On Language, Authority, and a Schoolwide English-Only Policy FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
المؤلف:
Tara Goldstein
المصدر:
Teaching and Learning in a Multilingual School
الجزء والصفحة:
P99-C5
2025-09-30
259
On Language, Authority, and a Schoolwide English-Only Policy
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
The Complexity of "Who Am I? " In her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race, Beverly Daniel Tatum writes that the concept of identity is a complex one, shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical
factors, and social and political contexts.
Who am I? The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says I am. Who do my parents say I am? Who do my peers say I am? What message is reflected back to me in the faces and voices of my teachers, my neighbors, store clerks? What do I learn from the media about myself? How am I represented in the cultural images around me? Or am I missing from the picture altogether?1
How are your own bilingual students of color represented in the cultural images surrounding them? Choosing one group of students you work with, look at the ways these students and their families are represented on radio talk shows, newspaper articles, television programs, cartoons, comic strips, or the movies. What kinds of images and messages about your students are you and your students taking in? How are you and your students perpetuating and reinforcing the negative messages that are so pervasive in our culture? How can you both begin to challenge them?
Working With Controversial Language Issues. In scenes 2 and 3 of Hong Kong, Canada (included in Appendix A), radio talk show host James Wolfe runs a show on the topic of "To Canada, With Cash: Hong Kong Money Likes Toronto." Joshua is impressed with the show because he believes that such controversial topics bring in a large audience. In scene 6, Sam warns Joshua that while creating a language controversy in the school newspaper may bring in more readers, it will also increase racial and linguistic tensions in the school. If the role of a teacher advisor to the school newspaper team had been included in Hong Kong, Canada, what could he or she have said to Joshua, Wendy, and Sam about the situation? Write a scene in which a teacher advisor talks to Joshua, Wendy, and Sam about publishing the controversial issue. Read aloud or perform several of these scenes one after another and discuss the similarities and differences between them.
Not Understanding What Is Being Said: Personal Reflection. In the last scene of Hong Kong, Canada, in response to the various comments she has heard at the school hearing, Ms. Diamond says, "I was moved by the argument that many non-Cantonese speaking students in this school feel left out when they hear Cantonese being spoken in the hallways and classrooms of our school. I must admit, I often feel left out myself." Thinking about your own teaching practice, how important is it that you understand what your students say? Why is it so important? How is understanding what your students say linked to how you see your role as a teacher? Considering the advantages associated with students speaking their primary languages at school, how might teachers check for student understanding and engagement without insisting that all students speak English?"
Responding to a Call for a Schoolwide English-Only Policy. The play, Hong Kong, Canada, concludes in an open-ended way. No solution is provided for the audience. It is up to them to think about the ways principals and teachers might provide leadership around the difficult task of negotiating across linguistic differences. In pairs or small groups, write an ending to the play in which the principal of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, addresses the students who came to the hearing in the last scene. Decide if you want Trudeau to belong to a school board or school district that has a language policy that is similar to the Language for Learning Policy described in the Introduction. The existence of such a policy could have an impact on how the principal responds to what the students have said in the hearing. Once again, read aloud or perform several of these endings one after another and discuss the similarities and differences between them.
1 See Tatum (1997, p. 18).
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