[Sierra] Hi! Welcome to our podcast, Teacher Talk. I'm your host, Sierra Halik, and I'm here with 3 guest teachers today. We have Jarred Navarro, Julia Gobes and Kaylee Nawrocki. Uh, if you guys would like to introduce yourselves.

[Jarred] Hi, my name is Jarred. I'm currently a mathematics major, looking to become a teacher on a secondary education level.

[Julia] Hi, I'm Julia! I am an English major and I also have a psych minor.

[Kayleigh] Hi, I'm Kayleigh. I'm a history major, and I want to become a history high school teacher.

[Sierra] Thank you guys. So on this podcast episode we're gonna be having 3 different segments, and all of our guest teachers are going to be talking about how they choose to incorporate multiculturalism and multilingualism into their classrooms, so we can just hop right in and get started. For our first topic, I would like to know, what are some of the benefits of a multicultural and multilingual classroom, and what are some of the misconceptions individuals have when it comes to them? Julia, if you would like to take it away.

[Julia] Okay. So I believe from what we have learned throughout our class that having multiple cultural identities and languages present can be advantageous in a variety of ways, like providing students with the opportunity to pick up on several languages and participate in translanguaging with other students. From this exposure to several languages, students will not only have enhanced communication skills, but also increased social skills, and awareness of and learning about multiple languages contributes to many positive outcomes, some of which are increased networking skills like being open to new cultures and appreciating other cultures, being able to see from different perspectives in today's global economy and improved working memory, such as increased information processing capabilities and decreased levels of anxiety which leads to less mental illness as well as increased opportunities within future career prospects. Learning about different cultures also builds on students character, teaches them morals, traditions, and gestures. There is growing recognition in research that indicates that the incorporation of students, home languages, and cultural backgrounds has been proven to validate their identities, providing a strong foundation for picking up additional languages
There are many misconceptions about incorporating multilingualism and multiculturalism into the classroom. Some researchers have discussed possible concerns for the promotion of multilingualism, such as the development of a mixture of languages also known as trans-languaging. However, trans languageing fosters consistent communication and the growth of various social skills with students pushing each other to learn more about different cultures and languages in order to have many different conversations.

[Sierra] Awesome! Thank you, Julia, I loved that answer, and I loved everything you said about all the positive outcomes that can come from incorporating these ideas into our classrooms.
Kayleigh, if you would like to share your answer for that question.

[Kayleigh] I definitely agree with Julia, and within the classroom students are still developing mentally, allowing them to be more susceptible to language learning, so allowing trans languaging to occur in the classroom can really broaden students' understanding of multilingualism. Having students express their language identities and abilities, and using this when working with other students, opens doors to allow children who may not speak
more than one language at home or in any other environment, to become culturally and linguistically aware of the world that is happening around them. This is why I think that educators should encourage students to work in groups and use all of their different languages together. This encourages them to translanguage, and then eventually even come up with unique words to their group work that allows them to connect with each other on a different level and become more aware and accepting. There are too many instances of students being shut down in the classroom, or given bad grades, because they know two languages, and then that might affect how they write and speak in English. Inviting them to translanguage and work together will create an extremely inclusive environment that is ideal for learning.

[Sierra] Awesome, Kayleigh, thank you for that answer, and I also totally agree with what you said, especially that incorporating all this will allow our students to work best together and advance themselves. Jarred, how did you answer that question?

[Jarred] Where do I start? You guys kind of stole my information. Nah, I’m kidding. I think you guys brought up some excellent points. To build on that, I found a study from American University’s School of Education. Quote, “for example, research has shown that students who can speak and write in multiple languages have cognitive advantages over their monolingual peers. Those who learn a second or third language from a young age are able to develop communication skills and a higher degree of literacy. Children who grow up in bilingual environments develop a keen awareness of how language works, and have a stronger foundation for any additional languages in the future”, end quote. I think this is great, because not only does it foster a sense of community within the classroom and helps to build stronger bonds between the student and the teacher, and just students themselves, which is probably one of the most important bonds we could have. But if you think of it, there's much more long term effects, you know. When you're going for your career, one of the things they like to look for on your job applications are if you can speak in multiple languages, because if you
can, you're going in a separate pile from everyone else who can. One of the stories I love to think about is the Taco Bell worker a few years ago who was caught on video. He was able to communicate with a deaf customer because he happened to know sign language, and it was cherished as this amazing thing that this person was able to do for another person. And it's just kind of going to show that learning, I mean I know that sign language isn't necessarily a foreign language, but it's just as important because it's a completely different method of communication between one another, and having these these different modes to express ourselves not only helps us in the current moment, but can go a much longer way in the future and helping us become better people.

