User:M donan/Spanglish

Pedagogical Approaches to Spanglish
Colonial roots are present in English Education and are manifested through hegemonic language practices that discourage and harm students of color. The promotion of Spanglish is suggested as a restorative pedagogy that acknowledges linguistic racism and promotes the use of code-switching. However, the U.S. education system has historically excluded and punished practices of code-switching between languages in English Language Arts (ELA), therefore, upholding White Supremacy and notions of linguistic hierarchy. Furthermore, the education system in the U.S. has sustained colonialist practices through the rhetoric of an ‘academic language’. The term ‘academic language’ frames and minoritizes the Spanglish-speaking, bilingual students of America. Through teaching in a monolinguistic manner, ELA is given precedence to and places native languages or the use of bilingualism as secondary to English. This allows English to be reinforced as an 'academic language,' granting White people an advantage in reaching academic success and disassociating bilingual speakers from whiteness and, therefore, 'academic language'. A study done on Latinx middle schoolers in East Los Angeles highlights different ways in which bilingual students utilize Spanglish to advance academic literacy. Martinez’s list of skills students exhibited when using Spanglish in Educational settings include:

(1) clarify and/or reiterate utterances

(2) quote and report speech

(3) joke and/or tease

(4) index solidarity and intimacy

(5) shift voices for different audiences

(6) communicate subtle nuances of meaning.

In turn, the skills used when speaking Spanglish can be applied as a method in academic settings as well.

Intergenerational Spanglish
Immigrant youth in the United States have become prevalent social actors to sociologists because of their role as moderators and translators in their homes and the community. Orellana centers the ethnographic study around youth who have worked as translators in different spheres of societal issues for their communities. It showcases the division of labor passed onto members of the immigrant population and the navigational skills obtained by those obliged to utilize their bilingualism and Spanglish as a means of survival. Intergenerational skills like Spanglish can then be used as a ‘Fund of Knowledge’ to promote literacy in the classroom. ‘Funds of Knowledge’ encourages the use of Spanglish an other languages between familial relations in the classroom to bridge the skills used at home and welcome them to a classroom. This allows the development of Spanglish skills passed between generations to be viewed as equally valuable at home and in academia. It dismantles the idea that specific languages need to be segregated from the educational realm of society.