-switching may lead to an overuse/injudicious use of code-switching by teachers, I believe that it opens up the teachers mind to get familiar with the students’ learning needs.”

What are possible teacher moves to respond in the moment?

Antonio also speaks of the need for teachers to be intentional in the way they respond. He recommends reading Escamilla’s advice to teachers about “what to ignore, what to worry about, and the instructional implications.”[1] .

A classmate Kalee Crist is an ESL/Bilingual Resource Teacher at Darlington Community School District.  Kalee proposes:

A non-threatening strategy educators can use in the classroom to ensure a safe space for bilingualism while also encouraging the use of a more standard language would be in the form of “recasts.” Recasts are a gentle way to provide correct speech and language examples for a student in the form of restating the phrase correctly and possibly “expanding” it to stretch their language. [3]

Emily Urquizo adds: “It is important that there is a gradual release of responsibility that holds students accountable for language that they should be able to produce in each language. Forms of prompting such as clarification requests, elicitation, metalinguistic clues, or repetition of the error make students responsible for recognizing and correcting the errors. [4] Holding students accountable for language that is at or just above their zone of proximal development will ensure that they continue to develop higher levels of language proficiency.”

What activities and norms can teachers plan to teach strategic use of language?

Kalee writes: “When teachers create bridging activities or incorporate the Dictado (the use of dictated phrases or sentences to refine language arts skills in both Spanish and English and teach content, spelling, conventions, and grammar), students are better able to internalize the metalinguistic awareness needed to properly learn from their code-switching and use it as a tool to strengthen their language flexibility rather than hinder it.”[1]

Gaby adds: “Moreover, to further promote metalinguistic strategies through code-switching, teachers should implement strategies such as bilingual word walls, adivinanzas, author studies, and bilingual poetry. This can help students be more purposeful about code-switching as well continue to develop their bilingual language skills.”

Emily U. cautions: “Although code switching is a powerful tool that is accepted and respected in a bilingual classroom setting, it needs to be used appropriately and purposefully. Clear and agreed upon expectations of appropriate use of the more dominant language should be agreed upon by students and the teacher.”

In conclusion, code-switching is a reality of today’s bilingual students.  Teachers have the opportunity to decide how to respond to these behaviors. By grounding ourselves in the premises for teaching for biliteracy [2] , reflecting on student work, and designing a thoughtful approach, we can be sure we’re responding to code-switching in the right way.

[1] Escamilla, K., Hopewell, S., Butvilofsky, S., Sparrow, W., Soltero-González, L., Ruiz-Figueroa, O., Escamilla, M. (2014). Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared in Action. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.

[2] Beeman, C. and Urow, K. (2013). Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.

[3] Kaplan, Tracy. Strategies for Encouraging Your Child’s Speech and Language Development. N.p.: First Things First, n.d. 3. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://slhs.arizona.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Strategies-for-Encouraging-Your-Childs-Speech-Language-Development.pdf>

[4] Lyster, Roy. (2012). Counterbalanced Instruction in the Immersion Classroom: Presented at CARLA Summer Institute, August 2012, Minneapolis, MN.