Language Goes To School

Rafe Martinez didn’t become a leader in deaf education in New Mexico because he’s deaf. He’s not. He became a leader in deaf education because his son was born deaf, and Rafe and the rest of the family needed to communicate with him. But Rafe quickly discovered that American Sign Language, or ASL, is not just for deaf students and their families. It’s also for hearing students whose parents are deaf. These students are known as CODA, or Children Of Deaf Adults. Then there are hearing students, whose special needs include the need to communicate through sign language because they are unable to communicate verbally. Finally, there are students who aren’t deaf, whose parents aren’t deaf, and who don’t have special needs. These students simply want to be fluent in two languages. But instead of pairing English with another oral language, such as Spanish, French, Mandarin, or Diné, they pair English with ASL. The problem was, however, that there were no schools in New Mexico that accommodated all four groups of students. So, Rafe created one himself, with the help of others interested in broadening the reach and influence of sign language as a mainstream instructional language. The result of their efforts is the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy, founded in 2008 as the only state-certified English-ASL dual-language school in New Mexico, and quite possibly in the United States. In this episode, Rafe relates his experiences with his son, Ben, the founding of the school, and much more. We even discuss Puerto Rican sign language interpretation at the 2026 Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show! Also addressed is language interdependence and language transfer. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Those who don't speak the dominant language of their region as their first language know all too well that language status—and the consequences of it—are real. Without being entirely conscious of it, all societies have developed language hierarchies that place some languages in positions of prestige, at or near the top of the hierarchy, while relegating other languages to positions of subordination, at or near the bottom of the hierarchy. This is most evident in regions where, long ago, a colonial language established its dominance by declaring its superiority, while simultaneously suppressing the use of the indigenous languages that had been present in the region since the beginning of time. In this episode, we hear how awareness of language statuses played out in a remote Baoulé village in central Côte d'Ivoire in the mid 1980s when a woman from the village took a visitor from the United States to school, so to speak, regarding the topic of language hierarchies. We learn some handy Baoulé proverbs along the way. Also discussed: threatened languages and moribund languages. Marie's Dictionary: The Last Speaker of Wukchumni: https://youtu.be/iRDmRXCizEM?si=D0H3T4CHUCqYRi3lSend us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

On this episode of Language Goes to School, we speak with Molly Arévalo, a lifelong educator and language learner, whose journey reflects the complexity of heritage language identity. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Molly was raised in an English-only household in the mainland U.S. She later worked intentionally to reclaim Spanish as an academic, professional, and personal language. She studied Spanish and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz (go Banana Slugs!), refined her Spanish while living in Chile, and began her teaching career with Teach For America on the U.S.–Mexico border in South Texas. Molly went on to teach bilingual elementary students, adult ESL and citizenship classes, and Spanish in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, earning two master’s degrees from California State University, Los Angeles in Bilingual/Multicultural Education and TESOL. She now serves as Associate Director of the Language Learning Center at the University of New Mexico, where she supports language learning across campus. Still studying French, while keeping her ambitions focused on several other languages, Molly embodies the idea that language learning is never finished.  To see a photo of Molly holding her award, go to Instagram and search for @unmllc. The photo was posted on February 19, 2026.To listen to Ben Wilson on ESPN radio, go to: https://cagedminds.com/2026/02/caged-minds-fight-hour-ep-4-ben-wilson-on-bob-foster/Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

This is the true story of a boy we will call Ricardo, who was an enthusiastic young 4th grader in a Spanish-English dual-language classroom circa 2011. Due to circumstances completely beyond his control, Ricardo had by 4th grade essentially stopped speaking his native Spanish in favor of English. This was the case at school, where at least his preference for English was appropriate half the time. But it was also the case at home, where everyone in his family had continued to communicate almost exclusively in Spanish since the family’s move to the United States from South America. Everyone, that is, except Ricardo. Listen as we learn about the events that led to Ricardo’s loss of Spanish, and how he eventually started speaking it again. We also discuss language interpreters and language brokers. They’re not the same thing.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

If you live in the United States and are familiar with only one decision handed down by a court of law, it’s probably the U.S. Supreme Court case known as Brown v. Board of Education. Specifically, that would be young Linda Brown, only nine years old when she sued her local Board of Education for sending her to an all-black school a mile and a half from her house, when there was a perfectly good white school right around the corner. But did you know this racial discrimination did not occur in the Deep South? It occurred in Topeka, Kansas, out on the Great Plains, halfway to California. And guess what? Race-based school segregation extended the rest of the way to California, as well. In fact, it was in 1931 that another young student, 12-year-old Roberto Álvarez, sued the Lemon Grove, California, Board of School Trustees for trying to separate him and 74 of his Mexican-American classmates from their Anglo classmates and send them instead to a “new” school that they and their parents considered no better than a caballeriza, or horse stables. Roberto won that case in San Diego County Superior Court, making it the first successful school desegregation case in U.S. history. In fact, it served as the earliest precedent for the Brown decision 23 years later. Listen as we tell the story of Álvarez v. Lemon Grove, one of the most important court cases in U.S. history that most people have never heard of. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

