Literacy Now

The ability to speak multiple languages is a coveted skill in today’s economy. The goal is to create a learning environment that promotes language acquisition while making the curriculum accessible to everyone. For policymakers and educators worldwide, the question is how to foster that environment in an era of tight budgets, diverse priorities, and political sensitivities.

Schools that truly embrace multilingualism report higher levels of community engagement and academic achievement across the board. If implemented poorly, though, such programs can further marginalize groups that aren’t proficient in the dominant language.

To stimulate fresh thinking on this critical topic, the International Literacy Association (ILA) recently convened a roundtable with a distinguished group of advocacy and policy experts in Washington, DC. In a wide-ranging conversation led by award-winning journalist Diane Brady, experts shared their thinking on the best practices and priorities for achieving true multilingual learning. In a three-part blog series, we’ll explore the key takeaways from the conversation.

Parents have long recognized the importance of English as the language of global business, but as the world becomes more interconnected and emerging economies gain strength, it is clear that multilingualism is prerequisite for success. In the U.S. and beyond, dual-language programs are oversubscribed, noted Beatriz Arias, vice president and chief development officer for the Center for Applied Linguistics. “Parents are recognizing the importance of their children being bilingual or multilingual—the economic benefits of that for their kids.”

Multilingualism “is going to be the differentiator,” said Mariana Haynes, senior fellow, Alliance for Excellent Education, adding that students understand the value of having those skills on their resume.

Deputy Secretary Mohamed Abdel-Kader, the International Foreign Language Education Office of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Post-Secondary Education, suggested engaging the business community to stress the importance of language learning. “I think that’s incredibly important, because as the business community articulates the need for at least a basic understanding of language and some of the cultural nuances, parents are thinking about their kids, when they graduate college, those kids need to have a job.”

Multilingualism “is not a partisan issue,” Abdel-Kader said. This is the right thing to do for our kids. It is the right thing to do for our businesses. It is the right thing to do for our communities. The kids need these skills to be able to communicate.”

At the simplest level, Arias said, “We need leadership at all different levels in order to encourage growth and understanding of the importance of multilingualism—we need to value multilingualism, and have clear ways to do that.”

“We need to dispel the myths surrounding bilingualism primarily that learning two or even three languages as a child brings confusion and lowers academic achievement,” Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages added. “We have research that proves the opposite.”

Within the education community, we need to equip educators with the resources and tools they need to embrace and encourage multilingualism, noted Hector Montenegro, associate, Margarita Calderón & Associates. “Educators need additional resources and information about how best to work collaborative so that we can have a more accepting and welcoming environment—school and classroom—where teachers can teach effectively.”

Haynes noted that fragmented leader and teacher development should be addressed in order to create structures for language learning. “Leaders play a huge role in setting the tone. If teachers work in isolation, it is impossible to make this happen. You have a lot of district policies that are very much at odds with the kinds of things that you want to have happening within schools.”

We also need to take a step outside of the schools themselves and consider how governments can support and foster a culture of multilingualism, Abbott suggested, and continue “to build champions in Congress,” to push forward research on the importance of languages. “Hopefully we can have an impact working together.”

Leslie Engle Young, Director of Impact for Pencils of Promise, added policy considerations should take into account the best practices and proven strategies that already exist around multilingual learning. “It’s getting the case studies, bringing the evidence forward, and showing evidence from abroad. We should be cross-learning with evidence from across the board.”

The ability to speak multiple languages is a coveted skill in today’s economy. The goal is to create a learning environment that promotes language acquisition while making the curriculum accessible to everyone. For policymakers and educators worldwide, the question is how to foster that environment in an era of tight budgets, diverse priorities, and political sensitivities.

Schools that truly embrace multilingualism report higher levels of community engagement and academic achievement across the board. If implemented poorly, though, such programs can further marginalize groups that aren’t proficient in the dominant language.

