The Value of Bilingualism in the English Classroom
At Na’atik, our English teachers come from diverse linguistic backgrounds. As a result, we have a valuable multilingual teaching team to support our students. While bilingualism is not necessary for teaching English, it can be a powerful tool that enhances classroom experiences. This month, we sat down with Kevin, a dedicated English teacher at Na’atik, to learn more about his bilingual identity and how knowing a student’s native language can be an asset for impactful teaching and building community.
Teacher Kevin
Kevin is from Hebbronville, Texas, about two hours from the US-Mexico border. His mother is from Monterrey, Mexico and his father is from Texas. Growing up, Kevin’s father initially encouraged him and his brother to focus on English, however, on an early trip to Mexico, the young boys struggled to navigate in Spanish, prompting their mother to start teaching them the language at a young age. His mother played a crucial role in his language development, and by the age of five, Kevin remembers being able to converse fluently with her in Spanish. While Spanish was the predominant language spoken in his home, he attended English-speaking schools from primary school through university which solidified his English fluency. Today, Kevin’s ability to speak English and Spanish fluently is an advantage that has opened doors in his career and enhanced his ability to support and connect with our local Mexican students at Na’atik.
In his classroom, Kevin balances an immersive English experience with strategic bilingual support for his students. For beginner students, hour-and-a-half-long classes conducted entirely in English can be intimidating. When Kevin notices students looking lost or overwhelmed, he deliberately incorporates small Spanish phrases to regain their attention and boost their confidence. Additionally, he enlists higher-level students as “translators” to help clarify key instructions, fostering peer learning and working together. He is also able to check individual student comprehension while ensuring that the whole class understands. Moreover, for advanced students working on fluidity of speech, Kevin encourages them to substitute unknown English words with their Spanish equivalents to maintain conversational flow. Kevin then flags what Spanish words were used and then focuses on the acquisition of new vocabulary after.
Library Activities
Because Kevin is bilingual, he is able to better understand and correct common mistakes that arise from students translating directly from Spanish to English. Kevin noted that students will often place adjectives after the object as is grammatically correct in Spanish, rather than before the object as it should be in English. For example, when describing their clothes students will often say they have a “shirt red” instead of a “red shirt” since in Spanish, the correct order of the words is “la playera roja.” Similarly, Kevin often reminds students to include the subject (I, you, he, she, we, they) at the beginning of their sentences in English. Since Spanish verb conjugation already indicates the subject, students tend to omit it when speaking English.
In addition to general translation errors, students also struggle to differentiate between the sounds of the Spanish alphabet and the English alphabet, leading to many students instinctively applying Spanish phonetics to English words. In order to combat this, Kevin spends significant time working on the alphabet and the many different sounds that English letters can make in words. While tedious at times, Kevin notes that this stage of slow and steady practice until the new noises are fully encoded is crucial as they begin to work on more complex speaking and reading activities. Kevin noted that he sees very positive results from the time he invests in the alphabet, especially with his younger students that can quickly mimic the English sounds and understand how to separate them from their Spanish counterparts.
Beyond bilingualism helping in the classroom, Kevin notes that his ability to speak Spanish has helped him build personal connections with his students and the community here in Carrillo. From simple experiences like connecting over Spanish slang words like “empachada” for when students are in class feeling full after their very large lunch, to sharing personal stories about pets in Spanish after class, Kevin has integrated himself into the Na’atik community. He is not only an excellent teacher, but a mentor and a friend for the students as well. From family birthday parties to the local town fair, Kevin has been included in numerous community events by our students. He is looking forward to throwing a party to celebrate this past year and to continuing to build community with his students next year as he has renewed his teaching contract with Na’atik!
While Kevin didn’t think much of his bilingualism growing up, he now feels lucky to be bilingual as it has allowed him to form meaningful relationships with people across linguistic differences. Given his positive personal experiences as a bilingual person, he is passionate about teaching his students English so they may have the same opportunities to build broader community and connections with people who speak English. He is proud to work in a community that believes in the importance and value of bilingualism both locally here in Carrillo and also on a grander scale in Mexico.
To learn more about Na’atik’s English language program for local and Indigenous students in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, visit our Impact Page. We are only able to provide this much needed program thanks to the support of generous donors and the funds raised from our award winning Maya and Spanish Immersion Program. If you would like to support our mission please consider donating today or take a look at our immersion programsandonline class packages.