In this episode, we visit with Ishtar Rosario Medina, whose educational and personal journey has spanned Puerto Rico, New York City, Mississippi, New Mexico, and now Minnesota. She was born in Puerto Rico and raised in the tradition of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Manhattan and Queens. At the age of 7, she returned to the island. Six years later, her path took an unconventional turn when her father implemented his idea of "homeschooling": enrolling her in his college courses at the University of Mayagüez. At 13, she was majoring in physics. Despite often excelling beyond the levels of her older classmates, Ishtar dropped out and began a series of moves across the U.S. with her father, from central Florida to community college life in rural Mississippi, to several years as a substitute teacher in Hattiesburg—all while raising her oldest child. Inspired by her mother’s love for New Mexico, she later relocated to Albuquerque, where, after 12 years of accumulating college credits, she completed a BA in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts and TESOL at the University of New Mexico. She briefly taught 4th grade at a local charter school.A spontaneous trip to the Mall of America over Thanksgiving vacation in 2024 led to her current role teaching U.S. History in Spanish and Spanish Language Arts at the high school in Chanhassen, Minnesota. As a lifelong bilingual learner, parent, and educator, Ishtar brings a rich perspective to discussions of bilingual education. Listen, enjoy, and learn from the stories behind her remarkable journey.We also discuss SUP and CUP, which, in case you're wondering, are not acronyms for Stand Up Paddle and Conditional Use Permit!Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

In this episode of Language Goes to School, we speak with Ina Montoya, lifelong educator, proud Jicarilla Apache (father’s side) and Navajo (mother’s side), and tireless advocate for the revitalization of Indigenous education in general, and Indigenous languages in particular. After years of teaching in the Dulce Independent School District of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, Ina recently served as the district's superintendent, a term that culminated in being named the 2024 Administrator of the Year by the New Mexico Association of Bilingual Education. She is currently the principal of Lybrook Elementary and Middle School, located conveniently—and, more importantly, in perfect familial and geographic balance—between the traditional lands of the Jicarilla Apache and Navajo Nations in northwestern New Mexico. No matter the role in education she fills, Ina applies the warmth, humor, and dedication from every circle of her life to her efforts to promote high-quality Indigenous and language education. Consistent with her lifelong history of learning, Ina is currently pursuing a doctorate in Missiology. And if you’re wondering how she finds a proper work-life balance within her busy schedule, it’s easy: Ina is an accomplished fiber artist, specializing in crochet, knitting, and quilting. In this episode, we ask Ina about many of her talents and interests. In response, she weaves an instructive narrative about the importance of language, education, identity, and community for all who take the time to listen. We also discuss informal (BICS) and formal (CALP) registers of language.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

