Representing or being represented

Harklau’s (2000) study discusses the issue of representations and identities of three immigrant students in the K-12 moving into the community college level. These students are great students during their senior years in high school. They are also enthusiastic during the first weeks in community college classes, but later of the semester they create some resistance and withdrawal toward teachers and classes they are taking.

These students are misplaced and misrepresented from their real proficiencies. Teachers should be flexible in their assignments, listen, and learn from students whose proficiencies are higher than their peers. Solely relying on ‘test scores’ is not legitimate classify students’ language proficiencies. If students show that their knowledge is higher than other peers, we should assign them with challenging assignments because students should be able to represent themselves, not students being represented by ‘test scores’.

Students will always have excellent ideas when we literacy educators listen to what they are saying. By assigning students to write about their countries while studying abroad, I think it is somewhat less productive because their representation is only partial and limited. Instead I think we can ask students to write something about the place where they are, how these places/environments impact their perceptions, their identities. This will help both students and teachers to meaningfully engage in conversations by teachers as “old timers” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 29) and students “newcomers” (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 29) or vice versa.

By asking students write their assignments according to their places or something they personally relate to, the resistance issue might be reduced. There will always be some students who do not want to write or work on assignments given by students. In that case, I think we can talk to that students and let them choose what to write themselves with the condition that it has to be related to their identities. Though this is easier said than done, I think students and teachers need to negotiate so that students will not feel as being imposed by teachers in the course.

Teachers should also be aware of differences among students who come from different background. Do not generalize that international or ESL students need to be treated by using ‘baby talk’ mode (as in one example from the article). Teachers should not treat these groups of students as deficient, this will only marginalize and silent students from participating in class. Creativity in language use or deviate from ‘Standard English/discourse’ should be considered as a legitimate move as long as it does not cause miscommunication.

Harklau, L. (2000). From the "good kids" to the "worst": Representations of English language learners across educational settings. TESOL Quarterly, 34(1), 35-67.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. NY: Cambridge University Press.