Changing the multilingual ecology in school through the collaboration of English language learners and their parents

Abstract

The purpose of this curriculum project was to improve the Linguistic Landscape (LL) or multilingual ecology (MLE) of West Seneca East Middle School by designing and implementing the Culture Quilt and Tapestry of Hopes projects involving English Language Learners (ELLs) and their families. Despite the considerable large numbers of ELLs in the middle school, there was a substantial shortcoming of multilingual and multicultural presence in the school. To address the lack thereof, the researcher designed two cultural projects to be displayed within the middle school. The Culture Quilt involved the designing of a fabric square, reflective of each family's diverse language and culture. The Tapestry of Hopes involved the completion of a sentence strip by ELL families indicating their hopes and dreams for their child in their Home Language, English, or both. The completion and display of both projects resulted in an overall increase of multilingual ecology in addition to a noticeable excitement and enthusiasm school-wide for celebrating the diversity present within the West Seneca Schools and community. [from author's abstract]