It is entirely possible to draw a straight line from the advent of human flight, to the world’s largest hot-air balloon fiesta, and thence to Nancy Oakes, our guest for this episode. That’s because Nancy was a high school French teacher in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, neighbor city of Albuquerque, the undisputed modern hot-air balloon capital of the world. It was there she established herself as a cultural, linguistic, and historical link between Albuquerque and Annonay, France, le berceau d’aviation, or the cradle of aviation. It was in Annonay that the Montgolfier brothers built and launched the world’s first hot-air balloon on June 4, 1783. Nancy created and maintained her status as an important Franco-American link by facilitating exchanges between American and French students from the two cities best known for hot-air balloons. But she didn’t stop with high school students. She has also been instrumental in arranging exchanges between hot-air balloon pilots in Albuquerque and their counterparts in Annonay. In a word, Nancy is all things balloons and French, therefore, the perfect guest for this episode, which we’re releasing just days before the start of the 53rd annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. We also discuss the difference between language equality and language equity. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Bardo Trujillo first experienced the rush of the rapport between the rock guitarist and the audience in fourth grade, when he played The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin in the school talent show. In birdwatching jargon, this was his spark bird; for him, his spark performance. He was hooked. From there he took off on a lifelong career in music, specializing in classical, rock, metal, New Mexican, country, jazz, and pop. He holds a bachelor's degree in Guitar Performance and a master’s in performance on the classical guitar. Since fourth grade, he has played in over a dozen bands, with names like Traveler in Pain, Prince of Darkness, Especial, Bad Obsession, Malvado, and more. For over 20 years he has taught guitar at Cibola High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, leading his students to an unprecedented number of awards in district and state performance competition. Bardo was also an integral part of redesigning the music teacher’s annual evaluation so that it reflected the performance of the teacher’s students instead of how high a score they could achieve on a paper-and-pencil, multiple choice, high-stakes, standardized music test. Though Bardo is not certified as a bilingual teacher, he grew up in Taos, New Mexico, listening to his parents and relatives speaking Spanish in various cultural contexts. He is currently recapturing his Spanish and using it extensively in his guitar classes, pointing out the logic behind using the Spanish language while learning to play an instrument that was brought directly from Spain to New Mexico. In that regard, Bardo is an excellent example of how one does not necessarily have to be deemed officially bilingual to use his heritage language—as well as other languages spoken by his students—as effective and meaningful teaching and learning tools in his classroom. We also discuss English learnings and emergent bilinguals. IMPORTANT NOTE: Contrary to what you'll hear in this episode, New Mexico guitar legend John Truitt is not "late" in any sense of the word. He's alive and well and still inspiring guitar players. It is guitar professor Michael Chapdelaine who has passed onto to the great fretboard in the sky. We regret the error in this episode. Visit Bardo's website at: http://www.bardotrujillo.comSend us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Nemiliztli means “life” in Náhuatl, the language of the Mexica people who inhabited Tenotitchlán, a beautiful city in the middle of beautiful Lake Texcoco. Mexico City stands there today. And “life” adequately describes the path Nemiliztli Trinidad Ortega followed to becoming a bilingual teacher. Her mother taught bilingual kindergarten in Los Angeles and started a doctoral program in bilingual education at the University of Utah even before Nemiliztli was born. So, by the time she was born, she was surrounded by a world steeped in bilingual education. As a result, it was not surprising she attended dual-language programs from K-12 in the Albuquerque public schools, a 13-year effort whose crowning achievement was symbolized by the district's and the state's bilingual seals, which Nemiliztli received upon graduation from high school. It was also no surprise that, upon graduating, she entered the College of Education at the University of New Mexico, where she studied—what else?—bilingual education. So, “life” for Nemiliztli is not limited to the biological and social elements we normally attribute to it; “life” also represents the professional path she has traveled literally since the day she was born. Join us to learn about this path—and much more—from this enthusiastic and engaging young teacher. We also discuss the deficit and the asset views of language development. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

In this special episode of Language Goes to School, we investigate the blockbuster 1923 U.S. Supreme Court case Meyer v. Nebraska, in which parents won the right to “direct” the education of their children, even when their children are not home schooled, but attend the nation’s public and private schools. Recent surges in parents asserting their rights in schools have been evident in the years after the Covid pandemic, when, due to online learning, parents were suddenly afforded a window, in the form of their children’s laptops, into what their children were learning at school and how they were learning it. But that's not all this case was about. Importantly, it established the right for teachers to teach and students to learn in languages other than English. Specifically, it’s about the decision on the part of teacher Robert Meyer to deliberately break state law so he could teach Bible lessons in German to his 10-year-old student, Raymond Parpart. It’s this second important feature of this famous case that we discussed in this episode.Incidentally, for those who balk when encountering a court case, rest assured we have kept the legal terms to a minimum, while offering handy synonyms and short explanations for some of the more legalistic terms or archaic words used in 1923, such as “inimical,” “salutary,” and “baneful.” Baneful? Really?! We’ll explain!Here’s the link to the Smithsonian article about Robert Meyer: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/small-rural-schoolhouse-one-teacher-challenged-nativist-attacks-against-immigration-180976757/Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

“El agua es la vida,” states Adrián Sandoval, a native of northern New Mexico, where water is indeed life, but also much, much more. For hundreds if not thousands of years, Native peoples of the area have used complex systems of irrigation to produce a variety of foods in this high, dry desert. The Spanish arrived in the 16th century with their own designs on how to make the most of limited water supplies in the Southwest. Both the Native and the Spanish populations used their respective languages as the basis of communication in order to build these systems, often borrowing engineering strategies and elements of language from each other. Like many northern New Mexicans of the 21st century, Spanish and Native alike, Adrián has witnessed a growing estrangement among youth from the knowledge of water use in the Southwest, and the cultural and linguistic elements associated with that knowledge. Some of this estrangement may be due to the fact that local, traditional knowledge of water use is not generally included in curricula approved for use in the public and private schools of the state. Working through the Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations (CESDP) at New Mexico Highlands University, and the Acequia and Land Grant Education (ALGE) curriculum, Adrián, along with a network of concerned and dedicated educators, has worked assiduously to preserve the ancient knowledge of water use in the Southwest, as well as the languages associated with it, in the form of a curriculum that can be implemented and practiced in classrooms around the state. Listen as we draw from the great well of cultural and linguistic knowledge of Adrián Sandoval. We also discuss the fractional and the holistic views of multilingualism. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

