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Collier
"Many transitional or ESL programs do not emphasize the backbone of school success: academic literacy."
In my experience thus far as an ESL ELA teacher, this is a component that is often emphasized in trainings that I have been to. It takes several years to develop a language conversationally, and even longer to be proficient in an academic context. These skills in language need to be explicitly taught in order for students to learn the language. This is why an ESL classroom should clearly define the language objective for each lesson, so students know the academic language they will be learning and applying.

Rodriguez
"Only when I was with them in public would I grow alert to their accents."
The recounting of this story speaks to the importance of why we need to promote the idea of students valuing their home languages when learning English. If any value judgement is negatively applied towards a student's L1, they may begin to adopt those beliefs and opinions. This can then cause rifts between a student and their family, culture, and linguistic heritage, which would ultimately be a betrayal of that student's humanity.

Teaching Bilinguals
These videos discussed how teaching emergent bilinguals has looked different over time. It has not always been the case that educators place emphasis on retaining home language and cultural identity (and it isn't necessarily like that today in all cases). One strategy the videos discussed is translanguaging, which is a strategy that can be used to build a student's literacy in both L1 and L2, as well as retaining the importance of a student's linguistic identity.

Argument Statement:
The authors of all pieces argue that retaining an individuals identity and home language are pivotal aspects of new language acquisition.

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