Different words, different worlds: Language use, power, and authorized language in a bilingual classroom
This article illustrates the role played by teachers of language minority students1 in mediating the apparent conflict between the language of the school and that of the students. The goal is not to argue for or against bilingual education but to demonstrate that bilingual programs require pedagogically sound, socially responsive, and culturally relevant approaches, in addition to personnel fluent in the students' native language. To frame the discussion, three different but complementary theoretical perspectives are reviewed: Bourdieu's conceptualization of language and power; the literature on home-school discontinuities; and an overview of sociolinguistic and ethnographic perspectives. Selected examples of teachers and students' interactions in a first grade English-Spanish bilingual classroom are presented and analyzed to illustrate how certain social and discursive practices provide or deny access to learning.