Caitrin Cassie Bishop

Family Literacy in Contemporary America: Role Reversal... there is no need of encouragement: while the policy or advantage of [immigration]

taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much questioned; for,by so doing, they retain the Language, habits and principles (good or bad) which they

bring with them. Whereas by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, getassimilated to our customs, measures and laws: in a word, soon become one people.

­ George Washington, in a letter to John Adams, November 15, 1794

Historically, America has served as the land of opportunity for a diversity of men and

women from around the world. As a fairly new country, the US touts the myth of democracy and

prompts an attitude of rugged individualism. In turn, immigrants of distinct social, ethnic and

linguistic backgrounds have sought new beginnings and reestablished themselves in the U.S.A.

While the theoretical framework of America’s constitution offers liberty, justice and the pursuit of

happiness, numerous social and political pressures makes the accomplishment thereof quite

difficult. Nevertheless, men and women immigrating to this country each have unique skills to

contribute to its workforce and talents to weave into the fabric of its’ culture. Through the

process of assimilation, these individuals have generally established themselves as contributing

members of their respective communities and gradually integrated their families into the American

society. Similarly, they have either abandoned their native tongues or merely adapted to the

mainstream discourse.

In the national consciousness, immigration seems to both reinforce and challengethe idea that America is a place where any person can belong. Andrew Singer TheChanging Face of America

In contemporary America, many immigrants strive to preserve their cultural traditions and

savor their first tongue as a token of their ethnic identity. In theory, every newcomer is granted

the right to manifest his or her own destiny and recreate himself in the land of new beginnings.

Given the stringent nature of US policy, however, many immigrants are faced by both logistical

barriers and social obstacles in their quest for mere independence, let alone self­empowerment.

Having worked with children of immigrant families in the public school system and taught

ESL to adult learners through a community services agency, I have witnessed the tangible

obstacles certain newcomers face in their efforts to adapt to American society. The legal

restrictions, racial intolerance and linguistic barriers that many immigrants face in the US today

must be addressed proactively through education and community services. As an ESL teacher, I

am driven to understand my students’ personal stories and inspired to serve as a positive force in

their lives. It is my responsibility, therefore, to facilitate both language acquisition and contribute to

the process of cultural assimilation that these individuals undertake.

In coming to the shores of America with distinct cultural values and particular belief

systems, many men, women and children of the immigrant community are overwhelmed by an

unforgiving sense of alienation from the mainstream discourse community, (let alone society as a

whole). In order to adapt to American culture, some are forced to deny their true identities and

merely acquiesce to a sense of anonymity. Without adequate social services, children of immigrant

families often straddle a deeply rooted sense of loyalty with a yearning to fit into their new cultural

tapestry. Disasters can manifest in the shadow of negligent teachers and ignorant school officials.

It was the work I had done as an ESL tutor in the public schools of New London, Connecticut, in

fact, that prompted me to further study TESOL. Having served as the temporary teacher to

ELLs who had faced disciplinary problems and/or gotten pregnant, I gained exposure to the meaty

struggles these individuals faced in their homes. In turn, I wished to improve my awareness of the

learners’ needs and gain adequate skills to facilitate the process of SLA.

For many educators action to change and sculpt social conditions was the point­­theredeeming social purpose that inspired the fledgling, newly identified field of adulteducation. Foremost among the stages of learning identified by Dewey is action inwhich the learner has the opportunity and occasion to test ideas by application,making their meaning clear and to discovering their validity in direct experience(Bullough 1988). (Tom Heaney)

The demand for credible ESL teachers continues to expand as a diversity of immigrants

settle into different regions of the United States. These newcomers play a vital role in American

society, fueling its social, economic, cultural and civic life with a strong work ethic, idealism and

resilience. 1 While educators in the field of ESL strive to empower men and women with the1

skills to gain proficiency in America’s most widely spoken tongue, other facets of American

society have continued to serve as an oppressive force in this respect.

