Emerging Bilingual Students and The Growth Mindset

  Emerging Bilingual Students and The Growth Mindset, 

by Déborah Martel-Rogers, Ed.D.

    Dweck states, "People in a growth mindset don't just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch" (p. 27). Let's, for a moment, entertain this idea, originally rooted in the wonderful field of Mathematics, to the rich world of bilingualism and biliteracy. Instead of focusing on gaps and limitations, let's expand our students' horizons toward future options, capacities, and opportunities. Instead of labeling students who are also learning English as limited English students, let's acknowledge that they are English-also students. This additive or growth mindset view is why terms such as emergent bilingual students exist, acknowledging that students who are learning, in this case, the English language as an additional language in their linguistic repertoire, are not empty vessels. On the contrary, they already bring a wealth of knowledge to their classrooms and will continue to understand the linguistic and cultural traditions of English as well.