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Parents Panic Over Teacher Shortage


A national Harris survey of US parents commissioned by Lexia Learning, found a large majority (76%) of parents are most concerned about the national teacher shortage—more than any other topic.

These concerns were shared by parents about their expectations and perspectives around the 2022-2023 school year and come at a time when many parents believe their children need more support and individualized time with teachers—especially considering pandemic-related learning loss. Almost half of parents (45%) think more one-on-one time with teachers would help their child be at or above grade level in the upcoming school year.

“Teachers are the most important factor in student success,” said Lexia Learning President, Nick Gaehde. “These survey findings are yet another indicator that we need broad solutions to attract and retain educators and build better support systems especially for the most under-resourced educators.”

Although most parents believe their kids will start the school year at or above grade level (78%), more than half (51%) feel their kids are still experiencing pandemic-related learning loss.

As many students continue to seek additional academic support and other extra help, survey findings revealed teacher burnout as a concern for 25% of parents. The concern is warranted, as a National Education Association (NEA) survey from January 2022 found that 55% of teachers have said they will leave the profession earlier than planned. In many schools, teachers are doing double duty trying to catch up their students academically while also addressing their social and emotional health needs. In fact, a sizable number of parents, 29%, continue to be concerned about the lack of adequate support for students’ social and emotional health.

With so much on most teachers’ plates, the survey also explored parents’ thoughts on retaining teachers. More than two-thirds of parents (64%) cited higher pay as the key to teacher retention, followed by smaller class sizes (46%). Only 20% of parents believe their child’s school has compensated teachers fairly.

These findings are reinforced in ongoing research from the Economic Policy Institute that found teachers earned 19.2% less than similar college-educated workers in other occupations in 2019, a gap that has grown for more than 20 years with only slight improvements.

“It will take the best minds in our communities to solve this crisis in education. Collaboration between businesses and legislators, teachers, administrators, parents and communities, and universities and nonprofits is critical,” said Gaehde. “Teachers have an awesome responsibility. They deserve the best support we can offer them.”

When it comes to parents’ general emotions around back-to-school, 48% of parents noted they felt optimistic about the school year. More than half of those with a child attending school in the new year (57%) said the 2022-2023 school year will be better for their child than last school year. Dads also reported more positive emotions about the upcoming school year than moms, such as optimism (55% vs 42%) and relief (21% vs 12%).  Moms were more likely to express negative emotions than dads, such as concerned (34% vs 22%), nervous (32% vs 18%), worried (28% vs 16%), and fearful (20% vs 9%).

“As we move beyond the pandemic, we are starting to see some real gains in the way education has changed,” said Gaehde. “More technology in the classroom allows for more personalization and real-time data, greater focus on creating equitable learning environments, and more one-on-one instruction. These changes will bring positive impacts for our students.”

Other survey findings include:

  • Only one-third of parents believe their child’s school hired and retained great teachers since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020
  • 79% of parents are satisfied with their child’s school’s ability to catch students up from pandemic-related learning loss
  • 53% of parents are concerned for their child’s social/emotional health if they would have to move to remote learning at some point during the upcoming school year
  • 82% of parents believe the teachers at their child’s school are properly trained to use technology (e.g., education programs, apps) in the classroom
  • Just 1 in 3 parents (33%) believe their child’s school has done well with investing in technology resources to help students outside the classroom since March 2020

Survey Methodology:

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Lexia Learning from June 22 – June 30, 2022, among 1,013 U.S. parents with a child 3-17, among whom 911 have a child who will attend school for the upcoming year. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 4.7 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact [email protected].

Graduating Options


As a high school teacher, I am often asked by both students and parents, which is the better option? For more than half a century, high school students have had the opportunity to enroll in AP courses with the goal of passing the culminating AP Exam in late spring to earn college credit and/or complete subject-area requirements. In recent decades, students have also had the option to enroll in community college courses as another means of earning college credit. This article will examine both options, focusing on world language programs, and share opinions from students and parents as to which they feel is most beneficial.

The inspiration for this article came from recent conversations with our director of high school. Her daughter is weighing the options of taking an AP language course or taking one at the local community college. Having taught AP Spanish Language and Culture for over a decade and also having been one of the homeroom teachers whose students have been in the dual enrollment program since its inception three years ago, I bring a unique perspective. While I knew that there are both language and literature AP Exams, I didn’t realize the variety of language courses offered at community colleges.

When I was a community college student 30 years ago, the only courses offered were the same basic introductory to intermediate courses that were equivalent to the ones offered in high school. Now courses once reserved for upper-division university studies are being offered as lower-division community college courses. For example, there are separate conversation and culture courses offered, including Deaf studies courses in the American Sign Language Program. Deaf studies courses are important, as unless a student enrolls in ASL courses, they are not likely to realize that the Deaf community has its own culture as we would expect to find with non-English languages.

