Artifact 4.7

A Conversation on the Socio-cultural Contexts of Puerto Rican Children’s Language and Literacy Development

• Biliteracy in social contexts – in a world where we have to interact and communicate – we do that through language
• They need to feel empowered – they should be fluent in English but not lose their native language
• The advantage is to speak 2+ languages – Europeans speak several languages
• Language education in the U.S. and P.R. is politically and ideologically charged
• Our English only law is TERRIBLE – It’s bad for foreign speakers and native speakers – we should expose young children to other languages
• The results of research are confusing and contradicting - dual language approach should be employed – Spanish in the morning, English in the afternoon
• All children should have the opportunity to be bilingual
• Young brains are malleable and susceptible to the influence of interaction with the social environment
• Researchers suggest that there is a window of opportunity in the brain to learn languages in the early years – it stops at 10-11 years – a lot has to do with brain structure and development
• The human brain is wired from birth to acquire language
• If children grow up in a bilingual environment, they acquire both languages
• Children are born into a literate society – language surrounds us
• Reading and writing are valued in this society – all these processes take place in a socio-cultural context and are under its influence
• Multi-lingual classrooms – teachers need to be sensitive and aware – will see behavior that may not be typical
• Bring in parents and community, outsiders to read to child in native language
• Send the message: Your culture is VALUABLE – you should feel PROUD