View Content #22120

Tom Welch Consulting offers professional, out-of-the-box consulting services to the education and education-related community in the U.S. and around the world. Welch is an ardent revolutionary when it comes to the redesign of the learning process.

Last week’s Topic of the Week highlighted the call to lead the charge for the equitable access for language learners, particularly for marginalized learners. Knight provided a number of valuable perspectives for the classroom teacher.

In addition to those insights, it would be helpful for practitioners to also try their hand at reframing the issue.  The technique of applying a process known as “reframing” has gained popularity in fields from management training to education.  In short, it asks the individual to see “the current situation from a different perspective, which can be tremendously helpful in problem solving, decision making and learning” (McNamara, 2012).

What would be the impact in world languages if we were to reframe the notion of access without using a deficit-driven mindset?  What if we stopped asking “How can we help more students in more schools get access to more language instruction and language classes?” and, instead, asked “How do we help learners use and develop language skills to meet their individual needs?”

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of a committed profession, the data offer little evidence of success for our traditional ways of looking at language instruction and language learning.  In a study published in the Modern Language Journal, results drew attention to the fact that very few of the individuals who “reported speaking abilities of languages other than English” acquired those skills in schools (Robinson, Rivers and Brecht, 2006).

We have thought that a major problem is “access”.  But access to what?  Many students actually already have more access than we acknowledge. According to a Pew study in 2015, 92% of teens report going online daily (Lenhart, 2015).  Our outpaced ability to accommodate new tools is perhaps the bigger problem.

As an example, one would be hard pressed to find many schools that offer Oromo (one of the main languages spoken by people in Ethiopia and Kenya); this is true even in communities with large populations of Oromo-speakers.  Yet, a Google search brings up dozens and dozens of ways to learn Oromo, from traditional approaches to game-based methods.  Is the problem really access or is the problem our deficit-oriented mindset?

Another element of the access argument could revolve around validation of language learning.  “Sure, a student could be learning on her own, but how do I 'count' that?”  Thanks to the strides the profession has made with notions of proficiency, we need to begin gathering examples of teachers and schools where students can advance and be credentialed based on assessments such as APPL or STAMP along with electronic portfolios and other new tools.

Let’s reframe our thinking as language educators and by doing so, reframe the opportunities for our students.

References

Lenhart, A. (2015, April 9). Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/

McNamara, C. (2012, February 2). Basic Guidelines to Reframing — to Seeing Things Differently [Web log post] Retrieved from http://managementhelp.org/blogs/personal-and-professional-coaching/2012/02/02/basic-guidelines-to-reframing-to-seeing-things-differently/

Robinson, J., W. Rivers and R. Brecht (2006). Speaking foreign languages in the United States: Correlates, trends, and possible consequences. Modern Language Journal 90:4, 457-472.