To better understand the pros and cons, it’s best to start with a little history of each program. The Advanced Placement program was started in the 1950s “amid concerns that students in high school were not being adequately prepared for advanced coursework and college and graduate education.”

One misunderstanding about these courses is that they are the equivalent of one college course. They are actually more than that, as these courses are designed so that students who pass the exams have shown the ability to start in upper-division major courses.

While students have been able to take college courses, many such programs were considered concurrent enrollment programs, which meant students would receive college credit but their high schools would not award credits toward graduation, only credits toward meeting that subject area. As a result, students still needed to take additional high school courses, and thus only the highest achieving students were likely to take college courses. It has only been in recent years that dual enrollment programs have been offered, in which students are able to earn both college and high school credit. Often, high school students had to petition instructors for permission to enroll, as the seats were reserved for college students, and they would be denied access to the course if the section became full during the first week of the semester, even if they had applied in advance.

However, in 2015, California legislated to allow partnerships between K–12 districts and colleges through which courses could have sections exclusively for high school students, enabling classes to be held on high school campuses “to provide dual enrollment opportunities to students who ‘may not already be college bound or who are underrepresented in higher education.’” Now, with distance education being commonplace, these courses are being offered online. In August 2019, California Virtual Academies started partnering with Norco College, a community college about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, to offer courses online with some sections open only to our students. This program, known as CAVA2College, allows students to earn up to 15 college units by the time they graduate from high school, which is the equivalent of one semester for a full-time student.

AP courses are a great way to ease students into what college material is like. The courses provide a more challenging curriculum, and students are given the opportunity to work with teachers with whom they are already familiar and who can provide insight as to what college courses are like. The students I interviewed said that they like that they have more flexibility with due dates and late work, and that they have the entire year to prepare for the AP Exam. To quote one student, “If you can handle AP, you can handle some college courses that may not be quite as difficult.” However, the downside is that if you don’t like the material or the instructor, you are stuck for the whole year and are not able to take new courses mid-year. Another con to the AP program is that despite working hard all year, receiving college credit is dependent on passing one exam.

One area of concern I’ve heard from colleagues and parents alike is that students have to commit to taking the AP Exam by mid-November and pay for all exams by then as well. If a student is taking more than one exam, the cost at $95 each can add up to more than a semester’s tuition at a community college. And if students register for the exams after the deadline, they are charged an additional $45 per exam late fee.

In my opinion, the biggest negative to the AP program is that students who take and pass the exam might not receive credit for it. Many colleges which once accepted a “3” as a passing score are not awarding credit unless the student scores at least a “4,” and the amount of credit being offered has been reduced in recent years. Some don’t offer any units but only credits toward subject-matter requirements for graduation, defeating the point of taking AP Exams, as students will need to complete another course to obtain the required number of units to graduate.

Dual enrollment (DE) courses are a great way for students to earn guaranteed college credit without relying solely on one exam, and according to the University of California Admissions website, “UC-transferable college courses that fall within the A–G subject areas, including those completed through dual enrollment, will earn an extra point in the UC freshman admission GPA calculation—within our maximum honors points limitations—if completed with a letter grade of C or better.”

Rebecca Mortier, principal and liaison to Norco College, mentioned how students have access to a dedicated counselor at the college. This helps with planning which courses students should take and when, but also helps students prepare for their future studies as non-high school college students.

A former student of mine who was in both programs believes that dual enrollment programs force students to be more independent, especially in distance education courses, as they are often asynchronous. It can be challenging for students to interact with their instructors if office hours are only during the day while they are attending high school or students are unable to visit the campus in person.

Everyone agrees on the financial benefit of dual enrollment programs. High school students are not required to pay tuition and thus are only responsible for lab and materials fees. Additionally, they are not required to pay for other expenses such as health and student activity fees, since they are not usually on campus to use these services. Students may also apply for grants and scholarships to help offset the cost of textbooks.

This past year, Norco College received a state grant for students in dual enrollment programs and was able to distribute that money directly to them. Each student received enough money to cover one to two semesters’ worth of textbooks depending on the number of courses they took. This helps students financially not only in the short term but in the long term as well. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the average GPA for dual enrollment courses by high school students is 3.1, completing an average of 2.5 courses for a total 7.2 units, of which 6.4 or 90% are transferrable. Free tuition aside, this data shows that students are successful the first time and won’t need to overload courses or postpone graduation to make up these courses. By graduating on time, they will be saving money on extra semesters and avoiding the cost of having to repeat courses. Also, a GPA of this caliber will most likely result in additional opportunities for grants and scholarships, saving students money on student loan interest.

Dual enrollment programs are especially helpful to fostering world languages for students. High schools tend to offer only one or two languages, as there are not enough students to fill classes in other languages or to offset the costs associated with hiring another teacher. According to The National K–12 Foreign Language Enrollment Survey Report, only ten states and the District of Columbia have language graduation requirements; in 24 states, the requirement can be met with other non-languages course work, and 16 states have no language requirements at all.

