The school year is well under wayin Alexia Haywood’s classroomwhen a new student from Turkeyjoins them in October. Alexia greetsthe girl and her father and chatswith them while the other childrenlisten attentively. She then gathersthe children around to meet the newstudent. They are immediately inter-ested and bombard her with ques-tions. The first question that burstsforth from the energetic group is theexpected “What’s your name?” The

next question is less anticipated,“What language do you speak?”

These children assume that the newstudent must speak another lan-guage besides English. Alexia’sclassroom is a linguistically diverseCentral Texas pre-kindergartenclass in which 14 of the 16 studentsare bilingual. Like many othersecond language learners in theUnited States, they are acquiringEnglish as a second languagethrough the regular curriculum.

However, in this classroom, theteacher is actively working to fosternot only their linguistic awarenessand skills in English, but also intheir native languages.

The purpose of this article is to de-scribe our collaborative work withinthis multiliterate classroom and toprovide some suggestions for main-stream teachers who are interestedin supporting linguistic diversity.We believe that any teacher canfoster multiliteracy in the classroomwithout being a speaker of thoselanguages. The first step is to under-stand the importance of first lan-guage literacy in the teaching ofEnglish as a second language. Thenext step is to recognize commonmisconceptions about the teacher’srole in multiliteracy development.The final step is to surpass thesemisconceptions by creating a class-room that fosters multiliteracy.

During the last 20 years, many arti-cles and books have been writtenabout first language literacy and itsimportance in the teaching of En-glish as a second language (Moll &Greenberg, 1990; Freeman & Free-man, 1991,1992, 1993, 2001; Faltis& Hudelson, 1994; Krashen, 1999;Skutnabb-Kangas, 1990; Schwarzer,2001). Researchers have looked forways to maintain students’ first lan-guages, not only as a resource for

Fostering Multiliteracy in aLinguistically Diverse Classroom

How does a monolingual teacher support linguistic

diversity in a classroom of children who speak many

different native languages?

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David Schwarzer Alexia Haywood Charla Lorenzen

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their second language development,but also as a resource that shouldbe developed before those lan-guages are lost (Fishman, 1980;Peyton, Renard, & McGinnis, 2001).Many advocates of the developmentof students’ native languages per-ceive first language literacy instruc-tion as a job primarily suited tobilingual, ESL, or heritage languageteachers working in maintenance-oriented programs. We believe thatfostering multiliteracy can be thedomain of any teacher interested indeveloping the languages repre-sented in his/her classroom.

Hudelson (1987) pointed out that astrategy that is effective for develop-ing literacy for a monolingual childis also effective for helping childrendevelop literacy in their mothertongue even if the teachers do notspeak all the languages of the stu-dents. Furthermore, Freeman andFreeman (1993, 2001) and Samwayand McKeon (1999) report waysmonolingual teachers can supportstudents’ first languages. This articlebuilds on and expands prior researchin this area in the following ways:

• It addresses common misconcep-tions about multiliteracy develop-ment and the implications of thesemisconceptions for mainstreammonolingual classroom practice.

• It expands the audience involved indiscussing multiliteracy to includemonolingual mainstream teachers.

• It changes the focus from maintain-ing native language literacies out-side of school to fostering themwithin curricula in order for studentsto become balanced bilingual andbiliterate people.

• It suggests activities monolingualteachers can use in their daily class-room practice to help children ingeneral and multilingual children inparticular achieve some level of mul-tiliteracy. These simple activities can

have a long-lasting impact on chang-ing students’ perspectives about theirnative languages from that of prob-lem to resource (Ruiz, 1991).

TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES ABOUTNATIVE LANGUAGE USAGEIN SCHOOL SETTINGS

Teachers’ attitudes about native lan-guages in schools can be summa-rized as:

• forbid native languages

• allow native languages

• maintain native languages

• foster native languages

To forbid the development of multi-literacy is to ignore children’shome languages. Many teachers areunaware of their students’ nativetongues and believe that their mainjob is to foster English literacy de-velopment. By forbidding nativelanguage literacy, however, theyare often denying children the op-portunity to acquire their homelanguage as an important gift andinheritance and as an integralaspect of their identities.

Other teachers allow students touse their native languages in selectschool settings. For example, chil-dren are allowed to use Spanish

during recess, and it is fine for one child to translate for anotherduring class time. However, the useof home languages is only allowedfor the purpose of teaching or de-

veloping the English language. Thisoption treats native language usageas a “passing illness” that, oncecured, will go away.

