This week’s reading sparked my curiosity on the various forms of bilingual education and the impacts of the white gaze on students using the CDR lens. Especially on how the full English Submersion was nicknamed as “sink or swim” because of its linguistically intense and challenging structure.
Garcia et. al challenged the efficacy of the No Child Left Behind Act in which students who excelled in the program would ultimately leave it which created a challenge in assessing the program’s success. Many of the points in this week’s reading tie back to Phoung and Cloè-Peña’s analogy that minority home languages are a disease and English is the cure. With the No Child Left Behind Act, there was an emphasis on standardized testing to test English which perpetuates the idea that English is the “superior” language. However, NCLB did not dictate specific teaching methods and from Table 3.1 from Gracia et. al, it’s clear there are multiple distinct ways to teach emergent bilinguals. I believe the transition away from using the word bilingual in program names pushes the idea of a monolingusitic country.
It’s clear that students of color are disproportionately labeled with a Specific Learning Disability or as a Long Term English Language Learner. The intersection between disability studies, critical race theory, and rasciolinguistics encapsulates why this observation is true. Student’s accents and biliteracy is being targeted by the idea of the white gaze which creates a harmful dynamic between parents and students of marginalized and immigrant communities. As seen by Phoung and Cloè-Peña’s study, Paty expresses her desire for her children to become fluent in English and shows her ideas in a way that insinuates Spanish as the inferior language. What stuck out to me was Paty wants her children to be “linguistic[ally] and able bodied passing” pg. 141. This idea stems from the language barriers and policies in place that shun those who are non-native English speakers. There have been a plethora of instances where policymakers and school officials have created an environment that, under the stress of improving test scores, have simultaneously invalidated bilingualism and its benefits in language acquisition. In Paty’s case, her son, Dan, exclaims his discontent with his mother not being proficient in English and essentially blaming her for him not being able to complete his homework. This accentuates the point that students are picking up on the indirect messages that the educational system has upheld.