Early in my career, California required students to complete one year of language to graduate. Now students have the option to take visual and performing arts or career technical education to meet this requirement. One student currently in our dual enrollment program was able to study Japanese to learn more about the language and culture of his heritage. Without the dual enrollment program, he would have been forced to take Spanish or French high school courses. There are only select courses available in the AP program, whereas there are a variety of courses offered at colleges.

To me, the most salient quote in favor of dual enrollment comes from the parent of one of my former students: “I liked how you could take college courses in lieu of the AP test and still get college credit. It’s good for those who may feel they may not be successful as an AP student. There are a variety of courses available so that the program is accessible to students of varying abilities as long as they are motivated.”

Plus, many AP courses require prerequisites before taking the AP Exam. At our school, students are required to complete regular Biology before they can take AP Biology, and language students are required to take three years of language before they can take AP Language and Culture or AP Literature (and very few schools offer AP Literature). If you’re a student who isn’t keen on languages, you might be thinking to yourself, “Why would I want to take four years of language plus a difficult test to get college credit, possibly in a language that doesn’t interest me, when I can take one semester at a community college and meet the graduation requirement for both high school and college at the same time in a language that does interest me?” Dual enrollment courses also help foster equity and inclusion by providing an opportunity for traditionally underrepresented students or those without financial means to enroll and succeed in college courses. Combined with programs such as Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) and the Puente Project, students will be even more likely to succeed in college than they would have been otherwise.

Based on student and parent comments, the data reviewed, and my own experiences teaching in both programs, there are benefits to both, but I strongly believe that dual enrollment is the better program. There is more variety in the course options, greater short-term and long-term financial benefits, and opportunity for more students to enroll compared to AP programs.

References
Carlton, G. (2022). “Why Was the AP Program Created? A History of AP Exams and Classes.” Best Colleges. www.bestcolleges.com/blog/history-ap-exams-classes

University of California Undergraduate Admissions (n.d.). “Dual Enrollment Guidance for California High School and California Community College Counselors and Advisers.” https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/dual-enrollment-guidance-2019.pdf

Rodríguez, O. and N. Gao. (2021). “Dual Enrollment in California: Promoting equitable student access and success.” Public Policy Institute of California. www.ppic.org/publication/dual-enrollment-in-california

American Councils for International Education (2017). The National K–12 Foreign Language Enrollment Survey Report. https://www.americancouncils.org/sites/default/files/FLE-report-June17.pdf

Tom Beeman is a high school Spanish teacher for the California Virtual Academies, where he is starting his twelfth year. He has presented at various conferences throughout the years on a number of topics. He is co-author of the book Voices: Latino Students Speak Out on Life in the United States. He is the recipient of the CLTA Outstanding Teacher Award and the ACTFL DL SIG and CALICO award for excellence in online language teaching.

Estonia Moves to End Russian-Medium Schools

Estonian member of parliament Urmas Reinsalu of the Isamaa party recently announced that the coalition government had reached an agreement that the transition to Estonian-language education at all levels must be set out in law, according to the Postimees. Reinsalu said there was an in-depth discussion on the so-called three pillars in relation to Estonian-language education. “We came to the joint conclusion that the transition to Estonian-language education at all levels of education must be laid down by law, and that the transition period, or preparatory phase, must begin this year, with a law and action plan to be adopted this autumn,” the former minister of defense, minister of justice, and minister of foreign affairs said.

According to Reinsalu, turning Russian-medium schools into Estonian requires teacher motivation, increased teacher training, and additional support to both schools and preschool institutions.

“Our understanding definitely is that in the future we will undoubtedly reach the point where there are no Russian-language schools in Estonia. But we certainly don’t want to make any precepts or restrictions to parents concerning the choices of the educational journey, in terms of the choice of a particular school,” Reinsalu added.

Help Design the 2030 Census—what languages should it be in?


Your Feedback is Needed Now to Make Sure that the US Population is Accurately Counted & Represented

The US Census Bureau has formally invited the public to share their input and ideas for an improved 2030 Census. The invitation comes in the form of a Federal Register Notice published today. The notice marks the start of a 90-day response window.

The Census Bureau is in the early stages of planning for the next census—a process that includes years of research and testing to prepare for the complex task of counting every person living in the United States each decade. By mid-decade, in 2024, the Census Bureau expects to decide the initial operational design for the 2030 Census—the “big picture” plan for the census. That milestone is followed by refining procedures and putting technology and other infrastructure in place for the national count in 2030.

As part of the planning efforts, the public is invited to share feedback on how the Census Bureau can improve the public’s experience during the 2030 Census. With this input, the Census Bureau aims to better reach and count historically undercounted people, overcome challenges and encourage everyone to respond to the 2030 Census. Public input is needed now so it can inform the Census Bureau’s decisions on the initial operational design, along with the findings of dozens of research projects underway. 