The relationship between doctor and patient is often delicate. When the doctor and patient speak two different languages, the relationship can be even more delicate and ripe for misunderstanding. Unless, of course, the doctor is bilingual and can communicate fluently with the patient, using non medical terminology the patient can understand. Dr. Shana Drake-Lavelle became bilingual in the 1990s by virtue of a nascent, elementary, dual-language program in New Mexico. She says the dual-language program contributed to the decision to choose a career in medicine, where many of her patients speak Spanish. Her dual-language experience was also instrumental in meeting her husband, a first generation Mexican-American physician, whom she met while engaged in volunteer work involving Albuquerque's Spanish-speaking population, and with whom she is raising a bilingual son. Join us as Dr. Drake-Lavelle leads us through her journey from dual-language student in the Albuquerque Public Schools, to the College of William and Mary in Virginia, to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and finally to her current role as a family medicine practitioner. When she's not practicing medicine or raising her son, she plays the harp in the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Symphony and with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque. We also discuss one-way and two-way dual-language immersion programs. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Maame Adofoah Yamoah informs us that, out of 54 countries on the African continent, only one, Equatorial Guinea, has established Spanish as the country’s official language. Maame is from Ghana, far to the west of Equatorial Guinea, where the colonial and official language is English and where virtually nobody in the country of 30 million people speaks Spanish. So, how did it happen that she’s a fluent speaker of Spanish—Castilian to be precise—complete with the telltale “theta” pronunciation? In this episode of our podcast, the first in Season 4, Maame explains how this came to be, as well as how she’s able to maintain fluency in Twi (pronounced "chree"), one of what she considers two first languages, the other  being English. We learn about her determination to maintain her fluency in Twi after reaching school age and after leaving Ghana more than once to pursue her studies abroad. These studies include arriving several years ago at the University of New Mexico, USA, to obtain her Master’s degree in Hispanic Linguistics. Ever ambitious, Maame has stayed in New Mexico with her family and is now pursuing her PhD at the same university. Along the way we learn about the nuances of the Twi language and Akan culture, as well as the status of bilingual education in Ghana. We also learn about the difference between official language and lingua franca.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Who decides which among many historical languages of a country gets to be the eponymous of the country? In the case of Spain, which is home to at least four widely spoken languages, as well as several others not as widely spoken, only Castellano (or Castilian in English) gets to use Spanish, literally, “the language of Spain,” as its international name. Why aren't Catalán, Gallego, or Euskera, called "Spanish" instead? Had we posed this question to Ander Rojano, our guest for this episode, we’re confident we would have received an answer as comprehensive and interesting as the answers he provided for the other questions we asked, most of which were about growing up speaking Castellano and Euskera, the regional language of Basque Country in northern Spain, and later teaching public school using both as instructional languages. But that’s not all! He now lives and teaches in Barcelona, the capital of Catalunia, where all teachers, including Ander, who's from Basque Country, are required to teach in Catalán. We spoke with Ander in English for this episode, but we could’ve spoken to him in French, a fifth language in which he considers himself fluent, as any philologist would. Listen as Ander discusses the history and politics of Euskera and Catalán, how he learned to speak both, how public education in Basque Country and Catalunia reflects the students’ diverse levels of fluency Euskera and Catalán, and the differences in how he feels when he speaks Euskera as opposed to Spanish. Near the end, Ander reads us a story in Euskera that we found profound and poignant, despite the fact that it consists of one, very short paragraph. We also offer an addendum to our discussion in our last episodes about the president’s executive order designating English the official language of the United States.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