[Sierra] Awesome. I love the real life examples and I agree it's all about the long term effects. So thank you to all three of my guests for answering that question. We'll move on to segment two. So now I would like to know, how can we account for a wide range of cultures and languages that may go in and out of our classrooms throughout the years? Julia, if you'd like to take it away.

[Julia] So according to ISC Research from the Pearson International Schools, about 80% of students in international schools speak more than one language, often between 3 to 4 languages. Why are we not doing the same in classrooms across our country? I know from speaking with my virtual exchange partner that we were assigned to in our class, she makes fun of me, because she can speak between 3 to 4 languages, and has been able to since she was about 10, 11 years old, and I still mainly only know one language, barely fluent in the second language, and she's like, why don't you guys learn other languages, at least from an earlier age. You know, if you think about it, we don't even start learning a second language, most of us in an academic setting, until we're, you know, puberty, or beyond that. So by accepting all different languages and cultures inside the classroom, we could send a meaningful and powerful message that students from diverse backgrounds contribute to the creativity and vibrancy of our academic and community knowledge. We can continue to support multilingual and multicultural students by providing them with complete structure, openness and empathy while not only learning other languages, but also working through their own, and teaching their peers about it. I think it's important to take into account that each student, whether they're learning a new language or aspects of another culture, each student has a unique learning style that accommodates their needs. As educators, we should continue to come up with lessons or methods of teaching that can reflect a diverse range of learning styles that can encourage and engage all students. It's also significant to nurture flexible and interconnected relationships between the students themselves, as you will help them to improve on their grammar, cognitive thinking, and overall knowledge by granting access to free communication with their peers and group brainstorming sessions. Most importantly, with the abundance of online and in person resources around the world, such as online information and tutoring, translators, books, and media from different cultures or in different languages, we should always have something that the students can work with in an educational manner.

[Sierra] Thank you, Julia, another great answer.

[Jarred] Could I…

[Sierra] Oh yeah go ahead.

[Jarred] Not to intercede, I'm sorry, but could I actually just build off of what Julia just said?
I have a story that I believe can connect to it.

[Sierra] Yeah, of course, go ahead.

[Jarred] So I find it interesting how you brought up the foreign exchange student that we've been communicating with throughout the class, on how she makes fun of you for not knowing like five languages already at this point in your life, because I think back to like when I was a child growing up. I used to speak in both English and Spanish, cause you know I'm biracial. I'm part Puerto Rican, part um, you know, just white, but my dad would speak with me in Spanish, and I was picking it up. But eventually it just got dropped off because I was in, you know, he couldn't always be there to speak with me and I just lost a language, and it's just interesting how like it's a completely different culture set here in comparison to just across the ocean, about how we view language as oh there is just the one that you need versus, you could have this wide array of ways to express yourself and just be a unique individual. So I just wanted to toss that in there. I felt that connected well with what you were mentioning.

[Sierra] Yeah, thank you for hopping in. I totally agree, and I think that it definitely added to the conversation to be able to see it from the wide range of perspectives that exist, and that our students are seeing this issue from and how we can assist them better
as their teachers. Kayleigh, would you like to add on?

[Kayleigh] Yeah, I definitely agree that many students speak more than one language.
And in order to create an inclusive environment for these students, we need to incorporate elements that combine languages within our lessons. So like the foreign exchange thing, we also had to create lesson plans for this class, and mine was about sustainability, and one of the main themes in my presentation was to encourage inclusivity which goes hand in hand with
a lot of things that are top in the classroom and I had a slide that got students into discussion groups, and they would discuss how they're sustainable within their own homes, and I encouraged them to discuss how their culture and family traditions affect this, and I think that it was an amazing thing, because students are really able to start becoming more mature and realize that different people do different things within their cultures in their homes and with their families

[Sierra] Awesome, I totally agree. And it's really nice to see you incorporating that into your lesson plans already, and it really shows the effects that these types of conversations can have on our futures as teachers. Jarred, was there anything else you wanted to add on before we move on to the third question?

