Synthesizing Matsuda and Valdés

Valdés seems to have introduced these ideas to the composition community, and then Matsuda extended that discussion and focused on one aspect of what Valdés  introduced.  Specifically, Valdés made the point that there is not just one kind of bilingual student, and that each kind probably has different needs. Matsuda discusses one of the reasons bilingual students had not been focused on in the literature: there exists a myth of linguistic homogeneity, where compositionists assumed that their students are monolingual speakers of “standard” English. Because the scholars conceived of students in that way, they unintentionally left out students who spoke other languages or dialects. Similarly, assessment tests excluded non-native speakers from “regular” composition classes, relegating those students to basic skills courses or ESL courses.

As teachers, it would be useful to remember that, according to Valdés, functional bilingual students tend to make idiomatic errors, as well as the same kinds of errors that basic skills student might make.  If we can keep this in mind when reading student papers, we might have a better idea of how to help the students who make this kind of error.

Valdés raises so many question, discusses so many directions that we should go as researchers, that it would be impossible to list them all here. Well, not impossible, but it would take a lot of space. I think one clear take away point from both authors is the idea that we as instructors should not make assumptions about our students. We should not assume that they are all SE speakers. We should not assume that all bilingual speakers are the same, have the same problems, or should be dealt with in the same way in the classroom.