Parallel Oppression of Spanish and ASL in Education Part I: “Manuel”

APPROXIMATE ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

In America—North America—there are Spanish-English bilingual programs  isn’t there? There are ASL-English bilingual school programs as well, correct?  So, everything is fine and dandy, eh?  Actually, no.

Both the languages of Spanish and ASL are struggling with systemic oppression in education. This means that Latino children who can speak both Spanish and English are quite struggling within the education system.  ASL/English bilinguals (those who use ASL and English) experience similar struggles under the educational system as well.

Where’s the evidence to back up the above statement?

“Manuel”—who is he, anyway? He is a Grade 4 student of Latino family background who speaks Spanish as well as English, and lives in Colorado. He was required to do a written English test in response to this question:

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be? Why would you want to be that person?

I have put up an excerpt from Dr. Kathy Escamilla’s article, The Misunderestimation of Manuel: Issues in Reductionist Paradigms and Parallel Monolingual Frameworks in the Quest to Improve Policy and Practice for Bilingual Learners (2009).

Dr. Escamilla discussed this student whose name, Manuel, is a pseudonym.  He wrote a passage which was translated by Dr. Kathy Escamilla:

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be? Why would you want to be that person?

“I would be Juan Carlos. I would like to be him because he is proficient in math.  I was mostly the dumbest kid, but as the year went by I got smarter. Now I’m back where I was all over again.  I really hate that because I’m really stupid, plus I am partially proficient in math and Juan is proficient in math.  And, I am unsatisfactory in writing and reading. Him too but he’s a lot smarter then me. I’m stupidest in the whole entire school.  That’s the truth.  That’s why I want to be him. This is the truth. I’ve never told anybody this, I haven’t told a soul.” (Escamilla, 2009, p. 14)

I am now translating this passage into ASL.  (ASL TRANSLATION IS GIVEN)

This is “Manuel”, a HEARING Grade 4 student of Latino family background, Latino heritage.  He lives in Colorado, like I explained earlier.  It looks like there is nothing wrong with his intellect. He is a bilingual student since he speaks both Spanish (his native language) and English. The problem is, as we can see, Manuel has a low opinion of himself and his intellectual ability.  He actually feels dumb.

Now that you, the Deaf audience, has seen this story, you can relate.  Many would understand how Manuel felt.  I get this, too.  So many Deaf students who are bilingual in both ASL and English have felt stupid and incompetent in the use of English.  Guess what?

Manuel got placed in a Special Education program!  He has been placed at Grade 1 level (and not Grade 4) for English.

That’s exactly what so many Deaf students have gone through (in the educational system) even though they were in Grades 4, 5, or 6.   They still got their English skills placed at Grade 1.  Do you remember that old refrain about Deaf students graduating from high school with only Grade 4^th English skills, and couldn’t “read or write”?

Well, it looks like many Latino children go through similar things, even though there haven’t been research (to my knowledge) that says they graduate with only grade 4 level writing/reading skills.  Latino children have been placed in special education, just like Deaf children have!

How did “Manuel” end up with Grade 1 program for language?  He can speak English! He also speaks Spanish. How???

Take a look at his actual writing from Escamilla’s article, page 4: 

I wub be hwankarlos  i wud like to  be Hem bekuse hes  is pofisint imat I was mosiy the bumist kib but as the yer went biy.I gat smort r naw im the bak wer I was all over ugen. I rilly haytrat bekuse Im rily stupib plus. IM amin parsory pofisit I math and havan is in pofisint in math and. I am unahfktor in ritingandriding.Hem to but hes alat smartr ven my I’M stupibist in the hol intir skul school that’s the truth that’s wy I want to be hem this is the trut. Iv hir r told enydoty This I havit told asol.

Teachers in Colorado, who collected and examined 2,000 student writing samples, rated his passage UNREADABLE and did not analyze his writing further.  Teachers said Manuel did not have any strengths in his English writing.

Dr. Escamilla, a well-known Latino educator/researcher who is bilingual in Spanish and English, argues that Manuel’s writing should not be rated UNREADABLE.  She recognizes that Manuel used strategies to write English.  The “problem” is that Manuel has Spanish language influences.  I do notice Spanish influence in his writing. (I have taken Spanish in university long ago, but right now my command of the language is extremely rusty.)  One example I can give you is this:

hwankarlos – Juan Carlos.  Spanish speakers pronounce Ju as Hw

Escamilla gives further examples of Spanish-influenced “errors”:

• Trut  (truth)
• My (me)
• Enydoty (anybody)
• Wy (why)

Manuel was applying Spanish phonetic rules to his writing. This application of one language’s rules to another language also occurs with ASL and English. So, there are parallel issues for ASL/English and Spanish/English.  For instance:

Food Store me love go-often what? Canadian Superstore.

Does this follow English grammatical structure? No.  But, if it was written thusly, then this sentence would automatically be considered erroneous, without a doubt.

What I have seen frequently while growing up with my classmates and many others: Written English papers would show missing articles (the, a, verbs (is, will, etc).  This is because ASL does not have articles like “the” since that article is used in the English language.

When teachers see the missing articles and verbs, they assume the writers make those mistakes because they do not have the writing English skills.  This is a misassumption.  Rather, this is a language transfer error which impacts and influences how the second language is used.

That is precisely what happened here for, both Spanish and ASL.   So, the issues that face Latino students parallel those that face ASL (Deaf) students. It is clear that the educational system oppresses languages other than English.  Spanish and ASL are both being marginalized, and oppressed in favour of English monolingualism.

In the next post, further parallels between the experiences of Latino students and ASL/English students, respectively, will be examined in the context of the educational system. Issues will be raised, and the questions of whether the education system needs reform, and how to go about it, will be discussed.

CAVEAT: Ad hominem attacks, derogatory and inflammatory comments will NOT be published.