11 A Look At Immigrant Youtrh: Prospectives and Promising Practices, Ann Morse ©2006

Adult education in the United States began in the flowering of democratic hopesand aspirations. Early commentators described a "movement," a spontaneouscommitment to learning outside the walls of formal schooling­­ learning linkedinexorably to building a democratic social order. Tom Heaney Adult Education forSocial Change: From Center Stage to the Wings and Back Again

Within the past thirty­five years of American history, the U.S. foreign­born population has

increased to an estimated 33.5 million and accounted for nearly 12 percent of this nation’s overall

population. Further investigations demonstrate that at least three million U.S. children live in

households headed by undocumented adults who endure varying degrees of poverty, in part due to

their lack of English proficiency. 22

While it has yet to become the nation’s official language, proficiency in English is

essential to living a full life in the U.S.A. Consequently, many bright­minded, ambitious individuals

who immigrate here are left on the peripheries of the work force and denied access to many

important public services. The structure of a family that immigrates here is often undermined by

these pressures as well. Owing to the fact that many immigrant children are thrown into a

monolingual public school system and not provided the attention or support essential to assimilating,

they must fend for themselves and absorb the target language on their own. In turn, immigrant

children tend to pick up the language at a much faster pace than their parents. Based on this

phenomenon, many parents experience a role reversal with their children. Suddenly children have

to fulfill the role of a culture broker, mediating the cultural norms, interpreting official documents

and translating sensitive information for their monolingual parents.

For many immigrants and refugees, the process of changing roles is more than justresettling or re­adjusting to a new place, it is an act of recreating oneself, withinherent transformations that are complex, continual and difficult. (InternationalInstitute of Boston, A Guide for Teachers Working with Refugees)

A vast majority of immigrants and refugees are forced to recreate themselves based on a radically

different cultural framework than their traditional support system. Upon leaving their casas in

Latin America, Africa or Asia, these people find a new KASA in the U.S. In order to prepare

students with the appropriate knowledge, awareness, skills and attitude to achieve their goals in

22 http://www­tcall.tamu.edu/bibs/eslprog3.htm

the U.S., ESL educators must address the challenges students face outside of class in their

lessons.

Needless to say, adults from immigrant and refugee communities across the nation enroll

in ESL classes for a number of interrelated purposes. While they certainly strive to improve their

material circumstances and earn a decent living, adults often have other, equally important

agendas for literacy, if not more pressing to them in the long run. Many individuals coming from

war torn nations like Somalia, Burma or Sudan suffer varying degrees of emotional instability as

well.

After having experienced upheaval or traumatic events in their maternal country orhomeland, refugees and immigrants face another enormous obstacle­resettlement inthe United States. Many come imbued with the American dream and the myths thatsurround it: wealth, unlimited opportunities, an easier life, and education for theirchildren (p.181, ELL Companion to Reducing Bias in Special EducationEvaluation)

In addition to a shared interest in gaining employment and establishing themselves in their

new communities, immigrants are also interested in supporting children in their development as

socially conscious human beings. Many other individuals want to make sure their grandchildren

know the story of their past; and to create opportunities for them to succeed without betraying

their cultural identities. Most of these men and women need to speak English in their jobs or to

communicate important information to their children’s teachers. Although their immediate survival

is certainly a priority, adults also wish to preserve the past and maintain their cultural identities.

The degree to which there is a shared language with their children will determine the extent to

which this is possible.

These notions present unique challenges to the ESL teacher, as the immediate goals of

her students may in fact be to support their children who are acquiring language skills at a much

higher rate. Since adult learners are not generally immersed in an environment that is conducive

to unconsciously acquire ESL, it is my responsibility, as their teacher to recreate real life

situations. As the classroom facilitator, moreover, I must orchestrate semi­authentic activities that

challenge learners and engage them holistically in the process of SLA.

In assuming this role, it is my primary responsibility to link classroom work to my students’

needs outside of school. In order to do this, I must integrate facets of the cultural context while

remaining sensitive to students’ individual needs. Children and adults alike need the time and the

space to play with new language and “try on” new communication skills in the classroom. As

their teachers, moreover, it is my responsibility to take the demands of their lives outside of class

into account when drawing the blueprint for my lesson plans.

Having recently arrived in a foreign environment, children of many immigrant families are

not aware of their expectations in American society and lack clear guides to show them the way.

Similarly, their parents are only familiar with their roles in the culture of their first language. As a

natural consequence of this tension, some children develop a sense of shame about their native

cultures. By the same token, adults begin to feel crippled by their inability to control their children

in a new landscape. This mutual discomfort often causes both parents and their children to feel

simply overwhelmed by the complexities of coping with life’s changes. Inevitably, parents lack the

time or energy to spend with their children as they adjust. To further complicate the role

confusion, children who learn English more quickly than their parents are sometimes asked to be

interpreters for them, (in the public sphere). This role reversal naturally causes distress to both

parents and children.

