Hi Rebecca,
I totally get what you mean about how the readings keep circling back to the harm of monolingual ideology. It's wild how something so normalized--this idea that English should stand alone--keeps showing up in different forms. I thought your point about Oscar was so telling because people underestimate bilingual students, especially those with special needs, like their brains can't hold two languages at once. But you're right since it's the opposite. Research keeps showing how bilingualism actually expands how we think and communicate. Also, I really liked how you connected language to power. It’s something I don’t think I fully noticed until this class either. Who gets to decide what counts as a language says so much about who gets to be heard. Other languages, dialects, anything that doesn't conform to the common "standard" are all pushed aside for the sake of "standardization." It's frustrating, but also clarifying. And yes, translanguaging does reframe everything. The idea that our brains don't separate languages feels so human and obvious once you hear it. It makes me hopeful that classrooms can shift too, little by little, toward something that feels more honest to how people actually speak and live.
I totally get what you mean about how the readings keep circling back to the harm of monolingual ideology. It's wild how something so normalized--this idea that English should stand alone--keeps showing up in different forms. I thought your point about Oscar was so telling because people underestimate bilingual students, especially those with special needs, like their brains can't hold two languages at once. But you're right since it's the opposite. Research keeps showing how bilingualism actually expands how we think and communicate. Also, I really liked how you connected language to power. It’s something I don’t think I fully noticed until this class either. Who gets to decide what counts as a language says so much about who gets to be heard. Other languages, dialects, anything that doesn't conform to the common "standard" are all pushed aside for the sake of "standardization." It's frustrating, but also clarifying. And yes, translanguaging does reframe everything. The idea that our brains don't separate languages feels so human and obvious once you hear it. It makes me hopeful that classrooms can shift too, little by little, toward something that feels more honest to how people actually speak and live.