Bilingual Education

Twelve years ago, the Bilingual Education Act was banned with the passage of No Child Left Behind, an educational policy that deemed it unfair to bilingual students that they given special treatment for their limited English skills. NCLB and different authorities in education across the States wanted to provide students the chance to equally participate in classrooms with their peers.

Three years ago, I was given the opportunity to teach N, a student who had just moved from Vietnam to the States and had minimal English language background. On the first day of my teaching career, I looked out into my class of 32 students who all had different learning needs, and glanced at N every now and then to see if she understood my explanation of class expectations. She looked at me with wide eyes, but she never wanted to displease me by showing anything other than obedience. As much as I did my best to cater to the majority of the class, I knew N deserved better. I knew she needed someone to teach her basic English skills, from the phonemes to phonetics, and I knew that I had to do more than what I was doing to ensure she was learning as much as she could everyday she came to school.

Thankfully, I had a Vietnamese colleague who taught 2nd grade, and she and I collaborated to ensure that N and her brother were able to learn English with her, while they would return to their main classrooms for other subjects. Mrs. C was able to teach the rest of her class in English and check in on N and her brother in Vietnamese, providing them more confidence to not only participate in her classroom, but also in their homeroom. I remember how the rest of the class would gasp in excitement and applaud N's work in class, and I especially remember the rare and shy smile that would emerge whenever she elicited such a reaction.

While I was less free and less skilled to engage in bilingual education when I taught in California, I have been provided the room (and lack of administrative oversight) to do so in my classes here in Hue. At the beginning of my grant, I was told by different teachers that it would be difficult to get the students to speak in English to each other, and that they would often speak in Vietnamese to one another. I initially found that frustrating, but once I realized that the students spoke to each other in Vietnamese to clarify meanings and directions, I became flexible and more intentional about the use of different languages in the classroom. For example, after introducing an activity, before expecting them to engage in it immediately, I will give them time to clarify things in Vietnamese before they begin. I also give them Vietnamese definitions for English words so they understand the full meaning rather than an English shade of meaning that they may not understand either.

Yesterday, I taught a lesson on the military-industrial complex -- an idea that took me a while to understand myself -- to my U.S. Government Administration class. Midway through the lesson, I realized that I was doing most of the talking, so I gave them some time to process and answer comprehension questions. When it came to analytical questions, I realized that they were too shy to discuss the answers in English, so I encouraged them to discuss in Vietnamese (90% I couldn't understand due to all the technical terms), but I asked them to report back in English. Once they were able to brainstorm and clarify different concepts with their partners in Vietnamese, they answered questions of their choice by writing and speaking in English, showing me that their seeming-inability to answer questions in the beginning was based only on the fact that they were not given the time to think in their primary language first.

While I am not a certified bilingual education teacher, I understand the importance of students being able to process information in their home language, especially in their home country. I know that there is no such thing as "lazy" or "dumb" students, because I understand that students may not be able to complete tasks due to lack of confidence, understanding, or even encouragement. Therefore, I have enjoyed and utilized the unstated freedoms I have in the classroom to cater to my students' needs as well as my ability to engage in my students' language (an upside of being "Viet-Kieu").

Sometimes, when I see the positive feedback in their journals (ex: "I feel happy that I understand today's lesson!") or see the smiles on my students' faces when they see my effort in catering to their language needs, I think about N and how much I wished I could have done the same for her. At the same time, I mentally shake my fist at the inflexibility of California public education, particularly at policy makers' misunderstanding of the diverse needs in a California classroom. However, as I am learning how to be a better educator from my students here, I am also taking notes on what I can do better for English language learning students at home. Public education as an entire entity may not be on its way to revolutionary change here or abroad, but I can always push myself to be a better educator by learning for and from my students.