Maintenance of the native lan-guage by the community has beenan uphill battle for a long time.Many language minority communi-ties explore options of weekendschools and afternoon programs inorder to maintain native languages.Sometimes, schools and school dis-tricts, under pressure from lan-guage minority parents, agree tocreate classes or afternoon clubs.Most of these classes happen afterschool or as extracurricular activi-ties. Moreover, only those minoritylanguages represented by a largenumber of speakers in the school ordistrict are afforded this opportu-nity. These programs are not fre-quently taught by the regularclassroom teacher, but by a “spe-cial” teacher who knows the lan-guage of the students. In Alexia’sschool, for example, Chinese andKorean students are pulled out fornative language maintenance in-struction. Of course, language mi-nority children are segregatedduring these classes. Under theseconditions, students perceive a du-ality in their language learning—school is mainly interested indeveloping English, while homeand community settings are mostlyinterested in the development ofEnglish and the native language.

Fostering biliteracy or multiliteracydevelopment in the school settingseems to be the most radical ap-proach. In our opinion, there are at least two feasible options: duallanguage/bilingual programs andmonolingual teachers fosteringmultiliteracy in the mainstreamclassroom.

In the dual language/bilingual pro-grams, students are expected toattain high levels of oral and writ-

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Fostering multiliteracycan be the domain ofany teacher interested

in developing thelanguages representedin his/her classroom.

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ten proficiency in both languages.Successful dual language/bilingualprograms have been widely docu-mented (Freeman & Freeman, 1991).Such programs necessarily servelarge minority languagepopulations within a given schoolor district. When possible, duallanguage/bilingual programs arethe ideal choice of instruction.

In Alexia’s case, the demographicsof her classroom (6 Korean speak-ers, 4 Chinese speakers, 3 Spanishspeakers, 2 native English speakers,and only 1 Turkish-speaking child)made the dual language/bilingualprogram option impractical. There-fore, she decided as the mainstreamteacher to foster multiliteracy de-velopment in her linguistically di-verse class.

Monolingual classroom teachers canfoster multiliteracy in children’shome languages. Teachers can in-quire about students’ languages, notsimply as part of the home languagesurvey or for district reports, but tolocate someone in the school andhome communities who can help to foster the students’ languageswithin the classroom. Schools andcommunities can become partnersin the development of lifelongmultilingual/multiliterate individu-als who are aware that their nativelanguage and literacy is a preciousresource for the school community.

The reality of many mainstreamclassrooms is that teachers are al-ready making efforts to include mul-ticultural literature in their languagearts curriculum while providing cul-turally relevant themes (Norton,1990; Tway, 1989). However, nativelanguages continue to be overlookedas a crucial aspect of multiculturaleducation (Nieto, 1992). Very fewteachers use students’ native lan-guages as a resource to enhancetheir multicultural curriculum(Reyes, 1992), in part because of

prevailing misconceptions aboutmultiliteracy development.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUTMULTILITERACY DEVELOPMENT

Before monolingual teachers cancreate a multiliterate classroom,they must first address some of thecommonly held misconceptionsabout multiliteracy development.

Misconception #1: Monolingualteachers cannot foster multiliteracysince they are not multiliterate.Reyes, Laliberty, and Orbansky(1993) state that, “monolingual lan-guage arts teachers cannot tap intonative languages because they donot have a working knowledge ofother languages” (p. 659). Of coursewe agree that multiliterate teachersare necessary to tap into all the re-

sources available to a multiliteratechild. However, we believe thatmonolingual teachers can tap intosome of the resources available instudents’ native languages, even ifthey do not have a working knowl-edge of those languages. What theydo need to know is what is good forlanguage learning—environmentalprint in the different languages, lan-guage use for authentic purposes,using authentic materials with au-thentic audiences, taking risks, etc.

Misconception #2: The classroomteacher is the only person who canteach languages in the classroom.Teachers do not need to be the onlyones teaching in the classroom.They can create, with the help ofstudents, parents, siblings, elders,clergy, and other community mem-bers, a multiliterate learning com-munity. Since we know that literacy

is socially constructed (Goodman &Wilde, 1992), creating a multiliter-ate learning community is crucialfor fostering multiliteracy. Althougha monolingual teacher cannot actu-ally “teach” students’ native lan-guages, that teacher can create amultiliterate community.

Misconception #3: Teachers who do not know how to write in lan-guages other than English cannotfoster writing in the students’ home languages.