To stimulate fresh thinking on this critical topic, the International Literacy Association (ILA) recently convened a roundtable with a distinguished group of advocacy and policy experts in Washington, DC. In a wide-ranging conversation led by award-winning journalist Diane Brady, experts shared their thinking on the best practices and priorities for achieving true multilingual learning. In a three-part blog series, we’ll explore the key takeaways from the conversation.

Research shows that children can handle learning of two, and even three, languages from the time they start school. Yet foreign language requirements tend to become mandatory only in high school—and the requirements are not consistent across school districts. There is also a notion afoot that students need to be proficient in one language before introducing a second and a third.

We know children are more open to learning languages at younger ages, so why wait until they're teens to reinforce the value of language? “We know that there is a window of availability to quickly and ably grasp language to a greater degree of fluency, and that it begins to close down as children get older,” said Marcie Craig Post, ILA’s executive director. “Capturing and leveraging that is going to be critically important.”

Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, noted, “As adults, it is hard for us to imagine young children picking up languages so quickly. We underestimate the ability of students to pick up languages, and really become proficient, I mean very proficient, in writing as well as speaking.” 

Engaging students’ parents is critical, said Leslie Engle Young, Director of Impact for Pencils of Promise. “If we don’t tap into that resource, we don’t tap into what children are capable of learning when they’re very young, even before school, and what the parents are capable of supporting in the home.”

The ability to speak multiple languages is a coveted skill in today’s economy. The goal is to create a learning environment that promotes language acquisition while making the curriculum accessible to everyone. For policymakers and educators worldwide, the question is how to foster that environment in an era of tight budgets, diverse priorities, and political sensitivities.

Schools that truly embrace multilingualism report higher levels of community engagement and academic achievement across the board. If implemented poorly, though, such programs can further marginalize groups that aren’t proficient in the dominant language.

To stimulate fresh thinking on this critical topic, the International Literacy Association (ILA) recently convened a roundtable with a distinguished group of advocacy and policy experts in Washington, DC. In a wide-ranging conversation led by award-winning journalist Diane Brady, experts shared their thinking on the best practices and priorities for achieving true multilingual learning. In a three-part blog series, we’ll explore the key takeaways from the conversation.

In many schools, language instruction is limited to “foreign language”–specific classes that emphasize vocabulary and grammar. There is little opportunity to use the language outside of these classes or to experience the culture around the subject language. By contrast, dual language and tri-language programs are more likely to immerse students in multiple languages throughout the school day, incorporating foreign language instruction into core subjects such as history, science, and mathematics. The result: Greater fluency and literacy in those languages as well as higher academic scores in other subjects. 

To secure these gains, school leaders need to adapt material to the different language needs of students and their parents and make efforts to celebrate their cultures. Hector Montenegro, regional practice leader with Margarita Calderón & Associates, a consultancy on English language acquisition and dual language instruction, noted that the most effective programs are led by people who “value the language, make it the norm to speak multiple languages, and have structures in which the students become proficient and master the language.”

Montenegro cited the case of an international, dual language school in El Paso, TX, as evidence of the broad-based impact that multilingual learning can have. “At Alicia Chacon Elementary, where English and Spanish are the dominant languages used, each student is in one of four schools—Russian, German, Chinese, and Japanese. The students begin the third language in the second grade. By the time they reach the fifth grade, they travel to the country of the third language they’re learning. These students are going to high schools that are also dual language. They’re graduating with full scholarships to Ivy League colleges and universities. These kids are fluent in three languages.”

As Marcie Craig Post, executive director for ILA, explained, “Where multiple language takes hold, the school has embraced this. It doesn’t happen in a classroom with the French teacher or the Mandarin teacher. It becomes part of the embedded culture.”

ILA developed Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform in response to today’s complex and evolving education landscape. With an increase in English learners, high-stakes testing, and digital technologies driving new modes of teaching and learning, challenges for the classroom teacher are mounting. The new white paper’s frameworks serve as a high-level rubric that school administrators and policymakers can use to create or assess reform proposals. In this blog series, we’ll take a closer look at each of the frameworks.

