2nd Version PWP

UNIVERSIDAD DEL VALLE

ESCUELA DE CIENCIAS DEL LENGUAJE

LICENCIATURA EN LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS

COMPOSICIÓN EN INGLÉS I

PERSONAL WRITING PROYECT

NATALIA GONZÁLEZ ORTIZ

COD: 0937327

The importance of Bilingual Books as a tool to improve our bilingual processes in the Colombian School

Right now the country is developing a National Plan of Bilingualism that seeks to develop bilingual Colombian citizens; meaning that they “will be able to communicate through English with internationally comparable standards”. But the question of the English teachers and learners are far away than the ability to communicate: ¿How can we develop a bilingual student with the texts we use? ¿Are our resources enough to encourage that process? The answer is not most of them. But ¿how can we change this? Solutions must be presented and applied.    

Most of the texts we use in the English Classroom are completely written in English, there is no place for the mother tongue that in this case is Spanish. This idea comes from the fact that the mother tongue should be avoided when we are teaching another language. However, Freeman, Freeman & Ebe (2011) said that students should be able to draw upon all their linguistics sources while they learn. The meaningful help of having another language will help them enhance the new one. Moreover, another false assumption is the belief that all bilinguals should be balanced. In this case, we need to take into account that every person uses the languages they know for different purposes as Grosjean (2010) said: “most bilinguals use their languages for different purposes, in different situations, with different people”. We may teach students English during their educational process, but we cannot assure they are going to be fully independent English speakers with the same level as their mother tongue. 

Another belief that could interfere with the use of bilingual books is the translation. It is assumed that if you gave to students the text in English and in Spanish it would not help them during their process of learning another language. Against this thought, Cummins (2007) said that translation promotes biliteracy development when students write and translate their own books. Translations should not be seen as an enemy; in fact it is an allied that promotes reading and writing as a tool to increase our knowledge in another language.    

As we have seen so far, bilingual books have some non believers, but the purpose of this text is present a possible material that could help our Colombian English students to enhance their English language learning process. This idea leads us to say this text could have a very significant impact in our academic field, knowing that most of our schools, language teachers and students are looking mechanism that will help them in their learning language process, and even more importantly, the need to become a bilingual person. Here, we are presenting a possible solution that could mean a new era of bilingual learners thanks to the use of bilingual books. Now, we are going to discuss about the types of bilingual books, their uses and a possible proposal for our Colombian schools.  

Freeman et al., (2011) present three types of bilingual books: a book that has two separate versions, one in the mother tongue and the other in the second language; a book that his flipside is organized differently “a reader can read the book in one language or flip the book over to read it in the other language,” and finally a single book written in Spanish and English on the same page or the next one. Nevertheless, Ernst-Slavit & Mulhern (2003) display other types of bilingual books, such as books that switch between languages, and books in English interspersed with words or phrases in another language. What these books prove is that when you have had already a contact with literacy in your mother tongue you are going to be aware of it in another language. The readers have the ability to recognize that there is something meaningful, so they create their own strategies in order to understand what it is said. They look at the colors, the font, the size, the amount of words, and they make comparisons between the two written languages. 

Students in bilingual classrooms or second language classrooms, when they have the opportunity to relate with bilingual books, their will provide them with the aid of reading the text in their stronger language, and at the same time learning structures and vocabulary from the other one. Also, when students are reading a text and they do not understand well what they are reading, the mother tongue can serve them as a tool to continue reading and creating relationships between the unknown words in English and the ones he or she knows in Spanish. He or she will not give up reading; instead it will develop a new strategy. It would be very common to the kids to come across with similar words, but that have a different meaning in each language; in this aspect Cummins (2007) said that is important to allow students bump into false cognates in order to provide them with the tools to analyze and verify the differences in each word.   