On March 1, 2025, the President of the United States signed one in a seeming endless stream of executive orders, or EOs, as they are often known. This EO ostensibly established English as the official language of the United States. This isn’t the first time people have tried to pull this off. There is a long history of such attempts. We explore those attempts, the legal weight of this EO and at least one other, and the implications the EO might have for public education, in general, and multilingual education, in particular. Along the way, we learn about arcane but important political facts surrounding the statehood efforts of Arizona and New Mexico in 1912, as well as what presidents Reagan, Clinton, and Obama had to say about multilingual education, whether in an EO or through other means. There’s no guest for this episode, unless you include the recorded voice of Al Jazeera reporter Heidi Zhou-Castro, some persons-on-the-street interviews she conducts, and former Senator Barack Obama, speaking to us across time and mediums in the form of a prescient speech about bilingualism he delivered in Powder Springs, Georgia on July 8, 2008. Listen, fact-check us, and send us your corrections and sentiments to [email protected] or @languagegoestoschool on Facebook and Instagram. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Teachers often wonder aloud, or with other teachers, whatever became of this student or that. Most of the time we never know. So, on those rare occasions when we are able to fill the gap in the life of a student between, say, fifth grade and adulthood, it is often surprising and gratifying. That is certainly the case with Stephanie Zarrasola, whom I last saw as she left my 3rd-4th-5th grade dual-language classroom in May 2001 for middle school. What transpired over the next 24 years was nothing less than astonishing: enrollment in the program for gifted students in middle school; enrollment in AP courses in high school, where she graduated with honors; a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from McAlester College in St. Paul, MN, where she also minored in Biology and Art Studio; and a DDS degree from the Dental School at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Unfortunately, none of her academic experiences after elementary school included courses taught in Spanish, gifted and AP courses being programmatically incompatible with bilingual education in the school district. She currently practices dentistry in Albuquerque, where she and her colleagues and staff offer dental services in English and in Spanish. She is also the mother of a 9-month-old girl named Annel, and the husband of Alonso Quezada, one of the world’s few rollercoaster builders and repairers, who is currently making things safe and fun for a rollercoaster in Barcelona, Spain. Listen as we discuss all this and more with Dr. Stephanie Zarrasola. We also discuss simultaneous bilingualism and sequential bilingualism. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Humans have been multilingual for millennia. So have the various forms of education in which they’ve engaged. Modern trends toward bi- and multilingual education may seem new to some, but are actually a part of a much longer historical arc. Case in point: English-Spanish education at the Westminster-Juan Bautista Alberdi School in Buenos Aires, in which half of the academic subjects were taught in English and half in Spanish. It was this program that Philippe Bérard attended in elementary and middle school years in the 1960s and 1970s. But wait—there’s more! Philippe’s father was second-generation French, while his mother emigrated to Argentina from France as a teenager. As a result, French, not English or Spanish, was the language of Philippe’s home. Each school day, he would leave his French-speaking home to attend the Westminster wing of the school, where literature and history courses were taught in English. That took care of the mornings. He would spend the afternoons at the Alberdi wing of the school, taking math and science in Spanish. He navigated this language triangle every school day until high school, where all instruction was in Spanish. Philippe would grow up to become a veterinarian, bringing to bear all three of his languages on his profession and his personal lives. We also discuss linguistic enculturation and linguistic acculturation.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

In this episode, we continue our discussion with University of Arizona Professor and native neomexicana, Dr. Lillian Gorman, whose book, Zones of Encuentro: Language and Identity in Northern New Mexico, which was published recently by the Ohio State University Press. We ask her about responses her research participants provided that amounted to differences of perception and opinion regarding the identification and use of varieties of Spanish in northern New Mexico and in Mexico. We discuss the phenomenon of language loss and whether it is being addressed, consciously or unconsciously, within families and between community members. Dr. Gorman describes the courses she teaches at the University of Arizona that are oriented toward heritage language speakers of Spanish, as well as toward preservice teachers who may ultimately teach students who bring to class distinct varieties of Spanish. Finally, we learn about an interaction in Spanish between Dr. Gorman, her younger cousin, and the great Arizona Spanish heritage language educator, Señor Adalberto Guerrero, who is still engaged in the field of education at the age of 95. Our terms for this episode are language competence and language performance. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

What happens when varieties of Spanish spoken in northern New Mexico, still influenced by the Spanish spoken in the area 500 years ago, encounter more modernized varieties of Spanish spoken in present-day Mexico? This is a question Dr. Lillian Gorman of the University of Arizona wanted to investigate. Dr. Gorman’s own family was established in the region generations ago, so this is a question in which she also has a personal interest and investment. In her new book, Zones of Encuentro: Language and Identities in Northern New Mexico, Dr. Gorman discusses the dynamics of older and newer varieties of Spanish that meet when speakers of those varieties marry or cohabitate. In such familial relationships, how does each variety influence the other? How does the contact of the varieties affect intergenerational relationships and what does it portend for the survival of the ancient Spanish variety of northern New Mexico? Finally, what might current and future teachers need to know about the varieties of Spanish, both “old” and “new,” their students bring to school? Listen to Part 1 of our discussion with Dr. Gorman as she explains some of the surprising and paradoxical findings of her research. We also discuss the concepts of native language and heritage language.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

This is part two of our interview with Albuquerque boxing agent and promoter and sponsor of our podcast, Ben Wilson. In part one, we learned from Ben how boxing legend Bob Foster made his way from West Texas to Albuquerque as a boy and his meteoric rise to the top of the sport as the light heavyweight champion of the world. In part two, Ben tells us about the close relationship Bob had with Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, as the two trained in 1959 for the Pan Am Games and the next year for the 1960 Olympics in Rome. That relationship culminated in a major bout between the two in November of 1972, where Foster became the only boxer ever to draw blood on Ali. We learn about the collection of boxing memorabilia that was ultimately consolidated to form the Bob Foster Boxing Museum. Ben introduces us to two other local boxers who influenced the early days of the museum. Finally, Ben explains how he has attempted to correct the record on some basic facts about the life of Bob Foster—including Bob’s date of birth!Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Those of you who have been listening to our podcast know our show is recorded in the Bob Foster Boxing Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. In fact, the museum is housed in the casita, or guest house, located in the back yard of my brother, Ben. Ben is a lawyer, whose list of clients includes aspiring young boxers in New Mexico. (If you’re imagining men’s underwear right now, you’re on the wrong track!). Ben got into the business of promoting boxing many years ago when he struck up a friendship with Bob Foster, the three-time light heavyweight champion of the world and one of Albuquerque’s most well known and illustrious figures. Listen as Ben describes the circumstances under which he first met Bob, as well as details of Bob’s childhood in west Texas, the fight that propelled him into the international boxing limelight, and other fights, including an epic fight in 1970 against the heavyweight champion of the world, Joe Frazier. This is part one of two parts. The second part will be released soon. In part two, Ben continues his narrative of the life of Bob Foster, including a description of the fight against Muhammed Ali. Search YouTube for video of these and other fights. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

