Chapter Four: Trilingualism

This chapter is written by Judith Baker, an English teacher at a technical/vocational high school in Boston.  Her students are representative of urban teenagers that come from diverse backgrounds and low to moderate economic levels.  The students are also typically portrayed in a negative light.  They have low test scores and are criticized for having poor formal English skills. Baker feels that her classroom is a place for her to develop teaching strategies for helping students become proficient in the use of standard English.

Baker has a theory that "there are at least three forms of the English language that most Americans need to learn" (p. 51) in order to be successful in society. The three forms are

• "home" English or dialect--language that is used in the home
• "formal" or academic English--language learned in school, through the media, and possibly in well-educated families
• "professional" English--the language of one's  job or profession (p. 51)

These three forms are what make up what Baker calls "trilingualism." She describes how she works to make trilingualism explicit in order to motivate students to want to learn them.  Students can then master the differences between them.

Her first step is to establish respect for the students' home languages.  The home language is the form we use to communicate our connections and regard to our significant others--family and friends. Baker does this because she wants the students' "own usage, vocabulary, modes of expression and their self esteem to survive the language learning process." (p. 52)  She goes on to assert that if students are given choices of the language to use, that they will quickly learn the grammar, sentence structure, and other forms of formal language. 

The project she assigns her students is to examine their home language through a exploration of the language they usually speak at home and with friends.  They are given a checklist of sorts to guide them in what to be looking/listening for as they focus on language used outside the classroom.  Some of the items are

• clipped words
• regional words or expressions
• slang
• use of language other than English
• use of language mixed with English
• accents or tonal features
• use of swear words or curse words--when and why do you use them 

Students are then arranged in groups that have common backgrounds.  These groups meet for an hour on each of two days to plan their presentation.  Baker doesn't give much direction but she does circulate in order to help keep the groups on task. One group found that one of their members, Dwayne, had some of the same speech patterns his father has.  Dwayne had taped his father and as the group was listening to the tape, he had to translate for his father.  One outcome of exploring his father's speech patterns was that Dwayne became more interested in his spelling and found connections between his own patterns and those of the people in his home.

Baker reports on other students who had similar experiences with their home language research.  She goes on to state that she learned about the languages her students used outside of her classroom.  All this examining of home language seemed to validate from where the students were coming and thus helped them understand and feel more comfortable studying language in general.

The next strategy Baker would use was role play.  She presented the situation where a 'student' comes home from college using vocabulary that is not fully understood by the family.  In one variation, the 'student' is chastised by the family--"Oh, you think you are better than us." Another variation is one where the mother is very proud of her college student. 

Another role play is where a student portrays a junior executive at a company who makes a presentation using formal English and then the junior executive gives the presentation using home language. 

After both these role plays, Baker discusses with student what had transpired.  What was revealed was that some of her Latino students revealed that they felt more comfortable when they would present themselves in formal English around non-Latino people; others stated that they felt inauthentic dropping their accents.

Through these discussions, Baker realized that learning formal grammar was a choice that the student would make--not a choice made by the teacher for the student. It seemed the students then became less fearful and more engaged, realizing they had control because of choice.

In finding strategies to engage students in learning their professional language, Baker reported that she had some ideas that she had yet to try.  She wanted to be able to support students with the language they encountered in their technical classes. There was one way she was able to assist.  Students had to give presentations on their chosen profession and actually took on a teacherly role and professional manner.

Baker ends this article describing how she wants to continue to study ways of engaging students in their exploration of their trilingualism.  She wants to use audio recordings of conversations from many different dialect and English variations and have the students analyze and compare them. Baker wants to continue to encourage students to build a foundation for motivating each other to master the formal grammar needed to be successful.  She will do this by respecting what they bring to the class from home.




I liked this article because Baker offered clear strategies for working with students and their exploration of language.  She doesn't have all the answers and doesn't suggest that she does.  And for me, it all makes sense.  Students bring to the classroom a life that is impacted by what happens outside of the classroom, so it just makes sense that exploring their home language in order to begin to understand more formal English builds a deeper respect and understanding of what is needed to be successful.