Another ways that bilingual books could help a bilingual classroom, are shown in the Language Lizard blog that is a web page dedicated to support dual language learners and bring multiculturalism in the classroom. They say that through the usage of bilingual books, students are going to be able to give a value to both languages because they will see their mother tongue written right next to the second language, and they will identify them as being equally important. The same positive effect is revealed by positive cultural examples, due to the fact that kids will see varieties of cultures portrayed in a same place, living together, having the same experiences, sharing the same or different skin colors and family stories. Facing these experiences the kids will be able to develop an intercultural competence that will help them understand the world with the differences that it has. 

Based on the previous aspect of bilingual books, we can take as an example the case of most of the schools in the United States, who are implementing a bilingual classroom were native English speakers and native Spanish speakers are learning to read and write together, having as a consequence the change of the image of the Latino kid toward their partners and themselves as the Language Lizard blog said: “this is a key element in helping dual language students feel that their language is respected and appreciated” and also “identifying with the characters in these books may help students from diverse backgrounds build a positive self-image”. 

What I want to emphasize now, is the importance of using culturally relevant texts as Freeman & Freeman (2000) said: “when teachers use culturally relevant texts, students are more engaged, and readers comprehend culturally relevant texts better because the students have more background knowledge about the situations and characters”. So I ask myself. If these cultural books have helped a lot of kids learning a second language, why we cannot use it here, in Colombia, in our cultural context. We may not read a story about a young girl that gets to the school and only knows how to speak Spanish in an English school, but what we can do is present to the kids a story with whom they can relate to; a story about a farmer, a chontaduro seller, a bus driver, a story about a river trip, about the daily life violence that they are exposed to. Freeman & Freeman (2004) announced: “when teachers use culturally relevant books, they ensure that their students always connect reading the word with reading their world”.  

Having already these ideas in our minds, we can go to the next point of the text. A proposal that is based on the acceptance of cultural relevant bilingual books, in our English classrooms, and in our Colombian context. The types of books we can use are going to be specially selected for each grade. I cannot assure each grade; instead I can create a map. Based on the types of bilingual books we saw in the text, the gap that we can build for our students could be like this:

• First we should use single bilingual books written in Spanish and English. The reason for this selection is based on the idea that the kids need to create a boundary with the text. We have to be aware that most of our Colombian students are not used to read in their mother tongue, so it will be more difficult in the second language. We need to gain their attention, showing them that it is an English text, but at the same time it is in Spanish and they can understand it.

• The second part of the process will be fully committed with the employ of the flip cover book. With this decision what we look for is to give a little more responsibility to the kids with their reading process. They can still check vocabulary, spelling, everything they want because they have the two versions, but at the same level they need to be able to use both languages in order to express his or her feelings about the book. This part will help us develop a critical view and also start to use the grammatical aspects to start writing. Do not forget the cultural relevant label that these books will have on them.

• The third part will consist on the connection among books that switch between languages, and books in English interspersed with words or phrases in another language. In this part, the kids are going to be able to understand and see as equal their mother tongue and their second language. There will be a mixture that will help them expand their knowledge about life and languages. For this level we can say they should have a high proficiency level in the second language.

• Finally, or if maybe they want to do it before, they will read a full text in the second language. They will be able to talk, write and read about it. Comment it in front of the class in any language (Spanish or English) if it is asked.

Not leaving aside one of the most important aspects of this project, the cultural relevant idea, there is a checklist that Freeman & Freeman (2000) provide us, in order to select a relevant cultural bilingual book. They discuss about the importance of finding a language text that could be consider as “natural”, meaning that the translations are very faithful to the initial conception of the text. There is also a need to provide interesting materials with good text-picture match, and a text that could gain the students’ attention immediately. Finally, the most important question that we need to ask ourselves as professors is “do the situations and characters in the book represent the experiences and background of the students?” If the answer is yes, Freeman & Freeman (2000) said that the book is completely relevant for academic and cultural purposes.  

The proposal that was presented in this text, tries to generate possible ideas for helping our kids to achieve a higher level proficiency not only in the second language knowledge, but also in their reading and writing in both languages. In conclusion, bilingual books offer to the students an opportunity to improve their learning process becoming bilingual and biliteracy. At the same time, the importance of reading a text that is cultural relevant for your context and your life, would allow you to embrace what we really are, recognize each other in the world through the words.