This is the remarkable story of Leslie Hernández, who immigrated from Mexico to the United States on her 4th birthday, as her parents sought better health care for her. As an infant, Leslie was diagnosed with retinal blastoma, a type of eye cancer, which ultimately led to total blindness. Upon arriving in the US, Leslie was preschool age, so her parents enrolled her in the preschool at the New Mexico School for the Blind. They later enrolled her in the Albuquerque Public Schools, whose Program for the Blind and Visually Impaired at Zia Elementary helped her with Orientation and Mobility skills, along with academics. But that’s not all. While enrolled in the V.I. program, she was also enrolled in Zia’s dual-language program, where she excelled in English and in Spanish, learning to read and write in Braille— in both languages! After a gap in her dual-language education in middle school, due to staffing shortages, Leslie chose to take on the challenges of the bilingual program at Albuquerque High School, which culminated in the placement of the state and the district bilingual seals on her diploma upon graduation. On top of all this, Leslie was also a DACA student (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), burdened with an array of restrictions on her immigration status, including no access to lower interest federal student loans, such as Pell Grants. Dauntless, Leslie pursued various scholarships and enrolled first at Central New Mexico Community College and later at the University of New Mexico, both in Albuquerque, where she majored in Special Education. She later earned her state teaching license in Special Education. We also discuss the difference between acquiring and learning a language. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

What happens when the ancient traditions of Native America encounter the modern traditions of Europe? One version of that story is the one we all know: the arrival of a certain Italian “explorer” that led to the violent colonization of the continent by subsequent waves of invaders from other European countries. Another version looks like this: Native values, such as communal care and cohesion, organic and self directed learning, and a symbiotic relationship with the natural world, meet and meld seamlessly with the pedagogical theories and practices of a visionary Italian educator of the 20th Century. Yes, that would be Maria Montessori. It’s this latter version of the “encounter” that we address in this episode. One place where these two traditions intersect is in Cóchiti Pueblo, New Mexico, one of eighteen Native communities along the Río Grande and one of seven where the traditional language is Keres. Our guest, Dr. Curtis Chávez, is a native of Cóchiti and the CEO of the Keres Children’s Learning Center (KCLC), a Montessori school at the Pueblo where Keres instead of English is the primary instructional language. In one sense, it’s fitting and proper that he lead the school. If such a school had existed when he was young, Keres instead of English might have been his first language. He reports that, during his childhood, many elders and parents in the community were ashamed of speaking Keres and teaching it to their children. Dr. Chávez eventually learned Keres as a second language and is now working tirelessly on many fronts to assure that more children at Cóchiti Pueblo acquire Keres as their first language. We also address the importance of context when discussing language loss and language shift in Native communities.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Meeting David Rogers in 1997 at the second annual La Cosecha Dual-Language Education Conference in Albuquerque was memorable. That our meeting occurred just a few dozen feet from live giraffes, elephants, lions, chimps, and other exotic fauna, made that meeting even more memorable. You read that correctly. The conference had been such a success the year before, David and crew had to move it from Dolores Gonzalez Elementary School to the Rio Grande Zoo, which was located conveniently across the street from the school. Since then, thousands of multilingual educators and I have looked forward every fall to attending the conference, which is now so large it has long since outgrown the zoo and has to be held in multiple venues in Albuquerque and Santa Fe on alternate years. In this episode, David explains how, growing up in Belleville, New Jersey in the 1960s, his early interest in languages led to becoming a dual-language teacher, a Peace Corps volunteer, and, ultimately, the founder of La Cosecha. He also explains how his identity as a white, English-speaking educator has not hindered his ability to contribute productively to dual-language education locally, nationally, and internationally. The conference this year will take place from November 13-16 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We also discuss language as a problem, language as a right, and language as a resource. [Note: We recently learned that Dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, who we reference in this episode, passed away on May 29, 2023. Please find the link to her professional website below.]Dual Language Education New Mexico: https://www.dlenm.orgLa Cosecha Dual-Language Conference: https://www.lacosechaconference.org/Tove Skutnabb-Kangas: http://www.tove-skutnabb-kangas.org/ Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

