For the final blog in this Literacy Practicum, I would love to share some reflections about my experience at The Family Learning Center and show how they overlap with some of the material learned in LING 1000, Language in U.S. Society.
In LING 1000, language and ethnicity has been a topic of focus for us. We have been learning a lot about ethnicity and culture derived from a particular language group. A lot of the preschoolers at the Family Learning Center are bilingual speakers of both Spanish and English. Being a bilingual language learner involves a lot of different qualities for a person when they are in social contexts, for example there is a feature of bilingualism called “language crossing” where code switching of both languages are involved. Code switching is when people move between different languages or dialects within a conversation. I noticed this a lot with the preschoolers and it was kind of a light bulb moment when I could identify with the term used for the situation. A lot of the students will talk amongst each other in Spanish and talk to the teachers or the volunteers in English. I found that the students were more likely to talk in Spanish with their peers when it was about something specific to a situation of play and when they had to report to the teacher or volunteer they were more likely to use English.
In Language in U.S. Society, we have learned that there are four reasons for language crossing; to identify with other speakers, to mock or distance from other speakers, in reported speech, and for humor in conversation. My assumption of the reason why the preschoolers use this type of language quality is to identify with their peers who they know also speak Spanish and maybe because they assumed that I didn’t speak Spanish they would have a more “private” conversation. From what I have picked up on from information from the teachers there, the students primarily speak Spanish in their home environments and a half and half amount of English and Spanish in the school environment.
I was able to observe the amount of English and Spanish ratio in the school environment and for every sing along song in-group circle where we would sing in English, there was also a song in Spanish as well. When they go over the days of the week and weather, they go over everything all together once in English, and then again in Spanish. “Today is sunny, Hoy es soleado” “Days of the week, Los dios semana”. This was awesome for me to refresh on my basic Spanish-speaking skills, and really cool to see the incorporation of bilingualism in the school setting.
I must say that I am very happy that I chose to be a part of the Literacy Practicum from the beginning of the semester. It has been such a joy and positive environment for me to be involved with The Family Learning Center. I feel like over the course of the semester I have made many positive connections with people at the school that I will hold close. I would highly recommend anyone interested in being a volunteer for the Literacy Practicum to be a part of the Family Learning Center; it really does feel like a family there and a very great environment for preschoolers to keep their busy minds learning.
