Emergent Bilingual Students: Shifting to An Asset Model of Instruction

For years, ELL students have been regarded as students who come with a deficit, or gaps, in their knowledge. The assumption is that these students must be taught English in order to assimilate into our culture and ultimately be successful in school. On the other hand, to regard these students as “emergent bilingual,” suggests that there is value in their native language and cultural background, in addition to other contributions they bring to the classroom.

Currently, there are nearly five million emergent bilingual students in our nation’s public schools, with Spanish as the most prevalent native language. This population of students is growing so rapidly that districts across the country are struggling to determine how to best serve them. The idea that students who don’t speak English “come with a deficit” is deeply ingrained in our schools, and so shifting educators’ thinking to an “asset” model can prove challenging.

ELL students are frequently marginalized, and so educators must be intentional as they consider how to unlock the potential of these students. The diversity they bring must be respected and appreciated, as opposed to simply evaluating what these students lack.

This concept is not just about motivating ELL students to succeed academically, but helping everyone in the educational community to recognize and value what bilingual students bring to the classroom.

The Benefits of Bilingualism

There are cognitive and social-emotional learning benefits to becoming both bilingual and biliterate.  Students with the ability to speak more than one language have demonstrated advantages in awareness of language, communication skills, memory, decision-making and analytical skills. Not only are these students bilingual, they are bicultural. They develop empathy through awareness and respect for other cultures and customs. Educators should focus on the positive qualities of emerging bilingual students rather than emphasize exclusively what they’re lacking.

Bilingual adults are extremely valuable in business and the workforce. Bilingual students who go on to study international business, public policy, or political science have bright economic futures. Many companies now have either a global presence or a global supply chain, and recognize the significant economic advantage to have employees that are either bilingual or multilingual. Most western countries, with the exception of the US, are bilingual in practice. Students study their native language and also English, which is the international language of business and politics. A shift in perspective would help us value the contribution of emergent bilinguals to our country’s prosperity.

Making the Shift

 Personalized, academic support from teachers will in turn help emerging bilinguals focus on their speaking and listening skills development. This instructional approach accelerates language acquisition and improves academic outcomes.

The following recommendations will assist teachers and administrators in supporting their new perspective on emerging bilingual students:

• Use educational technology to support a personalized adaptive blended learning model.
• Use media that positively depicts a range of cultures so that students can process content more effectively.
• Allow students to direct their own learning in ways that are both culturally and socially relevant.
• Find different ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge.
• Engage parents as partners in the education process. It is important for them to speak their native language with their children and to take pride in their heritage.

Excerpted from “Emergent Bilingual Students: Shifting to An Asset Model of Instruction” in ASCD’s SmartBrief. Read the full post online.

The author of this post, José A. Viana, is the former assistant deputy secretary in the office of English Language Acquisition at the U.S. Department of Education.

Source: SmartBrief | Emergent Bilingual Students: Shifting to An Asset Model of Instruction, https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2020/06/emergent-bilingual-students-shifting-asset-model-instruction | © 2024 SmartBrief, is a division of Future US LLC