Teachers can enlist the help of othersto provide students with rich multi-literate print environments. They candevelop a multiliterate classroom li-brary to use during sustained silentreading times in their classes. Theycan also encourage parents to bringmagazines, coupons, newspapers,bottles, and other objects containing

print in order to give students reallife experiences in their native lan-guages. These changes may seemsmall, but they can have a bigimpact on students’ appreciation oftheir native languages.

Misconception #4: Teachers who do not understand their students’home languages cannot assess theirlanguage proficiency in those lan-guages. It is not necessary to knowHebrew in order to be able to assesswhether or not a child can read flu-ently in Hebrew. If the child stum-bles over every other word, looks forhelp, or sounds like a monotonousreader, these are likely signs that thechild is not comfortable reading inthe home language. Of course,sometimes children may look likethey are reading while they are “in-venting” meaning from the printedpage. These creative inventions in

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Although a monolingual teacher cannot actually“teach” students’ native languages, that teacher can

create a multiliterate community.

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the native language are also a posi-tive sign of literacy development!

Biliterate community members canhelp teachers assess students’ nativeliteracy proficiency. Dong (1999)makes the case that second languageteachers need information about stu-dents’ native literacy learning inorder to tailor their curriculum tostudents’ needs. In doing so, teachersare sending a message to studentsthat their home languages are ac-knowledged and valued, instead ofdismissed or ignored. Moreover, thiscross-cultural literacy awarenessbenefits both students and teachersin building a community of learnerssince their native literacy and nativecultural backgrounds are consideredrich resources instead of obstacles.

The teacher can ask students ques-tions about the readings they havedone in their native languages suchas, What is the story about? Who isthe main character? For example, ifthe teacher does not know Chineseand the child is reading a book likeBrown Bear, Brown Bear, What DoYou See? (Martin, 1992) in Chinese,the teacher may be able to recognizethe same Chinese character for“bear” in two different places andask the child to point to the word for“bear.” If the Chinese character doesnot look the same each time, theteacher can ask the student for anexplanation. It may become appar-ent that the child is not able to readthe conventional text. In that case,the teacher can also utilize parentsor other community members tohelp in assessing the student’s profi-ciency in the native language.

Misconception #5: Monolingualteachers can help children becomemultiliterate even if the teachers donot learn their own heritage lan-guages. Monolingual teachers canhelp children appreciate the value oftheir native languages if they showan interest in their own home lan-

guages. Many teachers in the UnitedStates come from families born indifferent countries (e.g., France,

Germany, Poland, Italy, etc.). Teach-ers can look up their last names onthe Internet and see what languagesand countries appear on the searchengine. They can also interviewfamily members about their lan-guage backgrounds and construct aFamily Language Use Tree to tracetheir family history of written, read,and spoken languages through sev-eral generations (Schwarzer, 2001).

Teachers can learn how to write theirown names in the home languagewriting system of their ancestry(Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese,etc.). Additionally, teachers maywant to explore simple phrases suchas: “How are you?” and “My nameis _______.” in their own heritagelanguages. This may seem to be astrange activity to do in classes withmultilingual students and a monolin-gual teacher, but we contend thatteachers can also be learners andmodel this voyage into multiliteracy.

ALEXIA’S PERSONALJOURNEY OF INVENTING AMULTILITERATE CLASSROOMAfter teaching for four years,Alexia, a white middle class bilin-gual English/Spanish teacher, foundherself in a different school and in a new situation. Alexia had previ-ously worked with native Spanish-speaking students. In her newschool, however, there was a muchmore diverse and international stu-dent population. The students came

to the school from all around theworld, bringing 17 different lan-guages. Alexia typically had four or

five languages other than Englishrepresented in her classroom.

Many of Alexia’s students were chil-dren of graduate students at a localuniversity that attracts large num-bers of international students. Manycame to Alexia’s school becausetheir families lived in the graduatemarried housing complexes nearby.The children were in the unique andsomewhat difficult position ofcoming to live in the United Statesat a young age without knowing forcertain how long they would bestaying, since families were as likelyto remain in the U.S. as return homeafter the parents received graduatedegrees. For this reason, those in-volved with the children’s educationwere highly invested in helping thechildren to both learn English (tofunction in the United States) andmaintain their first language (be-cause of the prospect of returning tothe home country).

Alexia was unsure about how tomeet the needs of this diversegroup of children. During her firstyear in this new position, she fa-miliarized herself with her sur-roundings. She loved the diversityof the class, but it was not until thesecond year at the school that shefelt ready to utilize this unique sit-uation to its full potential.

