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ERIC Number: EJ1436435
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Sep
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1056-7941
EISSN: EISSN-1949-3533
English Learners? Emergent Bilinguals? Multilingual Learners?: Goals, Contexts, and Consequences in Labeling Students
Yasuko Kanno; Cecilia Rios-Aguilar; George C. Bunch
TESOL Journal, v15 n3 e797 2024
In this essay, the authors explore the dilemmas facing researchers, educators, and policymakers in how to refer to multilingual students who are deemed in need of language support in school. There is a growing concern with the label "English learner," the term currently used in U.S. federal legislation, as focusing exclusively on students' English language acquisition and ignoring their multilingual resources. Alternative terms such as "emergent bilingual" and "multilingual learner" that underscore students' multilingual assets have become widespread alternatives. The authors argue that the critiques of the term "English learner" must be taken seriously. They also argue that, given that being classified as English learners in schools has material consequences for students' academic and occupational trajectories, this label cannot simply be wished away. In fact, debating over labels alone carries the danger of mislocating the primary site of struggle for equity and justice in the labels themselves, rather than in the systems that position and frame linguistically minoritized students in a deficit light in the first place. As researchers who have worked with this population for years, the authors, too, are grappling with how to refer to them. Each of them shares the dilemmas they have encountered, and they conclude by offering a multidimensional tool that might assist scholars, educators, and policymakers in reflecting on what is gained and lost by using different terms.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A