by Janine Schall, University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, TX

I spend los domingos with Abuelito y Abuelita.

Abuelito y Abuelita are my mother’s parents.

They are always happy to see me.

I say: –¡Hola, Abuelito! ¡Hola, Abuelita!—as I get out of the car.

And they say: –¡Hola, hijita! ¿Cómo estás? ¡Hola, mi corazón!

I Love Saturdays y domingos
Alma Flor Ada

“I love to see that my language is valued and that my ELL students are offered booksthat they can connect to.” – Gracia

There is an increasing amount of children’s and young adult literature that mixes more than one language in the text. This practice of codeswitching, or moving between languages within the same piece of text, seems especially popular in books that feature Latino characters and settings, perhaps because of the recent growth of Spanish-speaking immigrants in the United States.

Each Monday this May I’ll explore books that utilize English/Spanish codeswitching. I asked a group of nine teachers to help me with this task by reading and responding to a set of books that codeswitch English and Spanish. These teachers are all Latina and work in the Rio Grande Valley, a multilingual region of Texas that has many speakers of English, Spanish, Tex-Mex, and other languages and dialects. These nine teachers are all themselves bilingual to some extent; each is fluent and literate in English and each has at least some knowledge of Spanish, ranging from intermediate oral ability to full fluency and literacy in academic Spanish. The teachers read and discussed the following books:

 

Title	Author	Summary
I Love Saturdays y domingos	Alma Flor Ada	A little girl spends the weekend with two sets of grandparents from different cultures.
Los Gatos Black on Halloween	Marisa Montes	The monsters, witches and skeletons are throwing a ball on Halloween—until the scariest monsters of all show up
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States	Lori Carlson (Editor)	A collection of poetry in English and Spanish shares the experiences of growing up Latino
Tomás and the Library Lady	Pat Mora	A boy from a migrant family learns about the joy of books from a kindly librarian
The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred	Samantha R. Vamos	In this cumulative tale a girl prepares a pot of rice pudding with the help of the farm animals
Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin	Duncan Tonatiuh	Cousins in Mexico and the United States write letters describing their lives
My Abuelita	Tony Johnston	Abuelita and her grandson get ready for work
Just In Case	Yuyi Morales	Señor Calavera can’t decide what to get Grandma Beetle for her birthday in this alphabet book.

 

After an initial reading, I asked the teachers to freewrite their initial responses to the books. They wrote:

I think it’s ok to codeswitch. If teaching a bilingual class, books like these can benefit both learners (English and Spanish speaking). Both learners would be able to participate and not feel left out….I don’t mind reading books that deal with codeswitching because this is the way that I speak and other people do as well. Learners should not feel that codeswitching is bad. It’s part of my life and I don’t feel embarrassed to codeswitch. I feel proud of knowing two languages. (Paula)

Personally I was able to make connections to the Spanish words in the books because of the fact that my first language was Spanish. I think it’s great for bilingual children. I feel it might be confusing to the English students, therefore I would not read them as often. I’m not saying I would never read it, just not as often. (Mayra)

I really liked reading the books that code switched. For me, I think that it validated the author’s/character’s culture….I don’t see why all literature has to be written in one language. (Irma)

I think these are books that many students can relate to, find interesting, and meaningful. (Anita)

Reading books peppered with Spanish is fun. I think that if we did not know this was the theme of these books we might’ve overlooked the language and instead focused on the stories. Students talk this way and we hear it just the same. Often, I don’t realize they even do it. The books use words and topics familiar to the kids and adults. (Chris)

How do you feel about books that contain codeswitching? Do you have other books that contain codeswitching to recommend to the readers of WOW Currents? Share your thoughts in the comments.

In the weeks to come I’ll look at linguistic issues within books that use codeswitching, benefits and concerns about using these books with children, and how they might be used in the classroom.

Many thanks to Chris, Gracia, Anita, Selia, Ida, Mayra, Leslie, Irma, and Paula for their help with this blog series.

Editor’s Note: Codeswitching in a global society has been further discussed by Janine Schall regarding its purposes and tensions in translation and holiday picture books.

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• Themes: Codeswitching, Janine Schall
• Descriptors: Debates & Trends, Student Connections, WOW Currents