In which we continue our conversation with Warlance Chee. Warlance is a Diné (Navajo) language and culture educator and co-founder of Saad K’idilyé, a Diné language nest in Albuquerque. Saad K’idilyé means “the planting of the language.” This unique language nest educates and enculturates children, prenatal to preschool, by surrounding them with rich cultural experiences in Diné bizaad, the Navajo language, in the big city, far from the Navajo Nation. In this second part of our conversation, Warlance addresses specific cultural activities practiced in the nest, Saad K’idilyé’s relationship to other indigenous language nests in North America, the Saad K’idilyé Fall Fundraiser, and finally, Warlance’s awareness of becoming a proficient speaker of Diné bizaad. We also address the concepts of language preservation and language revitalization, both of which apply to the valuable educational, linguistic, and cultural work undertaken within Saad K’idilyé.https://www.saadkidilye.org Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Create in your mind an image of a parent bird feeding its babies mouth-to-mouth and you have an apt metaphor for the concept of a human language nest. In a language nest, adults who are fluent in a language that is experiencing a steep decline in the number first language speakers, surround the youngest speakers in the community with the language, all the while engaging these young speakers in culturally meaningful  practices. Warlance Chee is a Navajo language and culture teacher and one of the founders of Saad K’idilyé, an urban language nest in Albuquerque, where babies—some even still in the womb—are surrounded Diné Bizaad, the Navajo language, spoken by adults fluent in the language. Saad K’idilyé means “the planting of the language” in Diné Bizaad, which is yet another apt metaphor for the link between language and culture, as the planting of corn and other crops at the school represents some of the traditional activities that link Diné Bizaad to Navajo culture. Listen as Warlance explains the founding of the Saad K’idilyé, how it has grown over the last three years, and how it hopes to expand in the future. We dedicate this episode to the late Lois M. Meyer, a long-time professor at the University of New Mexico, whose life work involved the establishment of language nests in indigenous communities in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. For more about Saad K'idilyé, visit: https://www.saadkidilye.orgSend us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

On January 30 of 2024, South Dakota became the 50th and final state to establish bilingual seal for high school graduates. The seal, which is affixed to the graduates’ diplomas, signifies the graduate has completed coursework in another language that certified them as fully bilingual and literate. For its part, New Mexico became the fifth state to establish a bilingual seal program, doing so on March 8, 2014. Sinahi Oaxaca is one of the most recent recipients of this distinction, earning not one, not two, but three such seals upon graduating from Albuquerque high school in 2024. Listen as we learn about the district, state, and global bilingual seals from her perspective, as well as the perspective of one of her most enthusiastic advocates, Fabiola Espinoza-Pacheco, the bilingual education coordinator at Albuquerque High. Along the way, we learn about how Sinahi and Fabiola followed different but parallel paths in their journeys to become bilingual and biliterate adults. We also discuss dual-language education and how it contrasts with transitional bilingual education. Finally, Armenian anyone?Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

The Zuni language has been an enigma for anthropologists and linguistics ever since the people of Zuni Pueblo, located in western New Mexico, first had contact with Europeans and Africans in the 16th century. Zuni is related to no other language in the region, in the country, or in the world. Arin Peywa is a native of Zuni Pueblo and a native speaker of the language, though her fluency was reduced if not eliminated early in life by punishments she endured while enrolled at a Catholic school at Zuni Pueblo. Later, as an adult, Arin revived her fluency with fervor. Her efforts to revive the language for herself ultimately transformed into efforts to revive and preserve the language for others. She accomplished this in two ways. First, by spending four years painstakingly digitizing pre existing linguistic and cultural curricular materials, written in Zuni by and for Zuni educators. Second, by becoming an educator in Zuni Public Schools. In this episode, Arin describes these epic endeavors, while also pulling back the curtain on this beautiful and noble language. Also, we discuss the difference between language loss and language shift. The Zuni Language Materials Collection: https://nmdc.unm.edu/digital/collection/zlaZuni Language Revitalization website link:https://zunireawakeningawebplatformofr.godaddysites.com/Zuni Traditional Waffle Gardening website and video link:https://sites.google.com/zpsd.org/zuniwafflegardening/homehttps://youtu.be/ikdHxroOiCw?si=zCaXE3ZxGl0eAFutThe Wooly Warriors video link:https://youtu.be/L7PgEVVE53E?si=br-byCdimnuwQ8CaZuñi: Selected Writings by Frank Hamilton CushingMy Adventures in Zuñi, by Frank Hamilton CushingA Zuni Life: A Pueblo Indian in Two Worlds, by Virgil WyacoThe Account, by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de VacaSend us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Midway between Seasons 1 and 2, we thought we'd give you a peak at what we have in store for Season 2. We hope to release our first episode on September 1. See you then!Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

