NAME: Laguindab, Norhanie L.

SUBJECT&SECTION: ELE 125-Ff

How Language as a Resource Can Help Future Educators to the Inevitable Increasing of
Bi/multilingual Students?

Theresa Catalano together with Edmund T. Hamann established the Language as

Resource of Richard Ruiz in their research journal entitled, “Multilingual Pedagogies and Pre-
service Teachers: Implementing “Language as a Resource” Orientations in Teacher Education
Programs” bilingual research journal in 2016.

This research journal demonstrates the expansion of Language as a Resource approach

proposed by Richard Ruiz along with the proposed approaches of the Authors on how to utilize
language as a resources inside the classroom of the pre-service and in-service teachers who are
monolinguals that have bi/multilingual students and that might help them to handle the
increasing numbers of bi/multilingual students to the point that it might also help the struggling
monolingual students. Occasionally, it is relevant for monolingual students on what helps the
bi/multilingual students (Catalano & Hamann, 2016). The proposed methods of the authors are to
enrolled pre-services into the course of micro-language studies that they may choose their
preferred language in only one or two hours per week that will help them in the future if they
encounter bi/multilingual students. Another proposed method is the Service Learning that
promotes academic learning for students and advocates appreciation to multilingual identities
and attends the processes of social identity (Ek & Dominguez Chavez, 2015). It will help the pre-
service teachers to appreciate the variety of speech communities and also by learning from the
native speakers. This research concluded that dominant languages shouldn’t be the only one that
must be used in school yet school can’t divert the increasing of bi/multilingual students so, the
future teachers must be prepared and use language as resource to interact with the students and
sees the equality of the diverse languages.

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 This research introduces various methods that model the Language as Resource that will
help to the development and enhancement of the teaching profession and gives solution to the
interaction for the increasing bi/multilingual students along with the appreciation of their
languages. Yet, I have noticed that this proposed methods teaches future educators to be
knowledgeable with other languages but it is not evitable that it will affect their efficiency and
expertise to their own language which might even violate the person’s language rights, however
we can’t avoid the phenomenon of bi/multilingualism which currently, more than half of the
world’s population is either bilingual or multilingual, 56% of the Europeans are bilingual, while
38% of the population in Great Britain, 35% in Canada and 17% in the United State are bilingual
(Cortes, 2013). Which I believe that can harm the minor languages because we can’t evade the
preferences over the dominant one which of course it depends on every individual, yet that’s
where language as resource can equalize the differences between the dominant language and the
minor language and it can even change the old concept of traditional education that teaches that
English is the only best language. As for bi/multilingualism, we can’t avoid its increasing in
number which believe that it currently rule out throughout the world and so, I agree that teaching
profession must utilize language as resource and must elevate on how they can convey
knowledge to the variety of students either they are monolingual or bi/multilingual, so that it may
guarantee a successful education because an educator must use every single available resources
(Vander Walt 2015, P.368) and also with language as resource, future educators can emphasize
to the variety of students who spends most of their days in the classrooms in which the mode of
learning is different to their first language (Catalano& Hamann, 2016).

In conclusion, this research and the language as resource approach can help the
universities and colleges that foster future educators to prepare them on how to response to the
diverse students that has variety of languages while promoting the survival and usage of native
languages. As a future educator, one must embody with knowledge and must be the role model
to equality of the different cultures especially language because we cannot ignore the increasing
bi/multilingual students.

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References:

Catalano, T., & Hamann, E. T. (2016). Multilingual pedagogies and pre-service teachers:
Implementing “Language as a resource” orientations in teacher education programs. Bilingual
Research Journal, 39:3-4, 263-278. doi: 10.1080/15235882.2016.1229701

Cortes, C. E. (2013). Multicultural America: A multimedia encyclopedia . Sage Publications

Ek, L. D., & Dominguez Chavez, G. (2015). Proyecto Bilingue: Constructing a figured world of
bilingual education for Latina/o bilingual teachers. Bilingual Research Journal, 38(2), 134-
151. Doi:10.1080/15235882.2015.1064834

Van der Walt, C. (2015). Bi/multilingual higher education. In E. Wright, S. Boun, & O. Garcia
(Eds.), The handbook of bilingual and multilingual education (pp. 354-371). Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley and Sons.

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