Through the Federal Register Notice, the Census Bureau is looking for recommendations on:

  • Reaching and motivating everyone. Everybody counts in the census. The Census Bureau is committed to addressing challenges that may have contributed in the past to the recurring undercount of several groups. These include the Hispanic or Latino population, the Black or African American population, the American Indian or Alaska Native population living on a reservation, people who reported being of some other race, and young children. With the public’s assistance, the Census Bureau aims to better understand how to reverse this trend, more effectively reach these populations and motivate everyone to respond to the 2030 Census. 
  • Technology. The Census Bureau seeks input on what technological advancements could make responding to the census more user-friendly, increase the percentage of people who respond on their own and facilitate collecting data in person when necessary.
  • New data sources. For the 2030 Census, the Census Bureau is looking to use high-quality, alternative data sources wherever possible. Combined with traditional methods, the Census Bureau aims to reduce public burden while continuing to produce high-quality data products. The Census Bureau is interested in learning about new data sources, and methods of using them, that could improve data quality for the 2030 Census and increase operational efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Contacting the public. Plans for the 2030 Census must include tailored contact strategies that maximize the number of households responding on their own. The Census Bureau is seeking recommendations about tools and messages to use in inviting people to respond and asks for help defining how often to reach out to each household.
  • Providing support to the public. The Census Bureau asks for input on how to support people as they respond – whether online, by phone, by mail, in English or in another language – and how to improve access for people with disabilities.

For reference, the 2020 Census Operational Plan and Detailed Operational Plans provide information about how the Census Bureau designed and implemented the 2020 Census.

The Census Bureau will consider the public’s feedback along with lessons learned from the 2020 Census.

How to Provide Feedback

The public can submit comments in two ways:

Comments must be received by November 15, 2022. Comments should be specific, detailed, clear and identify which topic(s) each comment addresses.

The Census Bureau will summarize and share the input received publicly. While the Census Bureau may not be able to implement all recommendations received, each idea and recommendation received will be given careful consideration as the agency researches, tests, and plans the 2030 Census operational design. 

Polish Recognized in Brazil


Polish has joined the official languages of the Municipality of Aurea in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, alongside Portuguese, the official language of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

According to Brazil’s Polish Community Association, this is an unquestionable recognition of the contribution of Polish compatriots to the social and cultural development of Brazil, especially in places with a large number of descendants of Polish emigrants.

The idea to promote the Polish language in this way was supported by the BRASPOL organization, representing the Brazilian-Polish community in Brazil, the Polish Community Association, and the Polish Linguistic Institute.

The project is currently being developed further to encompass other Brazilian municipalities, where a significant proportion of residents are descendants of Polish emigrants. According to the the project is part of a larger initiative aiming to acknowledge the Polish language as Brazil’s intangible cultural heritage, and consequently to include it on the national list of intangible cultural heritage.

This would result, in addition to formal recognition, in a legal commitment by Brazil to preserve the Polish language as a living testimony to the social and cultural development of the country.

Breaking Down Barriers


It is “almost impossible for anyone working in the field of language teaching to have avoided encountering the term translanguaging” (Brooks, 2022, p. 129). As more research is done and more books and articles are published (including those in Language Magazine), “translanguaging” is entering into teachers’ collective vocabulary internationally. The benefits and importance of translanguaging are becoming more widely known and accepted in classrooms around the world; in a variety of contexts in numerous countries, educational leaders and teachers are working out ways of putting research into practice to implement translanguaging pedagogies that leverage students’ full linguistic repertoires as resources for learning. However, as teachers seek to bring about the shifts in pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment (Huckle, 2021) necessary to enable translanguaging and to embrace the multilingual turn more generally (May, 2014; Conteh and Meier, 2014), they must be prepared to overcome hurdles to implementation. Knowing more about the barriers they will likely face will better equip them to break down those barriers on encountering them. This article will outline some potential barriers in the domains of policy, practice, and personal belief and end with a call for critical self-reflection on the part of advocates of translanguaging to ensure that we ourselves don’t get in the way of realizing its full transformative power.

THE THREE P’S: POLICIES, PRACTICES, PERSONAL BELIEFS
A school’s policies and practices and the personal beliefs of its various stakeholders have the potential to open up or close down translanguaging spaces. In other words, they can create the conditions in which translanguaging is allowed, then encouraged, and ultimately enabled (Smith et al., 2017, p. 17), or they can become barriers—forces that disallow, discourage, or prevent students from translanguaging. A teacher who tries to develop a more culturally and linguistically inclusive classroom through translanguaging practices might need to find ways to resist and challenge school policies that demand monolingualism, for example. Leaders seeking to redesign policies to promote translanguaging might need to confront parents’, students’, or faculty’s misunderstandings about the realities of multilingualism.

