Santos Research Essay Draft

Santos Chamorro Garcia

ACR 150-5000

Professor Barnes 

Asian Literacy

Most if not all minority groups’ literacy practices are not being taken into account by school the US school system. The Asian community is one of those minority groups, and as other minority groups, the Asian community is a victim of the single story. The Asian community is seen as the model minority. What is the model minority? The Model Minority is the idea of intelligent and well behaved Asian American. An example of the Model Minority group is that all Asians are smart and really good at math and science. The model minority term is a great example of a single story because in the 1960’s the research made on finding an explanation of Asian high achievement by comparing Chinese with other Asian ethnic groups, the term is misleading because it fails to take into consideration other sources of information coming from different Asian ethnic groups.

The Asian community also faces similar to other immigrant groups face challenges adjusting to a new language. The result of these challenges can be seen in “The Home Environment and Asian Immigrant Children’s Early Literacy Skills” by Yiyuan Xu, et al. states “In an analysis of U.S. census data, Hernandez and his colleagues (2007) showed that Asian immigrants lack basic proficiency in English. Roughly 30% of Asian American children live in households designated as “limited English proficient,” and for Chinese (the largest Asian immigrant group) and Vietnamese families, about 39–49% can be classified as “linguistically isolated” households where there are no English-fluent individuals older than age 13”. The number one issue that the Asian community faces, similar to other minority groups, is a language barrier, some might adapt faster than others, which will affect their children’s early language skills.

Literacy is the ability to read and write. In “Composing in and out of school Biliterate Asian students’ encounters with heritage and second language literacy” by Youngjoo Yi and Alan Hirvela, they state “For the past two decades, an influential group of literacy scholars (e.g., Barton, 1994; Gee, 1990; Street, 1984), drawing upon the social view of literacy, have argued that literacy is not an individual cognitive skill or activity, but rather a social practice or action that is socioculturally, historically, and politically situated”. While literacy is generally understood as one’s level of proficiency in reading and writing. It can also be viewed as practices that can be established based on the socio-cultural, historical, and political context.  The Asian community is a broad community and has various ethnic groups, therefore we can assume that their literacy values or practices might share some similarities but they are not the same.

The largest group of the Asian community are Chinese, and they have their own literacy values and practices. In “What do parents think? Middle-class Chinese immigrant parents’ perspectives on literacy learning, homework, and school-home communication” by Guofang Li, states “For example, Chinese parents are more likely than Anglo-American parents to engage their children in varying literacy activities every day or at least provide a nurturing literacy environment, and to provide structured and formal educational experiences for their children after school and on weekends”. Chinese parents place a high value on their children’s education that they try to make their children get involved in literacy activities on a daily basis. Li also states that Chinese parents use a more direct “intervention approach” to their children’s education, one example provided is through teaching and tutoring at home. Chinese parents also tend to favor traditional skill-based literacy practices. “They are more concerned with basic literacy skills, monitoring, and correcting performance. They believe that teaching a child to print and write properly, checking for understanding of what a child has read, teaching a child how to spell correctly, and having a child recite a story s/he has read are the most important things they can do to help their child’s literacy learning” (Li).  Chinese parents tend to get their children involved in as many literacy practices as possible, and they highly value traditional practices because that is the literacy practices that they are familiar with and are an easier way they can get involved in their children’s learning process and help them. 

Speaking in a generalized way most Asian parents get involved with their children’s literacy practices. “In an analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study— Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), Han (2008) compared the academic trajectories of immigrant children from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia. The results showed that the academic success of East Asian children was related more to family factors, such as the home environment, parents’ educational practices, and expectations than to school factors, such as resources, teaching practice, and learning environment, as was the case for the other groups” (Xu, et al.). The research shows how Asian parents tend to get involved with the literacy practices of their children regardless of family background, socioeconomic status, and language barriers. Asian Parents’ involvement can affect their children’s proficiency in reading and writing in both languages they speak.

In a different research made in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The parents of 139 children from kindergarten from 7 elementary schools were part of the study to prepare children for school and find more about their literacy practices in both their first language and second language. Most of the children were born in the U.S. whereas their parents were not. In addition, most parents did not have a college education and were working in “unskilled or semiskilled positions, such as hotel housekeepers and street vendors” (Xu, et al).  The parents of these children received a questionnaire about their education, work status, country of origin, years of U.S. residence, family composition, and children’s literacy practices prior to kindergarten. “Parents were informed about the project while attending kindergarten orientations. About 70% of the Asian immigrant parents who attended our project information meetings consented to participate. Parents completed several questionnaires that were translated into six languages: Chinese (simplified and traditional), Tagalog, Ilocano, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese, and then back-translated to English to ensure the accuracy; 16% were completed by fathers and 84% were completed by mothers” (Xu, et al). The majority of parents seem to be involved in their children’s literacy practices, it is also important to note that mothers tend to be more active and engage in their children’s literacy practices. This research also studies a broad amount of Asian ethnic groups. 