Young ELLs who are immersed in the target language often suffer not only academic

difficulty, but extreme challenges with social adaptation. As a new language and a foreign culture

are woven into the fabric of one’s daily life, she undergoes drastic changes in her communicative

tendencies and overall sense of self. With a very limited time to gain proficiency in L2 and

integrate into this new social environment before graduation, immigrant teenagers have a very high

drop out rate. 3 As the ESL tutor in the New London School system, I witnessed certain3

individuals undergo such trauma.

Having served as an ESL tutor in the New London public school district of Southeastern,

Ct, I gained first hand exposure to some of the difficulties immigrant children experience. In turn, I

saw the impact this has on their relationship with parental figures. Having caught a glimpse of the

methods state funded education programs use to teach kids ESL, I realized that the public schools

are not able to address the problems of social adjustment simmering in the immigrant community,

(let alone the intergenerational tensions at home). My work with adult learners at Centro de la

Comunidad reinforced the notion that many ESL students often feel isolated and removed from

their own children in American society.

Upon being impregnated at the age of eleven, one young ELL was excused from her sixth

33 Street, 1995; Verhoeven & Snow, © 2000

grade class and sent home on an extended absence. Isolated in her home with a Spanish­speaking

mother and younger brother, this girl was expected to complete the sixth grade work and finish the

school year with two hours of attention from me, an unqualified tutor, every afternoon. After

meeting with her respective teachers each afternoon, I would venture over to her apartment

building and do my best to guide her through the math, science, history and English homework of

the day. Despite her determination to stay on track, she was unable to complete most of this work

with a second grade reading level. This fact did not seem to alarm her respective teachers, nor did

it propel them to take action. It was left up to me to explain to her principal that she was simply

not ready to move into the seventh grade that coming Fall. While it was an honor to work with

her in such a capacity, I did not feel prepared or qualified to complete her report card, let alone

decide what grade she should go into the following year. At this point, I recognized that the New

London public school system simply was not a conducive place for her to study or develop

intercultural communication skills.

In spite of their continued isolation from the mainstream discourse, numerous immigrant

children tend to pick up English at a much faster pace than their parents or grandparents do.

Based on their immersion in the target language at school everyday and the direct contact they get

to American culture through social interaction, children acquire English more quickly and

extensively than their parents or grandparents. Given the stage of neurological development they

are at, moreover, children tend to be far more receptive to acquiring a new language than their

parents. Similarly, they generally pick up on social trends and colloquial speech at a much faster

pace than their mothers or fathers. Adults who have recently been uprooted from their homelands,

(or chosen to cross the border), often have to depend on children to translate documents as well

as to interpret encounters with U.S. institutions such as schools, medical centers, or welfare

agencies. Owing to this pressure, they often experience a role reversal with their parents.

One of the most critical issues children and adults in refugee or immigrant communities

face is the negotiation of power. While it may be clear that new ways of using language serve as

an impetus to explicit shifts in the family dynamics, a scarcity of research has been done about the

renegotiation of roles in immigrant families.

In one family in Philadelphia, for example, a man did not learn of his son's expulsion from

school until six months after the fact. The boy left every morning at 8:00 a.m., returned at 4:00

p.m., and was the primary support for translating mail and other English documents. He had

successfully intercepted all communications to his father from teachers and administrators. In this

case, language use was associated with shifts in power and authority as control over information

came into the hands of the child. The loss of control became a source of despair for the man and

was surely equally painful for his troubled son. As recognition grows of the importance of the

family unit for the successful adaptation of its members, it becomes increasingly critical to

understand the processes by which language use contributes to the health and interdependence of

the family or to its disintegration.4

Focus groups conducted by Minneapolis Public Schools with 82 Somali high school

students show that students’ wishes to understand their native culture and connect with their

parents are being undermined by a sheer sense of alienation. Being immersed in the American

way of life, it is often very difficult for them to relate to the beliefs and traditions that their parents

maintain. With little knowledge of the public school culture or social environment where their

students spend a great deal of time, parents often feel disconnected from their children as well. 55