PERSONAL BELIEFS THAT CLOSE DOWN TRANSLANGUAGING SPACES
Probably the most powerful force that acts to close down translanguaging spaces in schools lies in the domain of personal beliefs. Our education systems are, in so many ways, built upon assumptions rooted in a powerful ideology of monolingualism (Fuller, 2018; Alisaari et al., 2019; Przymus and Huddleston, 2021; Chang-Bacon, 2021). This is a bias that views monolingualism as normal and conceives of a multilingual individual as just two or more monolinguals in one body. Languages are seen as segregated, bounded systems that can be switched on and off at will or left at the classroom door. A multilingual’s languages are imagined to be “two [or more] solitudes that should be kept rigidly separate” (Cummins, 2008, p. 65). Rather than seeing the potential assets that lie in enabling multilingual students to draw upon their complete linguistic repertoires, the monolingual bias leads many teachers to see multilingualism as a problem that needs to be fixed.

The persistence of this monolingual bias is a barrier to the implementation of translanguaging in schools. Whatever changes we make in the policy and practice domains, it—as Cenoz and Santos (2020) say—“is still difficult for teachers to accept translanguaging because of the strong tradition of language separation ideologies” (p. 3). These ideologies manifest in various ways. We see them behind the belief held by some teachers—despite evidence to the contrary—that use of other languages in the classroom might confuse students or hinder their learning of the language of instruction (usually English), as if it were an either/or rather than an and/with situation. The monolingual bias similarly explains the feeling of discomfort some students and teachers have when others around them are using languages they don’t understand: “not only students, but also teachers may feel isolated when confronted with other languages” (Ticheloven et al., 2021, p. 500).

It is clear that, as Yip and García (2015) write, “there continue to be numerous fallacies about language learning and development among educators, and these misconceptions can get in the way of teachers seeing the opportunities for translanguaging practices in their classrooms.” For those of us seeking to lead change in our schools, we need to do more than transform policies and practices, as those efforts are likely to be unsuccessful if we don’t also seek to change hearts and minds. We need to shine the light of evidence on teaches’ shadowy misunderstandings and assumptions; we need to help each other become educators who can interrogate how our own positionalities and prejudices shape the way we conceive of language(s); we need to build monolingual teachers’ empathy for the lived realities of their multilingual students and the potentially harmful impact of our beliefs and blind spots.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT CLOSE DOWN TRANSLANGUAGING SPACES
Shifting hearts and minds is not enough on its own, of course. To implement translanguaging approaches, a school needs to scrutinize its policies to identify where they directly or indirectly restrict translanguaging, or where they could do more to enable it. “English only” policies persist in some schools, for example, and even where it’s not official policy, teachers might “be instructed by school administrators to prohibit children from using and learning in their own languages” (Yip and García, 2015). Such policies need to be challenged and redesigned with proper respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion; we need policies that, rather than banning use of particular languages, actually prohibit controlling and exclusionary practices that discriminate against multilinguals’ natural ways of languaging. Policies should explicitly state why translanguaging is important, what it looks like in that context, and how it will be enabled.

Research into teachers’ concerns about translanguaging approaches reveals that they worry about time pressures: they think “translanguaging strategies may slow the lesson down” (Ticheloven et al., 2021, p. 507) or “cut into the curriculum” (Galante, 2020, p. 7) or are “reluctant to give up instructional time to focus on metalinguistic awareness” (Yip and García, 2015). If our teaching practices are leaving us without the time to embrace our students’ full linguistic identities, we need to question those practices and ask ourselves whether teaching practices that require students to leave a large part of who they are outside of the classroom, and only access part of their communicative resources, could ever be effective.

Teachers sometimes also feel uncomfortable at the perceived loss of control that comes from translanguaging in the classroom; in Ticheloven et al.’s (2021) study, a teacher “argued that other languages in the classroom prevent teachers from keeping track of what students are doing” and “some teachers described feelings of discomfort when they do not know what students are discussing in class time” (p. 500). In these cases, when “the organizational stress and risk of losing control” is viewed “as more significant than the principle of linguistic inclusion” (Ticheloven et al., 2021, p. 500), we need to question the priorities that underpin our practices. We need to find ways of creating classroom environments in which we feel equipped and confident to hand over control of languaging to the students themselves and to build student agency so we can prioritize linguistic inclusion over our own feelings of discomfort or loss of control.

Another powerful force that gets in the way of translanguaging in schools is assessment. Most assessment practices in most schools, especially when tied to standardized tests, are monolingual (Slaughter and Cross, 2021; García, 2009). Therein lies a contradiction that those of us implementing translanguaging pedagogies in our classrooms will sooner or later have to grapple with; as Galante (2020) writes, “the issue with translanguaging pedagogy and assessment is that the former requires the use of students’ entire linguistic repertoire while the latter mandates English only” (p. 7). Assessment practices, therefore, can undermine attempts to promote translanguaging pedagogies and can have a negative washback effect on teaching practices. We should push back against this and join calls for assessment reform in the direction of inclusion and equity; at the same time, for those of us who cannot control standardized testing regimes, we can seek out ways to innovate within the limited assessment paradigm we are required to operate in and implement multilingual assessments within our spheres of control (see, for example, Gottlieb, 2021).