If all you knew about José Luis was that he likes to travel, spend time with family and friends, and experience fine foods, you would be fulfilled. But lo! He teaches, too, in two different languages, and, in only sixteen years, has accrued a lifetime of experience in teaching elementary-aged kids. José Luis is, for the time being, the last in a series of teachers from Spain who have come to the rescue, so to speak, to support Spanish-English dual-language programs in New Mexico; ironic, when you think about it, but we don’t. We’re just grateful that he, like his predecessors, found his way to a modest, red-brick elementary school in Albuquerque. As a result, his students, their parents, his colleagues, and the entire school community benefited for two years from his knowledge, enthusiasm, and expertise. Listen as José Luis explains the wonders of learning New Mexican Spanish, and more! We also provide a coda to our discussion of borrowed words, and address the ins and outs of the difference between additive and subtractive multilingualism. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

When we suggested we pin the word “cowboy” to Tee McDougal’s boyhood identity, we were politely redirected to the term “farm and ranch kid.” But what an understated description! As a young boy and on into high school, he was milking cows, raising hogs, cultivating fields, bailing and bucking hay, butchering beef, digging irrigation ditches, stomping cotton in the hopper, erecting and repairing fences, and roping, branding, dehorning, and castrating calves and other farm animals, among other chores. The path he took to becoming a multilingual educator began with interactions with farm hands from Mexico. It continued through a 10-year career in the Native American jewelry industry, a Peace Corps assignment in Paraguay, and a 20-year career as a Spanish-English dual-language elementary school teacher in Albuquerque. And his career didn’t stop there. Listen and enjoy the scholastic and extra scholastic adventures of this former farm and ranch kid from southern New Mexico. We also discuss cognates, false cognates, and borrowed words.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Originally from New York State, Judy Gordon was one of the cofounders in 1995 of the Zia Elementary School dual language program in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was hired to teach the Kindergarten-first-and-second grade class, while another teacher [podcast host clears throat] was hired to teach the third-fourth-and-fifth-grade class. To some, it might seem intimidating to take on the challenge of teaching three grades simultaneously in two languages. But for Judy, this model was simply the way education should be, since it better reflected the multilingual and multiage life outside the classroom that most of her students were experiencing. At the time Judy accepted the position, a dual-language program or strand within school was rather novel, since most of the other dual-language programs in the district were school-wide programs. This was yet another challenge Judy accepted without reservation. Over the eleven years she taught this class, she nurtured and taught several hundred students during the initial stages of their lifelong journey toward multilingualism. And now she’s off to fulfill a lifelong dream of visiting Cuba! Plus, we discuss circumstantial vs. elective multilingualism. Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

Michele Trujillo is the longest-serving kindergarten teacher in the dual-language program at Zia Elementary in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She joined the program in 2006. Since then, she has experienced various demographic changes in the neighborhood surrounding Zia. These changes have resulted in shifts in language knowledge, acquisition, and use in her classroom and in the school. We asked her about these shifts, as well as about her artistic work on behalf of the dual-language teaching community in New Mexico, the statewide dual-language teachers’ Facebook group she established some years ago, how she allocates language use in her classroom, and more. You can view Michele’s winning Cosecha poster by clicking on the link below. Plus, language submersion can occur without actually getting wet.https://michele-trujillo-art.my.canva.site/ Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

On this, our first full episode of the podcast, we meet Grigori Grigoriev, the star of the story we told in Episode 0.  As a ten-year-old Russian immigrant to the United States in 1996, Grigori found himself enrolled in a 3rd-4th-and-5th grade, Spanish-English, dual-language program in the American Southwest. In this episode, Grigori provides his account of his experiences in that classroom, how he figured out which languages were being used in the classroom, and how he managed to create meaningful learning experiences with his new classmates. We also learn about his life in the  ensuing years, up to his current life as an educator in Germany’s “non traditional” sector, as a software tech, as a soccer and tennis player in German’s competitive amateur leagues, and as an adult who does all these things and more in five languages! Plus, what does the word “Anglo” mean and why is it used so widely in the Southwest? Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com

In this, our inaugural episode, we discuss the genesis of the podcast and present its mission, scope, and content.  We then present the interesting case of Grigori Grigoriev, a student from Russia who, some years ago, arrived unexpectedly in a 3rd-4th-and-5th grade Spanish-English dual-language classroom in New Mexico, halfway through the academic year.  After hearing our version of his experiences in the classroom, we announce that Grigori himself, now an adult living and working in Berlin, will be our guest in our next episode, where he offers his version of his arrival in this extraordinary classroom 28 years ago.Send us Fan MailSupport the showContact us!Text: Click on Send us a Text Message in the episode view of your appInstagram & Facebook: @languagegoestoschoolEmail: [email protected]: https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com