Equity & Access Multilingual Learners

ELLs at the Center: Rethinking High Stakes Testing

By Wilma Ortiz and Karen Sumaryono

 

Excerpt

It is our experience that when teachers honor both oral and written home languages in school, they validate the child’s point of power in learning; thus, academic investment is most likely to occur. Then students are willing to understand that Standard English is the language of social capital and the importance of adding it to their already-sophisticated home language. They have the resources to transfer their mastery of their home dialect or first language to the task of learning a new language.

 

 

Notes:

Copyright © 2010 by the National Council of Teachers of English. Posted with permission.
Ortiz-Marrero, Floris Wilma, and Karen Sumaryono. 2010, July. “Success with ELLs: ELLs at the Center: Rethinking High-Stakes Testing.” English Journal 99 (6): 93-96.

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