It was during this year that Alexiaand Charla met in a university-levelbilingual education class and foundthat they were both interested in

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This cross-cultural literacy awareness benefits both students and teachers in building a community

of learners since their native literacy and native cultural backgrounds are considered

rich resources instead of obstacles.

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native language maintenance. Theythen began working with David, aprofessor from that university whowas also interested in fostering mul-tiliteracy in the classroom. Togetherthey decided to explore how ateacher who does not speak all of thelanguages represented in her classcan still promote literacy in thoselanguages. Alexia, David, and Charlasaw that this classroom was a perfectplace to start putting their ideas intoaction, and for a full semester, Charlaconducted her M.A. thesis research inthis classroom (Lorenzen, 2001).

Alexia began with changes that weresimple. She labeled students’ cubbieswith their names in English or Span-ish as she had always done, but shealso had the students or parentswrite their names underneath in Chi-nese or Korean (two languages rep-resented in the class with writingsystems other than English). Alexiaenlisted parents to help her acquireposters of all the different alphabetsrepresented by students in the class-room. One Korean mother, who wasan artist, hand-painted a beautifulalphabet in her native language fordisplay on a classroom wall. Fur-thermore, Alexia got special fundsfrom the school administration tobuy books in Chinese and Korean.

As the year progressed, our collabo-rative team took on more challengesby asking, “How can we incorporatethe native languages of the childrento a greater degree in the class, espe-cially in written form?” The follow-ing narrative of a special day in thisclassroom illustrates how progresstoward the possibilities of a multilit-eracy curriculum were evident in theday-to-day activities of the class.

A SPECIAL DAYIN THE CLASSROOMThere were 16 four- and five-year-old students in Alexia’s class: 6Korean speakers, 4 Chinese speakers,

3 Spanish speakers, 1 Turkishspeaker, and 2 native English-speaking children. On this particularday, when the students arrived atschool, they found more adultspresent in the classroom than usual.A special language project had beenplanned that required help from par-ents, other teachers, and members ofthe community who spoke the lan-guages of the children.

This was the first time that we hadattempted to implement a structuredactivity relying on parents as teach-ers. David and Charla were present,along with three Korean-speakingparents, two Chinese-speaking par-ents, a mother who spoke Spanish,and a father who spoke Turkish. Theschool principal also came to enjoythe day’s activities.

The children were seated on thecarpet in front of the calendars and

alphabets that had been collected inthe different languages. The classbegan the school day by saying,“Good morning” and “How areyou?” in all five languages. Earlierin the semester, Charla had tape-recorded the phrases from variousparents and a Chinese-speakingteacher at the school. Each phrasein each language was repeatedthree times with pauses in betweenso that everyone could practice.Alexia had written out the differentphrases in the different languagesand she pointed to them as theclass recitation proceeded. This was an important strategy since it helped students’ connections be-

tween the oral utterance and thewritten sentence (Goodman, 1993).

After going through the usual dailycalendar rituals, the class was readyto begin the new activity. The cul-mination of a “creepy crawlies” unitwas going to be a field trip to alocal nature center to take part in aprogram called “Six Legs, EightLegs, Many Legs.” In preparing forthe day’s activities, Alexia hadchosen four main concepts that shewanted the children to learn: a) in-sects have six legs, b) insects havethree body sections, c) spiders haveeight legs, and d) spiders spin websto trap food.

In the days preceding this experi-ence, these concepts were explainedto the parents who were going tohelp with the activity. The volun-teers wrote the concepts in theirnative language so that the classwould have them as written modelsto be read to the children. Alexiahad prepared sheets of paper withthe words for insect and spider writ-ten in all of the different languages.Each group of adults had enoughcopies of “insect” and “spider” inthe applicable native language forall the students.

Alexia also decided to have theclass sing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” inall of the languages. Korean andSpanish versions of the song al-ready existed, but there was no Chi-nese or Turkish equivalent. Two ofthe Chinese mothers and the Turkishfather translated the song into theirrespective languages. The songswere written ahead of time on largepieces of chart paper.

Alexia divided the children into fivegroups according to their native lan-guages (Spanish, English, Korean,Chinese, and Turkish). There was atleast one native-speaking adult incharge of each group. All of theadults had the four concepts writtenout in their native languages and a

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This was the first timethat we had attempted

to implement a structured activityrelying on parents

as teachers.

