Educating Students Without Language Power

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Literacy for Social Justice

Abstract

When it comes to learning foreign languages, students representing the dominant culture are often encouraged to do so, even though it is unlikely they will use the language with fluency (Nieto & Bode, 2012). Ironically, when minority students, such as Latino deaf students, bring a language to school other than English it is viewed as a hindrance to learning English (McCarty, 2005). This paper will argue that natural language (i.e. American Sign Language) and home language (i.e. Spanish) instruction will benefit Latino Deaf students more than English-Only language instruction and that failure to include Spanish instruction might be considered language exclusion.

Author

• Jennifer Magen Otwell, Self