Challenging Venerable Assumptions: Literacy Instruction for Linguistically Different Students

In this article, Maria de la Luz Reyes identifies, discusses, and challenges widely accepted assumptions that undergird and guide literacy instruction for linguistically different students.1 Citing examples from current research, Reyes shows how the "one size fits all" belief, and its corollary assumptions about the practice of process instruction with limited- and non-English-speaking students, mitigate against the success of these students. The author draws from the findings of a case study that provides an example of process instruction that proved to be successful not only for mainstream students, but also for those who are linguistically different. In concluding, she makes a strong appeal for efforts to tailor literacy instruction to account for the cultural and linguistic diversity of all students. For the author, such adaptations cannot be an afterthought; rather, if teaching practices are to be inclusive of all learners, they must "begin with the explicit premise that each learner brings a valid l...

[1]  Susannah D.A. MacKAYE California Proposition 63: Language Attitudes Reflected in the Public Debate , 1990 .

[2]  G. I. Sánchez Group differences and Spanish-speaking children--a critical review. , 1932 .

[3]  Kenneth S. Goodman,et al.  Whole-Language Research: Foundations and Development , 1989, The Elementary School Journal.

[4]  Donald H. Graves Writing Teachers and Children At Work , 1983 .

[5]  Lily Wong Fillmore When Learning a Second Language Means Losing the First. , 1991 .

[6]  Jerome C. Harste The Future of Whole Language , 1989, The Elementary School Journal.

[7]  María De La Luz Reyes,et al.  A Teacher's “Pied Piper” Effect on Young Authors , 1992 .

[8]  John J. Halcón,et al.  “Trickle-down” reform: Hispanics, higher education, and the excellence movement , 1991 .

[9]  J. Bruner,et al.  The role of tutoring in problem solving. , 1976, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[10]  T. Skutnabb-Kangas, Bilingualism or Not: The Education of Minorities , 1985 .

[11]  Rosalinda B. Barrera The Cultural Gap in Literature-Based Literacy Instruction , 1992 .

[12]  Carole Edelsky,et al.  Whose Agenda Is This Anyway? A Response to McKenna, Robinson, and Miller , 1990 .

[13]  K. Hakuta The Mirror Of Language: The Debate On Bilingualism , 1987 .

[14]  K. Short,et al.  New Potentials for Teacher Education: Teaching and Learning as Inquiry , 1989, The Elementary School Journal.

[15]  P. Greenfield A theory of the teacher in the learning activities of everyday life. , 1984 .

[16]  Bess Altwerger Whole Language: What's New?. , 1987 .

[17]  D. Biber,et al.  On course : bilingual education's success in California , 1988 .

[18]  L. Delpit,et al.  Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator. , 1986 .

[19]  Peter McLaren Culture or Canon? Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Literacy , 1988 .

[20]  N. Hornberger Bilingual Education and English-Only: A Language-Planning Framework , 1990 .

[21]  Mario T. García,et al.  Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930-1960. , 1991 .

[22]  J. Cummins,et al.  Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual Children , 1979 .

[23]  G. Imhoff The Position of U.S. English on Bilingual Education , 1990 .

[24]  Kris D. Gutiérrez A Comparison of Instructional Contexts in Writing Process Classrooms with La Tino Children , 1992 .

[25]  Virginia P. Collier How Long? A Synthesis of Research on Academic Achievement in a Second Language , 1989 .

[26]  D. Watson Defining and Describing Whole Language , 1989, The Elementary School Journal.

[27]  L. Vygotsky Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes: Harvard University Press , 1978 .

[28]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Two-tiered scaffolding : congruent processes of teaching and learning , 1991 .

[29]  Maria de la Luz Reyes,et al.  A Process Approach to Literacy Using Dialogue Journals and Literature Logs with Second Language Learners. , 1991 .

[30]  Nancie Atwell Writing and Reading Literature from the Inside Out. , 1984 .

[31]  C. Walker,et al.  Minorities in America 2000 , 1992 .

[32]  Lucy Calkins,et al.  The art of teaching writing , 1985 .

[33]  Lucy Calkins,et al.  Lessons from a child : on the teaching and learning of writing , 1983 .

[34]  L. Delpit The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children , 1988 .

[35]  S. Goldman,et al.  Becoming Literate in English as a Second Language , 1987 .

[36]  Kenneth S. Goodman,et al.  What's Whole in Whole Language? , 1994 .

[37]  Nancy H. Hornberger Biliteracy Contexts, Continua, and Contrasts , 1992 .