A Critical Classroom Study of Language Oppression: Manuel and Malena’s Testimonios, “Sentía como que yo no valía nada.. se reían de mí”

Abstract

This critical classroom study of language oppression draws from the notion of existing inequalities based on power relations in education research, as addressed in a critical ethnography. This critical classroom study explores the cases of two recent immigrant students, “Manuel” and “Malena,” on the–U.S.–Mexican border near El Paso, Texas, who were attending a fifth-grade dual language class at “Border PK-5 Elementary School” (pseudonyms). This school followed a 50/50 dual immersion model from K-fourth grade. By the fifth grade in this school, 70% of the academic time was taught in English and 30% in Spanish. Documented data from observations in the classroom and students’ multimodal testimonios reveal acts of linguistic bullying against the two recent immigrants based on their underdeveloped second language, English, when self-regulated learning was at work in a cooperative learning environment.