When all is said and done, education is about student success. Building the best schools, preparing teachers for a 21st-century classroom, and investing in education reform will mean nothing if we aren’t focused on the students who cross the threshold every day.

Adding to the educational system’s shortcomings, about 20% of children live in poverty in the United States. This rampant poverty—and near-poverty—puts students at a further educational disadvantage when it comes to both technology access and early language and literacy acquisition. For many, the achievement gap starts even before a child gets to the first day of school.

“This was not a difficult section for our subgroup to write,” said Doris Walker-Dalhouse, a lead writer on the student support framework of the Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform and professor of literacy at Marquette University in Wisconsin. “We wanted to focus on the aspects of students' lives outside of the classroom that impact their engagement in learning within school settings and influence their long-term growth and development as citizens in a democratic society.”

For example, many families don’t have computers, tablets, and mobile devices in the home, nor do they have access to the Internet in the neighborhoods and communities. This technology gap further compromises students’ exposure to new literacy education experiences and hinders their preparation to thrive as adults in an increasingly digital society.

At school, students also need to grow every year to perform at or above grade-level literacy standards. Effective teachers can help this growth happen. When students are not performing at grade level, curriculum and instruction must be adjusted, whether through extended day, week, or year programs, or by using additional measures that include students’ social and emotional growth as a guide to the best practice in individual instruction.

“I believe that while it is a challenging framework,” said Walker-Dalhouse, “teachers and schools that focus on educational equity for their students will seek opportunities to change their practices and advocate for resources and programs that will improve educational outcomes and social-economic conditions for the children, communities, and families that they serve.”

The complete white paper, Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform, can be found here.

April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.

ILA developed Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform in response to today’s complex and evolving education landscape. With an increase in English learners, high-stakes testing, and digital technologies driving new modes of teaching and learning, challenges for the classroom teacher are mounting. The new white paper’s frameworks serve as a high-level rubric that school administrators and policymakers can use to create or assess reform proposals. In this blog series, we’ll take a closer look at each of the frameworks.

Each child enters school with a different early childhood experience, which has an impact on his or her literacy readiness and the factors that classroom educators need to take into consideration when evaluating students. To accommodate the diversity educators face in the classroom, the mixture of families and communities has to be taken into consideration to increase better literacy outcomes.

School policies need to be inclusive, for example, identifying how to accommodate native cultures (including mother tongues) and taking the neighborhood and socioeconomic status into consideration.

“Specifically, family instability, trauma, violence, and community unrest (e.g. St. Louis, Baltimore, other cities that have experienced unrest) are some of the impactful factors for students,” said Sue Sharma, the lead writer on the families and community framework of the Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform and a visiting assistant professor at Oakland University. “The needs of families that affect literacy achievement need to be acknowledged by those in a position of power to have a positive influence.”

Beyond the home, businesses and corporations can play a critical role in supporting schools.

“For example, literacy demands continually change because of society and technology,” said Sharma. “We feel that business can contribute in meaningful ways. There are many examples of successful partnerships that create a sense of community critical to advancing literacy initiatives in schools,” she added. Sharma cautioned that students are not widgets in factories so their challenges are not all remedied with a packaged solution. However, a healthy balance and respect can lead to positive outcomes.

Some ways businesses can contribute include being a community center, a place that encourages literacy development for students and their families, and increasing investment via charitable and non-profits to work with public agencies for literacy advancement.

Finally, having the buy-in of local government officials can bring the monetary power schools need to counteract community challenges or disparities.

Investments include making successful, literacy-rich programs accessible to all families, regardless of socioeconomic status; providing tax incentives to local organizations and businesses who invest in literacy achievement in urban areas; and flat-out funding literacy education programs.

The trinity of schools, businesses, and local government that supports families for the sake of student literacy will be integral to education reform and can be not only a safety net for families who feel left out of the system, but also a bridge that leads them through the process of literacy acquisition.

The complete white paper, Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform, can be found here.

April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.