As of 2000, more than forty percent of these immigrants had been in the country for less

than ten years. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of these people are still in the process of

learning English. Being undocumented, moreover, many of these men and women are ineligible

for federally funded training programs. While some immigrants succeed in finding local adult

education programs, they are often inhibited from enrolling due to the threat their illegal status

poses to other documented members of the household. According to recent reports, at least three

million U.S. children live in households headed by undocumented adults. These families often

stagnate in poverty and social isolation as a result of the adults’ limited English skills. 66

44 Sticht & McDonald, © 1989

55 A Look at Immigrant Youth: Prospects and Promising Practices ,By Ann Morse66 http://www.teslontario.org/new/research/bettencourt.pdf

Thematic Essay: Bibliography

A Look At Immigrant Youth: Prospectives and Promising Practices, Ann Morse ©2006

Adult Education for Social Change: From Center Stage to the Wings and Back Again, TomHeaney

International Institute of Boston, A Guide for Teachers Working with Refugees

http://www­tcall.tamu.edu/bibs/eslprog3.htm

George Washington, in a letter to John Adams, November 15, 1794

ELL Companion to Reducing Bias in Special Education Evaluation Sticht & McDonald, © 1989

The benefits of English acquisition clearly exceed financial security for adults with

children of the immigrant community. In gaining the ability to function in an English speaking

environment, express oneself and enjoy written or recorded materials, mothers and fathers are

better equipped to assist their children with homework, communicate with their respective

teachers and establish themselves as contributing members of the community. Many of these men

and women do not have the access to such training programs, however. As a result, a reversal of

roles in the traditional family paradigm takes place.

Unfortunately, it is the individuals who endure the process of assimilation in the U.S. who

can be found in some of the most vulnerable situations, causing shame and humiliation. In turn,

they often possess great inner strength and critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in a new

cultural environment. Having saved sufficient funds of venture to the U.S., or been granted

refugee status by the federal government, most newcomers in this country are highly intelligent,

hard­working individuals. And yet they often lack proficiency in English and remain overwhelmed

by the burden of assimilating to take the next step in an alien world. Owing to the absence of well

funded adult education programs or the inability to attend local classes, many adults acquiesce to a

sense of complacency and remain isolated from the greater discourse community while their

children continue to face challenges in the local school system. These dilemmas are only

compounded by being illiterate.

In an effort to effectively guide immigrants and/or refugees in the acquisition of English as

a second language, ESL teachers must address the intricacies of social assimilation and the radical

shifts taking shape in their students’ lives, as foreigners in a new social environment. By

facilitating discussions about some of the difficulties students have raising their children in

America and devising solutions to these concerns, adult learners can take the first step to tackling

Family Literacy, Auerbach, ©1989, Gadsen, 1994, Hardman, in press

Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Paulo Freire, Continuum Publishing Company ©1970

Critical Literacy in Action, ©1999, Ira Shor & Caroline Pari

http://www.teslontario.org/new/research/bettencourt.p

seemingly insurmountable hurdles, such as a school’s negligence to assist their child or a child’s

growing disinterest in going to school or failure to integrate L2 more effectively into his/her

academic life.

As an ESL teacher graduating from SIT, I am prepared to contribute to family literacy

programs in the US. My support for social welfare nterest in working with more recent

immigrants in the USA serve as a platform to this career choice. In assuming the role of an ESL

teacher, I understand that my responsibilities will span far beyond merely dictating sentence

patterns or presenting new lexicons. Instead, I will embrace the opportunity to serve as a culture

broker and introduce my students to various facets of this nation. Having worked with university

students, immigrants and businessmen alike, I understand that each ELL has a unique history and

distinct palette of needs. I also comprehend the intricacies of a language as strong component of

its’ respective culture. The exposure I have gained to numerous approaches and methods this year

naturally triggers a comprehensive view of the ESL students’ journey in gaining proficiency in this

tongue. Having nurtured a true passion for sociology and relished the opportunity to travel abroad

earlier in my life, I am inspired to serve as a conduit of support and an advocate of social change

in contemporary America. My more recent studies in the MAT program have only strengthened

this drive and bolstered my ability to cater to a diversity of needs in the ELL community. At this

point, I realize that it is in fact my responsibility to address the social and logistical obstacles

students face outside of class in each lesson. By the same token, I am prompted to engage

students in their lessons as whole persons with unique backgrounds and particular intentions in

acquiring proficiency. Conclusively, it is my responsibility to incorporating these themes into the

context of each lesson.