[Jarred] Yeah, there were a few more things I wanted to just toss in there. So I think like, just having like, when we try to think about how many cultures we may come across, in some ways like, yeah, we can count it because there's not an infinite amount of cultures, but also you never know what you're going to come across, and each culture is dynamic. So what may be the case for one student in you know, 2020 may not be the same case for a student of the same culture in 2050, because it may change in that 30 year time span, so just being open to being receptive to new ideas and new thoughts from your students is very key in creating this inclusive environment. Honestly, I feel the best way to kind of approach this topic is to let the students teach you. Instead of being their teacher, they become yours in teaching about what is their life like at home? What is it that they do for the holidays? How do they eat? How to do this?
How do they do that? So on, and so forth, because ultimately no one's a better master of their culture than you yourself, and if you let them share their experiences with you, I feel like that just provides a great way to create that inclusive learning environment where everyone feels comfortable enough to be themselves and to be involved.

[Sierra] Thank you. Yes, I agree it's all about comfortability, within the classroom, because if we're not feeling comfortable talking to our students, if they're not feeling comfortable talking to us, then how are they supposed to feel comfortable to ask questions about lessons or if they're struggling with a certain topic in class, and whatever else, so I totally agree, it starts with you and your personal struggles and your identity, and whatever else before it can even take that extra step towards the academics that you're covering so thank you for that. So to move on to our third and final question, I would like to know what role does a multilingual or a multicultural classroom play in terms of making connections to and supporting our community. Kayleigh if you'd like to start this one off to switch it up.

[Kayleigh] Sure. So I think that encouraging multilingualism and translanguaging within the classroom definitely supports the community, and having these two concepts accepted and present in the classroom would definitely decrease the occurrences of arrogance and ignorance by those who claim to either not understand someone's culture or their languages; and instead, it opens up new methods of understanding and allows students to become aware of not only the differences between each other, but also the similarities of how they each translanguage in their own unique ways, and this even can create friendships between students and help build a level of trust within each other, and even with their teachers, and for teachers translanguaging allows them to understand how a student trans languages, and since this could affect their writing and speaking skills, I think it's very important for teachers to be aware of this, and then teachers can realize that translanguaging is not negatively affecting their skills, but actually showing how students have the ability to mix their languages together to create a unique way of communicating.

[Sierra] Awesome, thank you. Jarred. Would you like to hop in?

[Jarred] Sure thing. So I think something important to keep in mind, right, is from our current point of view, there is definitely a lot going on in the world when it comes to a distrust between what goes on within the classroom and what morals are at home, and this kind of broadens the topic from just language in particular to culture entirely, but in a sense, culture is tied to language, and vice versa, and we see this through, you know the banning of certain types of books, the implementation of laws that change what is acceptable to be discussed in a classroom as opposed to what's not acceptable be to be discussed in the classroom. And of course there are definitely things that should be reconsidered and have a different approach taken to them, but we need to keep in mind what is in good interest and what's not in good interest. So if we're able to create a learning environment where we establish trust with our students, and we're able to establish trust with the community that's a big step forward in combating this distrust that's been developed over the past years about oh, my child's going to school, they're going to be turned into a monster. They're not going to be anything like what I want them to be, because that's not the case. We're not here to take your child and turn them into something that is, you know, I don't know how to describe it. Kind of, uh, quote unquote crazy. What we're here to do, is help your child become the best person that they could possibly be. So if we create a multicultural classroom where students feel welcome, they feel accepted, where we have the parents see that we care for them and they care for us, and that there's a safety net that they don't need to be concerned, we can create this trust once again, and kind of work forward towards improving our educational standards.

[Sierra] Thank you. Julia, how did you answer that question?

[Julia] So I believe that as well supporting academic success, classrooms that promote multilingualism and multiculturalism can foster positive identities associated with a diverse range of cultures. This leads to a future generation of strong leaders, with a wide expanse of critical thinking, networking and communication abilities, interacting with peers in the classroom, while utilizing different languages, can challenge students to work harder to understand a language, and also foster teamwork and collaboration to meet the end goal of ultimately understanding one another in our community and others multilingualism and multiculturalism can aid unity and the process of learning different languages, people will come to embrace the concept of togetherness on a more personal level. A student who focuses on learning about many cultures and languages, will grow into an upstanding citizen, promoting and spreading empathy and communication within their own communities and others, and just to kind of build off to what Kayleigh and Jarred were saying, I think it's really important as teachers that we foster this community of everyone being different and not, you know there's this whole thing of students going to school and kind of becoming these academic robot models of one another, and no one really differing in terms of identity language. Everyone has to focus on learning the one same language being taught the one same way. But I think within our generation we can change that. We could teach students, so they don't have to follow just this one curriculum, one learning style, one way of learning a language one way of presenting themselves culturally their
identity with or without culture. I think it's important that we teach students that they could be kind of growing up to be whatever they want to be. Besides, just like you know what school has taught us in the past about just learning something one specific way, focusing on one language and kind of you know, diminishing any sense of a cultural identity that we might have.

