Language Development

Description

Recently I was in a situation that reminded me again of the continued need for professional development for all educators to best meet the needs of emerging bilingual students. Continued strong advocacy for emerging bilinguals by teacher leaders who have experience and expertise working with them is of the utmost importance. While presenting an in-service on culturally responsive teaching to a group of teacher leaders, several of the teachers voiced their opinions to me that it is “rude for students to speak a language other than English in front of others who speak only English.” Having worked in bilingual education since 1997 and studied language acquisition, having been a learner of another language myself, and having lived in multiple locations in the world, I felt frustration welling up inside of me, as I considered the broad gap between my perspective on multilingualism and multiculturalism and the perspectives of the teachers who were voicing this opinion.

David Irwin Dave is the founder and owner of Language Development Opportunities. He began his career as a bilingual teacher in California's San Joaquin Valley and has taught elementary, middle and high school ELL and mainstream students. He has been an ESL and Literacy Specialist, federal grant manager, regular and adjunct faculty at Heritage, City and Washington State Universities, and a trainer for Migrant Education. He currently works in the Vancouver (WA) Public Schools as an ELL Specialist. He has worked with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) in the Student and School Success and Migrant/Bilingual offices to improve achievement of ELLs in that state. He is a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) in English as a New Language with an MAT in Language Arts from Lewis & Clark College. He is a former member of the National Faculty for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP®) and the past-President of the Washington Association for Bilingual Education (WABE). He has given hundreds of presentations and classes in Washington and beyond.

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