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copy of the “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”song hanging nearby.

The children prepared for theirhour-long language experience bygetting into groups according totheir own native languages. Theadults discussed the four conceptsof the lesson with the children intheir native language. Each childthen received a sheet of paper thathad the word “insect” written at thetop in his/her native language. The

children attempted to write theword in their native language andto draw a picture of an insect incor-porating the characteristics they haddiscussed using their native tongue.Finally, the students were encour-aged to write a sentence in theirnative language related to the pic-ture. The same was done for“spider.” The native language ses-sion ended by singing “The ItsyBitsy Spider” in that language.

After singing the song in theirnative language, the childrenswitched tables. At this point, thestudents were working with lan-guages that were not their first, oreven their second language, so thesessions were shorter. By the end of the hour-long experience, eachchild had rotated through their ownnative language and at least one ofthe other languages represented inthe room. The children learned howto say the words for insect andspider in the other languages and at-tempted to write the words by usingthe models provided by the parents.They ended each rotation by singing

“The Itsy Bitsy Spider” in the lan-guage of each one of the groups.

At the end of the day, the childrentook home all of their writing. “TheItsy Bitsy Spider” songs were hungin the classroom in all of the lan-guage variations, and the class con-tinued to practice every day untileach version was learned. Alexiafound that in order to remember thepronunciation of the songs in all ofthe languages, she had to write outthe words phonetically in English,which became an effective learningstrategy. Alexia always made surethat she pointed to each word whilethe children sang the songs. After afew weeks of practicing the songs,Alexia had children volunteer topoint to the words in their nativelanguages as everyone else sangalong. This strategy was extremelyimportant in helping the studentsunderstand the relationship betweenoral and written language. The classwent on to have other similar daysduring the course of the school year.

INCREASING USEOF NATIVE LANGUAGES

During this journey, several times weasked ourselves “How do we knowthat we are going in the ‘right’ di-rection?” Following kid-watchingstrategies (Goodman & Wilde, 1996),we recorded anecdotal records of lit-eracy events that shed light on thelearning that was occurring. For ex-ample, one day a Korean-speakingstudent asked Alexia why the namesof the Spanish speakers were notwritten in English and Spanish likethe names that were written in bothEnglish and Korean or English andChinese. This observation promptedAlexia and the students to look atthe Spanish alphabet and discussthat even though it sounded differ-ent than English, most of the letterswere the same. They then examinedthe Korean and Chinese alphabets

and noted that the letters lookedvery different from English.

Alexia noted that students askedeach other more frequently than inprevious years how to say words ineach other’s native language. OneChinese-speaking boy asked aKorean friend to write the word“Mom” in Korean on the envelopefor a letter he wrote to his mother.Two Chinese-speaking girls loved tolisten to a Spanish recording of thestory “Snow White,” as it was oneof their favorites in Chinese. Whenthe Turkish-speaking student joinedthe class in October, the other stu-dents asked Alexia to get books andsongs in Turkish like the ones in theother languages.

We found that our results contrastedwith prior case studies that noteddecreased use of home languages by multilingual children over time.Prior studies documenting multilin-gual children in monolingual earlychildhood classes found that there isa shift towards English use at home(Fillmore, 1991), and that less thanten percent of the overall writing ofthese children was produced in lan-guages other than English in boththe home and school settings. Inmost instances, writing in languagesother than English appeared in onlythe home setting (Schwarzer, 2001;Kim, 2000). The students in Alexia’sclass, in contrast, wrote much morein one day in their native languagesthan the overall amount reported byother researchers in longitudinalcase studies in early childhoodclasses (Schwarzer, 1996, 2001; Kim,2000). Alexia had noticed almostnone of this the previous year, but itbecame common to see childrenwriting both in English and in theirnative languages in her classthroughout the school day.

Alexia was able to foster the nativelanguage literacies of the students inher class despite not being a profi-

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It became common tosee children writing

both in English and intheir native languagesin her class throughout

the school day.

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cient user of all of the languages.Furthermore, her students showedsigns of increased awareness of andinterest in others’ home languages.Based on our experiences in Alexia’sclassroom, we created a list of tenways monolingual teachers in main-stream classrooms can start theirown journeys to foster multiliteracy.