[Sierra] Thank you, Julia. Thank you all for your answers. I was wondering if there were any final thoughts anyone would like to include before we get into the finale and revealing our winner

[Jarred] Do either of you guys wanna go first, or would you like me to kind of just jump into it?

[Julia] You could jump into it if you want.

[Jarred] Okay, Honestly, I do appreciate the time spent in this class because it's opened me up to a new array of thinking. You know I've never considered myself the type of person who would discriminate, based upon a language type or just a different culture. But it definitely has opened up my eyes. kind of like to see how you know.I I knew culture and language is vital just. I didn't realize how vital it was in the making of who we are, as people as well as facilitating discussion and connections within a classroom and I think it's definitely something going to carry with me for a very long time, and something that I will pass on to anyone I ever work with. Just to remind them, you know, being kind, being caring and being considerate, goes such a long way in creating meaningful connections that really can impact the students you work with, and at the end of day it doesn't matter if they're able to factor a polynomial, if they know who the Fifth Emperor of Rome was if they know what the mitochondria of the cell does what's gonna matter is they know how to be a good person, and that they can go out into the world and help make it a better place. And ultimately as teachers, yes, we do have an obligation to discuss our content areas, but we also have an obligation to help them become upstanding citizens. And I feel like this course has helped me see just one more avenue we can take to make sure they will be these upstanding citizens.

[Julia] I definitely agree with what you said. I wanna say that I think this is a really important course to take whether you're going to become a teacher or not. I feel like anyone at Adelphi could honestly benefit from this course, because the one main thing that I learned, and that I was really able to develop myself as a person, as an educator just all around is having an open mind about everything, you know, when you start teaching in a classroom which we haven’t all had that full-on experience yet, but when you're kind of the sole educator or the sole role model in a classroom, you have to have you have to think about how every single mind in that classroom has their own cultural identity linguistic style characteristics that make them up. They have their own personality. Everyone is very unique in their own way, and each student can share their own cultures in their own ways. Students can exchange stories with one another, experiences, learning styles, things like that, and it can truly benefit students to maintain a healthy relationship with one another with their teacher. Having a multicultural classroom, does not only serve as a level playing field for students to understand and respect one another, but it could also serve as a real life studies class. You know, studying people's experiences and things like that, so I think this course is really important to not only show me how to build empathy as an educator and a role model. But to have an open mind to everyone having their own independent and unique experience.

[Kayleigh] I definitely agree. I think it's really important that teachers are aware that every student is different, and they encourage a sense of unity within the classroom, because I know many students from the past have had teachers that you know discriminate against them, just because they speak more than one language at home and that's affecting, you know how they write or how they speak in the classroom, and that definitely shouldn't be the case. So I think, taking a class like this kind of encourages everyone to just be mindful of others, and realize that no one's going to be the same person. And I think that everyone, especially educators, should really be aware of that

[Sierra] Thank you guys, for those added comments. I think they were very beneficial. And I totally agree with everything you guys said. So we're gonna move into the finale now. And I just want to say that having these conversations is the first step to change, and I want to thank each of you for your insight and your knowledge on this topic. You all had great points, and I'm so excited to see how we all can really change the future of multiculturalism in our classrooms.
So, yes, as I said, each one of you made outstanding points. You had great examples, and covered so many aspects of what makes a classroom environment encouraging and comfortable to learn in. But I do have to pick one winner, so after all I've heard today.
I'm going to go with Jarred as the winner of this competition. Jarred, you were a natural speaker, you built off of everyone's ideas really strongly. You incorporated real life examples, your own experiences and outside information to really well roundedly answer each question I asked today. So thank you, and congratulations!

[Jarred] Thank you so much. So do I venmo you the $20? Would you like me to paypal you? Nah, I’m joking. Thank you. I really appreciate that. And honestly thank you, Julia, thank you, Kayleigh. You guys brought up some really interesting points as well that I hadn’t considered initially, and I think that just kind of helped me to guide my arguments even more. So great job to both of you guys. Honestly, I feel like any one of us could have been up here, and it would have been a justified win. So thank you.

[Julia] Thank you.

[Sierra] Okay, So that's all for teacher talk today. Thank you all for coming, and I hope to see you again next week. Bye bye!

[Julia] Bye!

[Jarred] Bye!

[Kayleigh] Bye!