What the “Other” Taught Me About Bilingual Basics, Visuals, and Stories as We Articulate Multilingualism in TESOL JOAN WINK California State University Stanislaus, California, United States The more, the better The sooner, the better The faster, the better The harder, the better The louder, the better Often, it seems that this is what the public understands about bilingualism If we want children to speak English, some seem to believe that we must give more, sooner, faster, harder, and louder Because of this misunderstanding, each of us in TESOL is called on to explain our mutually complex understandings of language, culture, and pedagogy Often, we only get a few minutes to accomplish this task If we are in class, at the grocery store, at the family dinner table, or on a plane, we will be asked about bilingual and multilingual education Thus, the purpose of this article is to share what the “other” (i.e., the general public) in the Central Valley of California taught me about the importance of visuals and stories as we articulate the value of multilingualism within TESOL The beginning credential students at the university where I work, just as some in TESOL, struggle to understand the basics of bilingual education, and it is from this context that we expand and link to the value of multilingualism in the 21st century When Cummins (2008) describes a multilingual classroom with some level of ESL support for children who speak additional languages, he aptly captures the understandings of many of the future and present teachers of the Central Valley, which may also be true within the TESOL global community The very same credential students seem to grasp the value of the larger vision of multilingualism of TESOL, as stated in TESOL’s vision (see Taylor, this issue) However, the oppressive pedagogical environment of the last decade has made it a huge challenge for these future teachers to apply the TESOL vision to the multilingual students in their own classrooms in California The challenge is to transform global theory daily into local practice For the future teachers in California, the previous Troike/Alatis debate in TESOL as to whether TESOL was good or bad for bilingual education is not history (see Fishman, this issue), but rather reality today For me, bringing the bilingual basics to life today is paving the way to a real SYMPOSIUM: IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL TESOL 327 multilingual TESOL, and to this, the “other” has taught me that visuals, metaphors, and stories are very helpful FIRST, YOUR STORIES MATTER We all love a story because stories are how we make meaning in the world and of the world Stories connect us with other people and with other ways of knowing Our stories can inspire others and expand our understandings of other people and places Lakoff (2004) explains how we can only understand a message if it fits into a larger framework, which demonstrates why narratives are so important Our stories create frames of references for new information A rich, complex story with multidimensional people and perspectives can the heavy lifting for our understandings (Pipher, 2006) Where we find these stories? They come from your heart, your head, your understandings, your experiences, or, as Frank Smith says, they come from your skin (Smith, 2007) None of us can build this path to a multilingual perspective alone, but together, we can We must We will I begin with a story: For the first 10 years of my career, I stumbled along the road to a multilingual future, and I was lucky enough to land in southern Arizona with teenage native Spanish-speakers, who had much to teach me about the basics of being bilingual There I was with mi simbolismo de Don Quijote, mi pluscumperfecto, y mis pronombres requeteimportantes, and there they were with their real Spanish I was a convert the first day I was with them, and I never looked back For the next 20 years of my career, I continued to help build that road; I carried a few rocks and smoothed a few basic bilingual bumps I loved it, but then I realized that I was always singing to the choir, and as good as it felt, I began to wonder what the “other” was thinking I began teaching entry-level foundation classes and found the “other.” They, too, had much to teach me, and in my last 10 years with the “other” I have learned that our stories matter and the bilingual basics matter (Wink & Wink, 2006, May) “Sometimes, if you hear it again in other words, it becomes clearer in a different way,” Joshua Fishman commented in 1995, when speaking with a group in Arizona Your own narrative might just be what makes our shared understandings clearer in a different way for someone Let me share with you a couple of examples Most know of the considerable similarities and subtle differences between first and second language acquisition However, in the latest Samway and McKeon (2007) book, I notice they tell a story about it being like two sides of a coin, which essentially have the same composition but with different design and different features 328 TESOL QUARTERLY Imagine if the multilingual global membership of TESOL were encouraged, recognized, honored for their stories Dare we hope that the power of these TESOL narratives could bring to reality a true multilingual TESOL, advancing a TESOL vision of multilingualism? I think, in particular, of one nonnative English speaker at TESOL 2008, who exclaimed that she had never heard that her story might matter Yes, it does, and so all of the thousands of multilingual stories within TESOL They need to be honored and told again and again in all of the many languages found in TESOL A second example: García (this issue) and García, Kleifgen, & Falchi (2008) in their thorough and theoretically grounded overview of the growing dissonance between what we know to be true from research and the policies implemented to serve students with other languages, illuminate why the terminology we use matters Many use English language learners (ELLs), as opposed to the deficit-laden term, limited English proficient (LEP), which is still used in No Child Left Behind Many of the labels carry connotations, problems, and misunderstandings Therefore, García and colleagues demonstrate that ELLs are emergent bilinguals, thus affirming once and for all, that the authors must have Ph.D.s in the obvious When policies ignore the emerging bilingualism of students, inequities continue Their project calls out for us to create stories based on the real lives of emergent bilinguals Yes, words matter This discussion of labels for students with other languages always reminds me of the work of Vygotsky (1986), who made clear the reciprocal, dynamic relationship between language and thought; you can’t separate them