FEATURE
Tatiana Joseph works with aspiring teachers so they can better serve second language learners.
The language of learning TATIANA JOSEPH VIVIDLY REMEMBERS HER first day of school
in the United States at age 10. She and her family had moved from Costa Rica to Milwaukee, and she was suddenly plunged into a new school system where everything was in a different language. She knew only three words in English, emergency ones that her father had taught her: lost, help and bathroom. “Every time I walk into a classroom now where there are English language learners, I remember that first day and thinking, ‘What am I going to do? How am I going to survive this?’” says Joseph, now an assistant professor of teaching and learning in the School of Education. She knows she was fortunate to have a bilingual fifth-grade teacher who made her feel welcome and helped with academics, because her education was conducted mostly in English. All of this played a role in Joseph’s career – she’s now chair of UWM’s second language education program – as well as her research interests. “I think it’s those life experiences,” she says, “that have really helped me adopt a different lens on what I want to do in teacher education, and how I want to rethink the way we work with English language learners.” Some school systems have a student population in which more 4 UWM SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
than 20 percent of the children speak a home language other than English. Teachers may find themselves working with children who speak Spanish at home, or perhaps Rohingya, Swahili, Arabic, Laotian or any number of other languages. These are the reasons that Joseph, a former teacher and member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, believes that teachers must be properly prepared to work in linguistically diverse classrooms. Research that Joseph and others have done shows that teachers can build on their students’ first language to help improve their overall educational progress. That includes building proficiency in the English language. “In order for children to learn English,” Joseph says, “they have to have a strong foundation in their primary language.” Backed by that research, educators are shifting their focus from treating a student’s non-English home language as a deficit and instead appreciating it as an asset. The change in approach is reflected in new terminology like “biliteracy” and “dual-language learners.” It’s also prompted some innovative programs that have shown positive educational results, such as sending young children home with books printed in their home language to be read with their parents.
