09 - Second Language and Literacy Development Reading Response

Definitely, I am on the same page with this response to reading. It carefully links Lippi-Green's statement about the illusion of a "neutral" accent to Cummins' and Flores' language, identity, and educational inequality arguments. The argument that mixing up BICS and CALP can result in very wrong placements for Emergent Bilinguals is the one I mostly agree with, your case reveals so clearly how the issue of language proficiency can affect academic success in a whole system. And I am thankful to you for bringing up the point of teacher-student communication and the way the teachers' view of "academic" vs. "non-academic" language can help or hinder students' linguistic identities. To sum up, your response is very insightful to the problem of where language, identity, and educational structures meet.