In “Composing in and out of school Biliterate Asian students’ encounters with heritage and second language literacy”. Yi and Hirvela compiled together a total of six studies about Chinese, Korean, and Japanese students’ literacy activities. The first study is about four Japanese upper elementary and lower middle school students’ literacy practices out of school in English and Japanese, at the same time developing their biliteracy skills. The second study was about four Canadia born Chinese elementary students that intend to develop their English literacy skills at home. The third study was about Chinese upper elementary students born and raised in the U.S. that were trying to be literate in their heritage language, Chinese. The fourth study was about four Korean ‘1.5 generations’ middle school students that were exploring both home and Korean heritage language school settings. The study investigates the students’ school and pleasure-related literacy activities in Korean and English.  The fifth study is about two Korean ‘1.5 generation’  high school students. The study examines how the students developed their bilingual and bicultural identities in their online out of school literacy activities in English and Korean. The sixth study is about an after-school literacy club where four Asian immigrants reacted to multicultural literature in face to face disscusions and computer mediated exchanges that were established by the researcher. Five of the studies were made in the U.S. and they share some similarities. “A third theme that runs across the six studies is the participants’ investment in literacy, particularly in out of school contexts. In all six studies, the participants engaged in notable amounts of writing, whether in the native language, heritage language, or English. In one way or another, writing mattered to them” (Yi and Hirvela).  Many literacy activities took place outside of school and writing was an important part of it regardless of what language the students choose to write. All the students in each study practiced different literacy activities and they had similarities but no assumption should be made that all of them succeded in what they wanted or if they went through the same struggles. YI and Hirvela also state “Our hope is that this special issue of the JAPC will help us reconsider what it means to live, think, and write in two languages and cultures, especially when the affiliations with those languages and cultures vary according to young people’s social contexts and needs for expressing themselves and indicating who they are”. There are many factors that can affect a child’s or student’s experience with literacy such as school and at home literacy practices and how involved their parents are. “For immigrant parents, the values they hold and the messages about educational expectation and school success they transmit to their children. Research demonstrates that these different Values and expectations often result in discontinuity between school and at home literacy goals. This discontinuity has also been considered as the major barriers for English language learners in achieving academic success” (Li). this is the result of teachers not having enough information about students’ language and literacy practices at home. Wich can determine how literate a student can be.

  Sources  

  Xu, Yiyuan, Jo Ann M Farver, and Alexander Krieg. “The Home Environment and Asian Immigrant Children’s Early Literacy Skills.” Parenting, science and practice 17.2 (2017): 104–123. Web.

  “Biliterate Asian Students’ Literacy Practices in North America [Special Issue].” Journal of Asian Pacific communication 19.1 (2009): 1–. Print.

Li, Guofang. “What Do Parents Think? Middle-Class Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Perspectives on Literacy Learning, Homework, and School-Home Communication.” Https://Openlab.Bmcc.Cuny.Edu/, The School Community Journal, openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu/acr-150-literacy-in-american-society-5000-hybrid-spring-2022/wp-content/uploads/sites/1824/2021/09/Chinese-Immigrant-Parent-Perspectives.pdf. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.

Statement of purpose: Essay option 3 (literacy history project) Analyze how the literacy practices of a minority group are devaluated or ignored by the U.S. school system. I decided to base my research on the Asian community.

A description of your research methods: I used the BMCC library website to look for articles and research papers that talked about Asian literacy. And I also reference one course material.

A working central idea: Asian parents value education and they try to get involved in their children’s literacy learning.

Supporting evidence/ your data: I used two articles from the Bmcc library database. One talks about early literacy practices or activities that Asian parents try to get their children to get involved with. It also talks about parents’ involvement with their children’s literacy. And it mentions some statistics and definitions of literacy. The second one is about six small studies on three different Asian ethnic groups, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Most of the article talks about literacy activities that the students were practicing and how it affected them.

Your interpretation of evidence/ data: I used quotes throughout the essay to support an idea that I was trying to present. I also use some quotes to complete some sentences, because the quotes were self-explanatory.

A reference to at least one course material: I used the article “What Do Parents Think? Middle-Class Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Perspectives on Literacy Learning, Homework, and SchoolHome Communication” by  Guofang Li. I also used any information that we learned during week 6 (Asian perspectives), like the Model Minority term.

What do you think you need to do to improve your draft: I need to connect each paragraph with transition sentences because otherwise, I think it can be confusing when someone reads it.  I also need to spell-check the whole essay. lastly, I need to write a conclusion.