Teacher Mindsets that Matter when Supporting Multilingual Learners

Guest Blogpost by Carly Spina

(You can listen to Carly Spina’s podcast episode here.)

While we serve our linguistically diverse students and families, there are some mindsets that we all must embody as we teach and lead in our systems. 

1. Our students have linguistic assets, not language barriers.

Many of us have confronted the idea of having a “language barrier.” This often refers to a specific moment when you don’t have language access to a content, idea, or conversation. When we focus on the “barrier,” we become blinded to the assets that our students have. When I first started my job as an English Learner teacher in 2006, the state of Illinois classified students in our program as being “Non-English Proficient” or NEP. As a system, we labeled students with a deficit-based classification. The very first word was NON! How awful would it be if I had to introduce myself by all the things I have not yet mastered?! The term “multilingual learner” is a much more appropriate and asset-based term as it de-centers one specific language and instead seeks to acknowledge all language skills that a student and their family may possess. We must constantly seek to view those we serve through an asset-based lens! 

2. Everyone’s a language teacher.

No matter what our roles are in our schools, we are all language teachers. We all use language as we provide instruction! Language growth and development is not solely the responsibility of the EL (English Learner), Bilingual, or Dual Language educator in our schools. We use reading, writing, listening, and speaking across every content area and grade level, which means everyone is a language teacher! We all have the opportunity and ability to support language growth and development. We can always seek out the expertise of our multilingual specialists for increased support, ideas, resources, or help with strategies - but we should all feel empowered as language educators. 

3. Strategic scaffolds are good for all, but necessary for Multilingual Learners.

The good news is that educators can do many things to help scaffold grade-level content instruction so that it is more comprehensible. There are tried and true strategies that can support multilingual learners at varying levels of proficiency,  like providing graphics, visuals, embedding audio/video, providing texts at multiple levels, chunking information, incorporating native language usage, and providing sentence stems and frames. These scaffolds, when used strategically, can provide entry points into their social studies lesson or science lab. These also help students to maintain the rigor of their grade-level standards. As many multilingual experts say, we always want to scaffold up our content instead of water down our content. 

4. Language Development Takes Times

Do you know all the words in the dictionary? I sure don’t! The wonderful thing about language proficiency is that there is no ceiling! This means that I can study a language for an entire lifetime and still not know every single word, rule, or successfully employ all regional variances of the language. Isn’t that incredible!? Additionally, I have been a multilingual learner since 1998, and I still have a lot of growing to do in my additional language. Many would have a conversation with me and call me fluent, but I will admit that there are many times that I will freeze up, forget words, struggle with verb conjugations and tenses, and ask for help with grammar. Many states will require that students exit a language program within 5 years, but I’m here to tell you that researchers and experts have repeatedly proven that language proficiency takes upwards of 7-10 years! No matter how long a student has lived in a geographical zone, there are many factors that contribute to language growth and development. I have yet to meet one human being that wakes up completely fluent on their 5th anniversary of beginning a new language journey.

Carly Spina has 15 years of experience in Multilingual Education, including her service as an EL teacher, a third-grade bilingual classroom teacher, and a district-wide EL/Bilingual/Dual Language Instructional Coach. She is currently serving 8 schools (EC-8) in a linguistically rich community of over 60 languages and over 800 active EL students. Spina is an active member of the EL/Bilingual community on social media and enjoys networking and growing with teachers and leaders across the country.  She is currently working on her first book with EduMatch Publishing.