AVOIDING TOKENISM: TRANSLANGUAGING IS NOT A ‘STRATEGY’ OR ‘TOOL’
As well as the policies, practices, and personal beliefs outlined above that might get in the way of translanguaging, we also need to beware that our own approaches to translanguaging do not prevent us from realizing its full potential. Translanguaging is frequently approached in a tokenistic way; it is reduced to a “strategy” or a “tool” that teachers might decide to use every now and then to “support” learners. Translanguaging is not a tool. It’s not a support strategy. If we think about it in this way, we stunt its potential for transformation. We need to be wary of translanguaging becoming just a “fashionable trend” (Erdocia, 2020, p. 10) or “buzzword” (Flores, 2014) that will pass when other strategies or tools come along. We should fight against the appropriation and neutralization of translanguaging that “detatche[s it] from any connotation of resistance and transformation” (Erdocia, 2020, p. 10). As Nelson Flores (2014) notes, translanguaging is “a political act”; it is “part of a larger political struggle of linguistic self-determination for language-minoritized populations.” Similarly, for Li Wei (2022), translanguaging “is more than a pedagogic or theoretical perspective; it is a political stance, a decolonizing stance” (p. 1). When we approach it from such a stance, translanguaging can, in the words of Cioè-Peña and Snell (2015), create “a space within schools where the practice of social justice can thrive… By creating translanguaging spaces, we create spaces that students experience as empowering, adaptable, relevant, and reflective of their own life experiences.”

So, as we attempt to open up translanguaging spaces in our classrooms and schools, we need to be prepared to break down the policy, practice, and personal belief barriers that might get in our way; we also need to self-critically reflect on the way we conceptualize translanguaging to ensure we fully realize its position as part of broader sociopolitical struggles for social justice and its transformative power.

Jacob Huckle is an international school teacher and EdD research student. He is British but has been based in China for the last ten years, where he teaches English to multilingual learners in an international school. His EdD research is focused on multilingualism and interculturality in international schools.

Chinese in Space Spurs Debate on Earth


The fact that internet users have been asking why Chinese is the only language used on China’s new spaceship has triggered accusations of Western arrogance. The question was asked on Quora, the popular social question-and-answer platform, and has triggered a lot of activity as China successfully launched the Wentian laboratory module to its space station in July.

Here’s the question: “Chinese language is the only language used on the new spaceship. Is it a proof that the country is isolated and is getting rid of foreign scientists by using a language that is not international?”

One rational response pointed out that “they speak Chinese because it is their mother tongue and it is the easiest language for them to use. Why would anyone expect them to use another language when they have a vital job to do?”

Another retired technician added, “Most of the Chinese space program is manned by Chinese engineers and scientists. What language do you think they would choose to speak?”

“More people speak Putonghua than any other language. Why would you think they would use some ‘international’ language in their own space program? How arrogant that sounds.”

A Chinese user replied, “Well done, a textbook example for typical classic Western arrogance. If using Chinese on our own space station is being isolated, I guess you are assuming all seven billion people on this planet should speak English. Which cannot be more arrogant.”

William Liew explained that it was the US which specifically banned China from participating in the International Space Station, that China had simply built their own, and, of course, everything is written in Chinese.

“Do you know that only a few countries are permitted to use the International Space Station?” another netizen added, saying that the absent cooperation between the US and China is not a result of China’s unwillingness but because of an act the US enforced on itself, the Wolf Amendment passed in 2011, which essentially prohibits any direct cooperation between NASA and its Chinese counterparts.

A Chinese user commented, “we thought this was what you guys adopted long ago when you were dictating all the rules and all people had to play along since they do not have a choice. All we did was to offer another choice, and it is hilarious to see you whine about your monopoly taken away from you.”

China’s space station will of course use Chinese language, said Yang Yuguang, vice chair of the Space Transportation Committee at the International Astronautical Federation. Yang explained that using the astronauts’ mother language at operation interface is more conducive to the astronaut’s emergency judgment and operation; however, using Chinese as the first language in China’s space station does not mean excluding foreign astronauts from visiting the space station.

Astronauts from France, Germany, and Italy, who have been studying Chinese, are expected to go to China’s Tiangong Space Station this year, according to Xinhua News Agency.

UK Lords Pass Irish and Ulster Scots Bill


The UK’s House of Lords passed a bill promoting the Irish and Ulster Scots languages in Northern Ireland in mid-July.

The Language and Identity (Northern Ireland) Bill has been amended and passed by the House of Lords—it will return to the House of Commons for further consideration this fall. In addition to giving the Irish language official recognition in Northern Ireland, it would also promote education in Irish and Ulster Scots, among several other efforts to promote the language within the country.

