[EDLING:624] Teachers tout home language

[Francis M Hult]

Albuquerque Tribune

http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_education/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19857_3505385,00.html

Teachers tout home language

By Susie Gran
Tribune Reporter
January 28, 2005

Bilingual children are losing their home language because federal education
policy stresses achievement in English only, claims a University of New
Mexico professor.

Lois Meyer of the UNM College of Education analyzed the federal No Child
Left Behind Act and is preparing a 26-page booklet "No Child Left
Bilingual?" on her critique for educators and parents.

"I find it's such a damaging act" especially for children learning English,
she said at a symposium Thursday in Albuquerque.

Parents of children who are learning English at school need to be
encouraged to speak their home language and read to their children in their
home language so they don't lose it, she said.

But the federal law does not promote home language, Meyer said: "It is an
English-only act."

Meyer found that tolerance for home language is demonstrated in the federal
law by testing waivers for limited English proficient children and a
prohibition against the federal government dictating a particular method of
teaching English language learners.

Meyer asked 25 educators gathered Thursday at the Albuquerque Teachers
Federation offices for feedback on the booklet before it is published.

Several bilingual teachers said parents of some of their students are
insisting the children speak English only and drop their Spanish.

Meyer said teachers need to take an active role to encourage parents to
value their home language and speak it with their children. Teachers also
need to be active politically.

"It takes real courage to step up and fight for these things," Meyer said.

A teacher from an Albuquerque elementary school agreed: "Children should be
learning to read in their first language and hearing literature in their
first language."

Another teacher said the No Child Left Behind law "is a push to make the
U.S. an English-only country."