TEN BEGINNING IDEASFOR MONOLINGUAL TEACHERSTO FOSTER MULTILITERACY

1. Create a multiliterate print envi-ronment in your classroom. Placemultilingual posters throughoutthe class to illustrate the alphabetsof the languages spoken by classmembers; the names of the chil-dren in their own language and inEnglish; or phrases in all of thelanguages, such as hello, goodmorning, good afternoon, goodbye,good job. Use some kind oftransliteration so the teacher canpoint at the written words whileusing them with students.

2. Use literature in students’ nativelanguages. Create opportunitiesfor students to share children’s lit-erature in their first language. Aska parent or a sibling to read abook in the first language for theclass, or to read to children whospeak that language. Books in allthe languages spoken by the chil-dren should be included in theclassroom library for silent sus-tained reading or as resources fora project. Audiotaped versions ofthe books can be included in a lis-tening center.

3. Create a multiliterate project to beconducted by a community memberin the native language. Multiliter-acy projects could include dialoguejournals, weekly individual literacymeetings in the native language,translation projects for the com-munity, or letters to the grandpar-

ents or family members in thehome country.

4. Create predetermined and relevantcurricular language centers thatare supported by multiliterate community members. Invite multiliterate people from theschool or community to help teachrelevant class themes in other languages. Clearly communicatethe expected outcomes to commu-nity members.

5. Assess students’ literacy in theirfirst language. Teachers need someidea of students’ linguistic levelsin their native language. If a childcan read independently, challengethat child to read some of thebooks in the classroom library.However, if a child is just begin-ning to read in his/her native lan-guage, having a communitymember read a book with the childmay be more beneficial.

6. Start learning some words in thestudents’ first languages as well asyour own heritage language.Simple phrases such as: “How areyou?” “Good job!” and “See you to-morrow” may have a profoundimpact on students’ understand-ings of the importance of theirnative languages. Teachers can en-courage this feature by making theeffort to learn their own familyheritage language as well as thatof their students.

7. Create audiotaped cassettes withgreetings, basic conversations,songs, stories, etc. in the students’first languages. Students shouldhear other people using theirnative tongue in the classroom.Teachers can start a collection ofcommunity-produced audiotapesor videotapes of parents telling astory in another language, abrother reading a book to his sister,or other situations involving anative language speaker.

8. Involve community members asactive participants in the class. Par-ents, community activists, clergy,volunteers, and staff personnel arevaluable resources for appreciatinglanguage diversity as an asset. Stu-dent awareness of language can beencouraged, for example, by creat-ing a Family Language Use Tree(Schwarzer, 2001) for each child. Aschool language tree could showwhich class has the most lan-guages, which child or familyspeaks the most languages in theschool, etc.

9. Find ways to translate environmen-tal print as well as school lettersinto all of the languages availablein the learning community. Stu-dents should see authentic uses oftheir native languages even if notrequired by law. It is important tohave some signs written in differ-ent languages (e.g., Exit, Principal’sOffice, Welcome to Memphis Ele-mentary School, etc.).

10. Use the students’ culture and expe-riences as a catalyst for multiliter-acy development. Use students’backgrounds and cultural assets asa resource by inviting students toshare issues related to their cul-tural background throughout theyear. When students talk abouttheir cultural traditions, they oftenuse native language words in theirEnglish presentations (e.g., BarMitzvah, Quinceñera, fajitas, Pow-wow, etc.). Children can translatethe words by explaining theirmeaning, but it may be cumber-some, and the native languageword is usually still required withinthe English explanation.

Using native language words createsa wonderful multiliteracy learningopportunity. Ask students to write alist of words in their home lan-guages, followed by the English ex-planation, so that the words can beposted for class. This simple tool

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may enhance students’ literacy de-velopment in their home languages.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As a collaborative team, we ob-served many wonderful things overthe course of the year. The lessonslearned from Alexia’s classroomgive us hope that mainstreamteachers can indeed foster languagesensitivity, tolerance, interest, andeven literacy in languages in whichthey are not proficient. Ideally,many people and institutionswould come together to make such a project successful, but it all starts with the teacher. It is our hope that other teachers, principals, researchers, and policy makers can continue the work of creating classroomsand schools that truly value thecultural and linguistic diversity of our children.

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Language Arts, Vol. 80 No. 6, July 2003

David Schwarzer is assistant professor inmultilingual studies at the University ofTexas, Austin. Alexia Haywood holds aMaster’s degree in bilingual educationfrom the University of Texas and currentlyteaches in Austin, Texas. Charla Lorenzenis a graduate student in foreign languageeducation and is assistant instructor ofSpanish at the University of Texas, Austin.

Author Biographies

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