Culture and Reading Ability

This week on The Voice of Literacy, Dr. Baker and Dr. Gottardo, an associate professor of psychology who studies reading and culture, discussed the effects of culture on literacy. Specifically, Baker wanted to know what differentiates successful and unsuccessful second language learners. She remarked that many times, second language learners may be diagnosed with learning disabilities when they are just struggling with the difficulties of learning a second language. Gottardo moved on to explaining one aspect of students who are successful second language learners: acculturation. 

Dr. Gottardo first discussed the differences between acculturation and enculturation. Acculturation, Gottardo explained, is identifying with mainstream culture and trying to become part of it. Studies have indicated that the level of acculturation a student has can help predict reading comprehension skills. Enculturation, on the other hand, is identifying with one's heritage culture. Two common misconceptions are that maintaining enculturation hinders the ability to learn a new language and acculturating will decrease identification with one's heritage culture. While this negative relationship has not be found, a positive relationship has been found. 

Acculturation has shown to help students improve their literacy in a second language. In order to understand a text, you must understand the language. But, in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of the words you are reading, you must understand certain aspects of the culture about which you are reading. By encouraging cultural mixing in the classroom, students who are learning a second language will gain a better understanding of the culture and, thus, the language they are trying to learn. This will help strengthen their reading comprehension as well as help students build friendships where they can share their own heritage culture. 

Parents do not need to worry about their students losing touch with their heritage culture due to acculturation. To further ease parents' concern in regard to this matter, some schools are developing after school heritage clubs where students who are learning a second language can also receive instruction in their native language and culture. Additionally, students who are not of the particular heritage are encouraged to attend the clubs to learn new languages and to gain insights about other cultures. 

With the increasing diversity in the school system, I am encouraged to know that acculturation has positive effects on literacy skills while not decreasing enculturation. As educators, we are encouraged to help students embrace their personal cultures while needing to educate them in the language of the particular country we are in. Knowing that doing both is possible without one diminishing the effect of the other is another constructive factor to keep in mind as I develop my lessons to support both cultural mixing and learning literacy skills.