“A public authority must in carrying out functions relating to Northern Ireland have due regard to the national and cultural identity principles,” the bill begins, going on to note the importance of promoting the distinct culture of Northern Ireland and its languages. The bill would give the language official recognition by mandating the appointment of an Irish Language Commissioner, who will “protect and enhance the development of the use of the Irish language by public authorities.”

Currently, Irish is officially recognized as a minority language within the country; however, it does not have equal status with English, which is the de facto language spoken by the vast majority of residents and the only language allowed in legal proceedings in the country. Roughly 11% of the country claims to speak Irish, though a much smaller percentage of the population uses it in their day-to-day life.

In May, the language advocacy group An Dream Dearg led a rally in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to express support for giving the language official status. Similar efforts to revitalize and promote the Irish language within Northern Ireland have been somewhat unsuccessful over the past few years. However, the country has taken a more nationalist turn, with the recent success of Sinn Féin, an Irish republican political party, in the country’s elections this year.

“The growing and thriving Irish language community has run a vibrant campaign for recognition of basic language rights—almost 20,000 people were on the streets of Belfast just weeks ago demanding the British government implement its commitments,” said Aisling Reilly, a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly representing Sinn Féin, in an interview with the Irish News.

The bill would also boost the status of Ulster Scots, a dialect of the Scots language spoken in Northern Ireland. Unlike Irish, Ulster Scots is closely related to English, and some scholars debate whether or not it’s actually just a dialect of English. Historically, it has been looked down upon and treated as a less prestigious dialect—under the current bill, a “Commissioner for the Ulster Scots and the Ulster British Tradition” would also be appointed to work toward promoting the unique arts, culture, and literature in the language. Andrew Warner

Brain Acts the Same Whatever the Language

Over decades, neuroscientists have created a well-defined map of the brain’s “language network,” or the regions of the brain that are specialized for processing language. Found primarily in the left hemisphere, this network includes regions within Broca’s area, as well as in other parts of the frontal and temporal lobes.

However, the vast majority of those mapping studies have been done in English speakers as they listened to or read English texts. Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuroscientists have now performed brain-imaging studies of speakers of 45 different languages. The results show that the speakers’ language networks appear to be essentially the same as those of native English speakers. The findings published in Nature (www.nature.com/articles/s41593-022-01114-5), while not surprising, establish that the location and key properties of the language network appear to be universal. The work also lays the groundwork for future studies of linguistic elements that would be difficult or impossible to study in English speakers because English doesn’t have those features. “This study is very foundational, extending some findings from English to a broad range of languages,” says Evelina Fedorenko, the Frederick A. and Carole J. Middleton career development associate professor of neuroscience at MIT and a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “The hope is that now that we see that the basic properties seem to be general across languages, we can ask about potential differences between languages and language families in how they are implemented in the brain, and we can study phenomena that don’t really exist in English.”

Mapping Language Networks
The precise locations and shapes of language areas differ across individuals, so to find the language network, researchers ask each person to perform a language task while scanning their brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Listening to or reading sentences in one’s native language should activate the language network. To distinguish this network from other brain regions, researchers also ask participants to perform tasks that should not activate it, such as listening to an unfamiliar language or solving math problems.

Several years ago, Fedorenko began designing these “localizer” tasks for speakers of languages other than English. While most studies of the language network have used English speakers as subjects, English does not include many features commonly seen in other languages. For example, in English, word order tends to be fixed, while in other languages there is more flexibility in how words are ordered. Many of those languages instead use the addition of morphemes, or segments of words, to convey additional meaning and relationships between words.

“There has been growing awareness for many years of the need to look at more languages, if you want make claims about how language works, as opposed to how English works,” Fedorenko says. “We thought it would be useful to develop tools to allow people to rigorously study language processing in the brain in other parts of the world. There’s now access to brain imaging technologies in many countries, but the basic paradigms that you would need to find the language-responsive areas in a person are just not there.”

For the new study, the researchers performed brain imaging of two speakers each of 45 different languages, representing twelve different language families. Their goal was to see if key properties of the language network, such as location, left lateralization, and selectivity, were the same in those participants as in people whose native language is English.

The researchers decided to use Alice in Wonderland as the text that everyone would listen to, because it is one of the most widely translated works of fiction in the world. They selected 24 short passages and three long passages, each of which was recorded by a native speaker of the language. Each participant also heard nonsensical passages, which should not activate the language network, and was asked to do a variety of other cognitive tasks that should not activate it. The team found that the language networks of participants in this study were found in approximately the same brain regions, and had the same selectivity, as those of native speakers of English.

Similarities and Differences
While the findings suggest that the overall architecture of the language network is similar across speakers of different languages, that doesn’t mean there are no differences at all, Fedorenko says. As one example, researchers could now look for differences in speakers of languages that predominantly use morphemes, rather than word order, to help determine the meaning of a sentence.