Think of it like an onion; language is the skin of thought (Wink & Putney, 2002) If the dominant English-only ideology succeeds in taking the word bilingual from us, we are in danger of having the whole notion of being bilingual taken from us Many have noted the silencing of bilingualism (Crawford, 2004; García, Kleifgen, & Falchi, 2008; Hornberger, 2006; Wiley & Wright, 2004) Crawford (2004) now refers to bilingual as the “B-word” (pp 34–35) We, as active TESOL members, are morally mandated to focus on our own use of language so that we don’t unknowingly take part in self-silencing SECOND, THE BILINGUAL BASICS The second idea I’ve learned from students in foundations classes is that not only we have to tell stories, it is also important to stick to the basics of bilingualism These include Skutnabb-Kangas’ (1981) water lily metaphor (p 53) and Cummins’s (1996) bike analogy for bilingual development (p 107), as well as Cummins’s dual iceberg representation of bilingual proficiency (p 111), threshold hypothesis (pp 106, 132), SYMPOSIUM: IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL TESOL 329 quadrants (p 57), and the distinction between common and separate underlying proficiencies (pp 109–110) These are the basics that all TESOL educators need to know to understand how one acquires another language These graphics, reflecting the bilingual basics, are available online (see Cummins, 1996) They have stood the test of time I simply cannot count the number of future teachers, who on seeing the graphics, have had the archetypal, “a-ha” experience THE BILINGUAL HOME In fact, one group of students was inspired to create a new graphic, The Bilingual Home, which was built on the principles of the basics of bilingual education, as found in the previously mentioned graphics In this home, the window of the front door is constructed to resemble the three pillars of the threshold hypothesis Another window in the front of the house is based on the four quadrants of language acquisition, with a little cup (Common Underlying Principle) sitting on the windowsill In the front yard of the home, the flowers (students who speak an additional language) need consistent nourishment from family and teachers Finally, the home sits on a hillside, which resembles the two peaks of the dual iceberg Clearly, this group of students understands the bilingual basics and the vision of a multilingual TESOL The bilingual home not only represents the bilingual basics, but also the thousands of bilingual and multilingual homes within TESOL The families within these homes form TESOL’s multilingual village, and we need to hear their stories None of us can build this path to a multilingual perspective alone, but together we can We must We will CONCLUSION Joshua Fishman’s father used to ask at the dinner table: What have you done for Yiddish today? Phrased in this way, the message made such sense to me So, in conclusion, I ask each of you: What have you done for another language today? I challenge you to create a story around this one line from Dr Fishman’s father—tell your stories; tell them more, sooner, faster, harder, and louder Tell them in many languages I join with the authors published in this symposium and ask that TESOL transform itself from theory to practice with the many stories from the TESOL global village THE AUTHOR Joan Wink is a professor in the College of Education at California State University, Stanislaus Throughout her career, she has focused on languages, literacy, and 330 TESOL QUARTERLY learning in pluralistic contexts Joan is presently working on a foundations of education book for Pearson Education REFERENCES Crawford, J (2004) Educating English learners: Language diversity in the classroom (5th ed.) Los Angeles: Bilingual Educational Services Cummins, J (1996) Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society Ontario, CA: California Association of Bilingual Education (The diagrams are available online at http://www.joanwink.com/sched.php; see April 2008.) Cummins, J (2008, April) Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in TESOL Paper presented at the annual meeting of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages, New York, NY Fishman, J (1995, May 4) Maintaining languages: What works? What doesn’t Conclusion Retrieved June 7, 2009, from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/SIL.pdf#page=179 García, O (2006) Lost in transculturation: The case of bilingual education in New York City In M Pütz, J A Fishman, & N V Aertselear (Eds.), Along the routes to power: Explorations of empowerment through language (pp 157–178) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter García, O., Kleifgen, J A., & Falchi, L (2008) From English language learners to emergent bilinguals In Equity Matters: Research Review, No New York: A Research Initiative of the Campaign for Educational Equity Retrieved May 25, 2008, from http://www.tc.edu/faculty/garcia/home/publications/6468_Ofelia_ELL Final.pdf Hornberger, N (2006) Nichols to NCLB: Local and global perspectives on U.S language education policy In O García, T Skutnabb-Kangas, & M Torres-Guzman (Eds.), Imagining multilingual schools: Languages in education and globalization (pp 223–237) Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters Lakoff, G (2004) Don’t think of an elephant: Know your values and frame the debate White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Pipher, M (2006) Writing to change the world New York: Riverhead Books of Penguin Group Inc Samway, K., & McKeon, D (2007) Myths and realities: Best practices for language minority students Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Smith, F (2007) Reading: FAQ New York: Teachers College Press Skutnabb-Kangas, T (1981) Retrieved January 19, 2009, from http://www.joanwink com/sched.html (Scroll down to TESOL 2008, April 3–5) Vygotsky, L (1986) Thought and language Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Wiley, T G., & Wright, W (2004) Against the undertow: Language minority education policy and politics in the “age of accountability.” Educational Policy, 18, 142–168 Wink, J., & Putney, L (2002) A vision of Vygotsky Boston: Pearson Wink, J., & Wink, D (2004) Teaching passionately: What’s love got to with it? Boston: Pearson Wink, J., & Wink, D (2006) Bilingual basics Bilingual Basics: The Newsletter of TESOL’s Bilingual Education Newsletter, 8(1) Retrieved June 16, 2006, from http: //www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid=3077&iid=6379&sid=1 Wiley, T G., & Wright, W (2004) Against the undertow: Language minority education policy and politics in the “age of accountability.” Educational Policy, 18, 142–168 SYMPOSIUM: IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL TESOL 331