![]() Her poor performance on these assessments leads the teacher to recommend her for remedial support.Ĭases like Antonio are familiar to those of us who advocate for bilingualism. Unlike Tom, she is often reprimanded by the teacher for speaking “improper English.” When assessed she often loses points for “mispronouncing” words. Like Tom she receives instruction in a language that she knows. In the case of Cindy this disadvantage comes from the fact that she often uses the wrong variety of English. He begins to fall behind in his academic work and in addition to his ESL class he is also recommended for remedial support. He is also assessed in a language that he doesn’t understand. Unlike Tom, when Antonio enters school he receives all of his instruction in a language that he doesn’t understand. In the case of Antonio this disadvantage comes from the fact that he is monolingual in the wrong language. It is the monolingualism of people of color that is often a disadvantage. Instead, their monolingualism is part of their privilege. White middle class English speakers like Tom are not oppressed for being monolingual in the US. So while I understand the reflex to argue that monolingualism is a disadvantage in order to advocate for bilingualism, to do so erases the material benefits of monolingualism in US society. Though this is a fictional case, the contrast between the two is consistent with the ways that monolingualism is privileged over bilingualism in US schools. This mixing of languages places her far below grade level and her teacher recommends her for remedial support. Her teacher is especially concerned by the fact that Jasmine sometimes says words in Spanish when being assessed to determine her reading level. Jasmine receives instruction in only one of the languages that she knows and her bilingualism is seen as a barrier to learning. Let’s contrast this experience with Jasmine. His teacher appreciates the richness of his vocabulary and identifies him as one of the strongest students in the class and recommends him for accelerated learning opportunities. He is also assessed using this variety of English. All of his classroom instruction is in this variety of English. He comes to school speaking the same variety of English as his teacher. Tom has all of the advantages in the world. Yet, this couldn’t be further from the truth. For the above suppositions to be true Jasmine, coming from a bilingual household, should have the biggest advantage with all of the monolingual children being equally disadvantaged. Jasmine comes from a bilingual household and is bilingual in English and Spanish. Antonio just moved to the United States from Mexico and is a monolingual Spanish speaker. Tom and Cindy both come from English-speaking households and identify as monolingual English speakers, though Tom is White and Cindy is Black. To unpack these claims let me introduce to you to four fictional elementary school students: Tom, Cindy Antonio and Jasmine. ![]() This obscures the working of raciolinguistic ideologies that celebrate monolingualism in White communities while pathologizing it in communities of color. To argue that race is not a factor implies that monolingualism is treated the same when it is a White person vs. Yet, many of the most successful members of US society are unapologetically monolingual. To call monolingualism a disadvantage implies that monolingualism is somehow a barrier to success. I find both of these suppositions problematic. ![]() This argument makes two suppositions: (1) that monolingualism is a disadvantage and (2) that race is not a factor in creating this disadvantage. In my most recent blog post I flipped the script and asked the question: What if we talked about monolingual White children the way we talk about low-income children of color? Many people responded that there was a kernel of truth in my satirical argument about the disadvantages of monolingualism and that this disadvantage was true regardless of the racial background of the students.
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