“There are all sorts of interesting questions you can ask about morphological processing that don’t really make sense to ask in English, because it has much less morphology,” Fedorenko says.

Another possibility is studying whether speakers of languages that use differences in tone to convey different word meanings would have a language network with stronger links to auditory brain regions that encode pitch.

Now, Fedorenko’s lab is working on a study in which they are comparing the “temporal receptive fields” of speakers of six typologically different languages, including Turkish, Mandarin, and Finnish. The temporal receptive field is a measure of how many words the language-processing system can handle at a time, and for English, it has been shown to be six to eight words long.

“The language system seems to be working on chunks of just a few words long, and we’re trying to see if this constraint is universal across these other languages that we’re testing,” Fedorenko says.

Evolution of the Latin Script across Ancient Civilizations

The Latin script, one of the most widely used scripts today, is believed to be derived from the Greek Chalcidian alphabet, with a strong lineage connecting it to some of the greatest ancient civilizations. How the Latin alphabet developed is quite the story, as many influential cultures helped evolve the script into what we know today.

In the Bronze Age between 1500 and 1200 BC, the Mycenaeans, an early tribe of the ancient Greeks, adapted the Minoan syllabary, known as Linear B, to write an early form of the Greek alphabet. It was hard for the Mycenaeans to adapt to the Minoan script, as it was difficult to decipher without knowing how the language was pronounced when written. This may be one of the main reasons why much of the script took thousands of years to decode, along with untold hours by thousands of linguists. Due to this, a Semitic-speaking group in ancient Egypt would adopt their hieroglyphics to represent the sounds of their language.

The Proto-Sinaitic script is credited with being the first alphabetic system, which the Phoenicians and Arabs would later expand upon. The name Proto-Sinaitic comes from its place of origin on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. It is estimated to have been founded as a writing script any time between 2100 and 1600 BC. As the Phoenicians, known as Canaanites in the lower Levant, were vassals of the ancient Egyptians, the proto script would reach the upper Levant, and there, the Phoenicians created their own alphabet.

The Phoenician alphabet and language extend from the Canaan version, which is closely related to Hebrew. For example, the word for “son” is bar in the Aramaic script and ben in Hebrew and the Phoenician alphabet. The Amarna letters confirm that the lineage of the Egyptian proto alphabet and culture extended into the upper Levant.

The Phoenician Alphabet
The Phoenicians, known as masters of the sea for their naval navigation, had expanded their influence across the Mediterranean with settlements in places such as Cyprus, Sardinia, Sicily, Spain, and Tunisia. One Phoenician alphabet, the Fayum alphabet, had origins in the ancient city of Kition on the eastern Mediterranean isle of Cyprus. This alphabet would later influence the Greek script. What made it particularly distinct was that it ended with the letter T (tau) like the Phoenician alphabet, while other variations ended with Y.

Another document created by the Greek historian Herodotus stated that a Phoenician named Cadmus introduced the alphabet to the ancient Greeks, though this has been argued to be a legend. Nonetheless, the Phoenicians played a major role in passing down the alphabet to the ancient Greeks.

The Greeks would become the first Europeans to learn and write with an alphabet. Spreading throughout the upper Mediterranean, like the Phoenicians had, they shared the knowledge of their writing system and established their own colonies. One of the most influential colonies was Euboea, where another derivation of the modern alphabet was established. The new Euboean alphabet was used as the official script in Greek colonies such as Pithekoussai and Cumae. The Euboean alphabet was a western variant of the early Greek script and was prominent from the eighth through the fifth centuries BC.

This script allowed more concrete recording of the sounds and pronouns of the language. The Etruscans, the predecessors of the Romans, adopted the Greek alphabet, forming the Latin script. Later, the Romans would emulate Greek civilization, as Greek culture played a major role in influencing Roman language, architecture, and mythology. Rome would conquer Greece, but in turn, Greek culture would conquer Rome.

The Chalcidian/Cumae alphabet was the western variant of the Greek alphabet that eventually gave rise to the Latin alphabet. Ancient human civilizations were able to spread knowledge and influence across the Mediterranean, from Egypt to the Levant, to Cyprus, to Greece, and then to Italy, whence it spread to the world. The history of the Latin alphabet also shows the evolution of ancient civilizations with their own scripts, and a rich history human civilization should never forget.

Links available at www.languagemagazine.com/mcbride-links.

Julian McBride is a forensic anthropologist and independent journalist born in New York. He reports and documents the plight of people around the world who are affected by conflicts, rogue geopolitics, and war, and also tells the stories of war victims whose voices are never heard. Julian is the founder and director of the Reflections of War Initiative (ROW), an anthropological NGO which aims to tell the stories of the victims of war through art therapy. As a former Marine, he uses this technique not only to help heal PTSD but also to share people’s stories through art, which conveys “the message of the brutality of war better than most news organizations.” www.rowinitiative.org

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