What do you make of García’s opening description of Pablo’s language knowledge ? How does a monolingual English speaker misunderstand Pablo’s knowledge?

In 2016, Proposition 227 was replaced by a new language policy law, Proposition 58 , “California Education for a Global Economy.” This law was endorsed by the California Teachers Association, the California Chamber of Commerce, and the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union.

Proposition 58 was based on research into bilingual literacy and language learning. One of the most prominent scholars in the field of bilingual literacy is Ofelia García, a professor at the Graduate Center at CUNY in New York. García recommends that teachers take a translingual approach in working with their students. In one of her more recent books, Bilingual Education in the 21st Century, García discusses the best available research on the subject.

Take a look at “Bilingualism and Translanguaging,” one brief chapter from her book. What do you make of García’s opening description of Pablo’s language knowledge ? How does a monolingual English speaker misunderstand Pablo’s knowledge? Do you have a sense of how translanguaging differs from how we might normally think of bilingualism? What does García mean when she writes, “bilinguals are not double monolinguals”?