The Power & Weight of Our Choice Words
I recently found myself saying these words aloud in a meeting, “there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t hear deficit language spoken about our multilingual learners.” When I finished that sentence, I let the weight of those words occupy the space in the room. We all felt it. So much is being said in the silences we hold.
As you read that paragraph, I hope you felt those words. I hope you didn’t stop reading this post because, there is so much WE can do. Dr. Jonathan Rosa once said in a presentation he gave, “ there are otherwise possibilities all around us.” He also reminded all of us on that day that, “language learning has never been a problem in human history.” (Rosa, 2022). That’s where I want to focus on: on redefining what it means to be humans and to always be in the process of becoming . It is a process where all of us are involved, not just the multilingual learners we serve.
My words matter. The words I choose to talk about the humanity of children matter. So, I made a commitment to myself that when I hear language that does not respect and honor the humanity of my students, that I will immediately model language that centers and affirms them. It may sound like this…
When I hear, “He doesn’t speak English”, I will follow up with “He speaks Japanese”
When I hear, “the family hasn’t responded to any emails”, I will follow up, “Do we know for sure that this is their preferred way of communication? Is the letter accessible to the family in their language?”
When I hear, “well, can’t they look around the room to figure out what we are doing?” I will follow with, “ Every day, they have 1001 things to figure out on their own because everything in in English. We need to give them time. They haven’t learned how to do that YET.”
When I hear, “Nobody is helping her at home”, I will follow up with “What do we know about the family’s resources? Have they been invited to school outside of parent-teacher conferences?” What is our expectations?"
These are just some of the words, languages and phrases I hear about students who speak several languages, who have world experiences and who have navigated several countries and cultures in their young lives. Our multilingual learners are brilliant. I’ve been teaching and learning alongside them for over 20 years and their compassionate understandings of the world humbles me. When I sit with them, in silence at times, I often wonder how they see our world. Every teacher is a culture and a border they have to cross and understand. Every teacher they meet has their own ways of being and doing things. And our multilingual learners have to figure out culture through gestures, visuals and eventually through words. Their spectacular brains never stop working. If you are a multilingual learner yourself, I know you understand the exhaustion that comes from navigating a foreign world every single day.
We express so much in the words we choose to use, in the thoughts we hold. Our ideologies around languages, cultures and identities are all revealed in the way we speak about the humanity of our students.
I decided that my language and words will be the counterstory to the deficit language I often hear. Being humans mean we are always evolving, we are always becoming. We have the right to hold to our mother tongue with all our might. We have the right to hold on to our own culture and not be expected to assimilate into another culture in order for students to be defined as “successful”. Our multilingual learners need to be able to breath in our educational system. And someone who has the honor to serve them, I choose to start with being intentional in the ways I model language rooted in strengths, power, celebration and growth by offering a counterstory to every deficit language I hear.
To all multilingual learners everywhere, I see you. Keep shining. Keep loving all the pieces of you.
