"No Language or Dialect is Inherently Superior or Inferior to Any Other" - Stubbs

    The concept of multiple literacies opens many doors in the field of education. After reading the articles assigned this week, I became much more informed about multiple literacies. As educators, we need to embrace the fact that our students may have many literacies and use that to our advantage. We can use this as an opportunity to get to know more about each other and learn more about the culture of others.

    We must remember that learning English literacy may be difficult for some whose first language is not English. In Chapter 8 of Adolescent Literacy, Danling Fu states that “ELLs need more specific instruction in language skills and more systematic help in developing their English proficiency (listening, speaking, reading, writing)” (Aguilar, Fu, Jago, 106). It is up to us to provide the basic skills that ELLs need to succeed in English literacy.

    Additionally, it is vital that we understand that just because we are teaching students to be literate in English doesn’t mean that we should expect them to use English all the time. Haneda writes that “outside school, adolescent ELLs strategically and agentively use literacy for their own personal purposes to express their personal feelings and opinions, seek and exchange information, maintain and develop social relations, construct desirable identities for themselves, act as language brokers for the family, and improve their English (Haneda, 340). Furthermore, Haneda states that when home and school literacy boundaries are blurred, school learning increases. We educators need to get to know each and every student and their literacies to allow them to prosper with English literacy. I think that Haneda summarized the importance of understanding each student’s backgrounds by saying “it is essential that educators reexamine their own assumptions of what being literate means in order to create opportunities that enable students to master a wide range of literacy practices with which they can shape their future in a rewarding and responsible manner” (Haneda, 343).

    I see many exciting ideas in the works when we consider multiple literacies. I can envision a classroom like Baker’s in “Trilingualism”, where each student learns English literacy but does so in a way that they don’t lose a sense of their identity. In this classroom, Baker understands that students need to learn English literacy but also allows them, at times, to use their own literacy. I think that this will make the students feel like they all belong and in turn, will increase their motivation and knowledge. Also, others will be able to learn more about the students in their class. By increasing awareness of other cultures, a little at a time, maybe one day our society will be one that does not judge, and does not expect everyone to be the same, but a culture that embraces each other’s differences.

    When considering that multiple literacies exist, we need to treat them as equal literacies, some are just more appropriate in specific situations. In Chapter 5 of The Skin We Speak, Stubbs states that “linguists have accepted that no language or dialect is inherently superior or inferior to any other” (Stubbs, 70). With this said, in any classroom, we need to make it known that each literacy is equally important.
   
    If every educator takes the readings from this week and applies them to their classroom, America can be a place that accepts every one, especially people like A.M. Baggs, (Youtube video: “In My Language”) without hesitation and judgement.

    I did some reading online and to end my blog, I will leave you with a quote from Susan Rich Sheridan’s Theory of Multiple Literacies (www.marksandmind.org): “human literatices are multiple and varied, interdependent and equivalent, related and necessary.”