This is the story of Han, a Vietnamesekindergartner, during her first year atEast Elementary School. According toVan Nguyen, Vietnamese translator,Han’s father, mother, and paternalgrandmother moved to Californiafrom central Vietnam eight years ear-lier through the Catholic SocialServices’ Amerasian Program. Twoyears later, they moved to theMidwest where Han’s parents foundjobs at a meatpacking company. Herfather worked night shifts and hermother worked days, seven days aweek. They did not learn to speakEnglish because of the nature of theirjobs and the prevalence ofVietnamese speakers in their homeand work communities. Theclassroom, then, was a new languageand cultural experience for Han.

In this new environment, Han had tolearn the social codes of behavior,interact with others in English, andcomplete assignments and routines.While the presence of two Vietnamese-speaking children helped bridge herhome and school cultures, Han’saccess into the school culturedepended largely on her inquiriesinto language and meaning. In Han’sethnically diverse class, the childrenspoke English or an English dialect,either because their parents did orbecause their older siblings under-stood English as a second language.

Inquiring into a Second Language andthe Culture of School

Jann Pataray-Ching, with Brooke Kitt-Hinrichs

and Van Nguyen

A young Vietnamese child engages in learner-generated

inquiries about language within the social contexts of

school and home.

However, because Han had neither ofthese scaffolds, she faced a greaterchallenge. Remarkably, Han was oneof several children who demonstratedthe most literacy growth by the endof the school year.

I worked as a participant-researcheralongside Han’s teacher, Brooke Kitt-Hinrichs, to observe Han. We notedthat her literacy learning was greatlyenhanced by inquiries that Hanherself generated. Brooke encouragedthe children to move freely in the firstone-and-a-half hours of the day tocenters—kitchen, blocks, sandbox,free-writing, library, art, writing activ-ity, and computer. Han used theseexperiences to immerse herself in theoral, print, and written languages thatsurrounded and challenged her dailyas she searched for ways to pursue herpersonal and social inquiries, makingthe strange familiar. This articledescribes how these learner-generatedinquiries enhanced Han’s languagedevelopment.

PHYSICAL ANDSOCIAL CONTEXT

The walls of Brooke’s kindergartenclassroom were filled with literacy—magazine photographs of peoplefrom many cultures, each child’sname written on the fronts andbacks of laminated poster board,

construction paper cutouts of 12birthday cakes corresponding witheach month of the year, 26 largealphabet cards from the district-mandated phonics program, and awall of words generated by the chil-dren as part of their yearlonginquiry into written language.

Throughout the day, Brooke encour-aged children to work harmoniouslywith one another. She helpedchildren resolve differences duringplay; pointed out the strengths ofindividuals so other children mightrespond more positively to thesechildren during various social andinstructional activities; and modeledappropriate ways of interacting at acenter. Thus, Brooke significantlyfacilitated students’ socializationinto appropriate learning behaviorsand the mores of the culturalcommunity (Smith & Qi, 2003).

LEARNER-GENERATEDINQUIRIES WITHIN AN ENGLISHLANGUAGE LEARNER CONTEXT

This study’s theoretical frame is com-prised of research on inquiry-basedcurricula and research on second-language acquisition in schoolsettings. Reggio Emilia’s earlychildhood program in Italy has docu-mented how children explore theworld through “a hundred languages,

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a hundred thoughts, a hundred waysof thinking, playing, of speaking”(Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998,p. 3). Through this project approach,young children engage in extendedin-depth investigations and use“graphic languages” to “record andrepresent their memories, ideas, pre-dictions, hypotheses, observations,feelings, and so forth in their proj-ects” (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998, p. 28).

Similarly, Harste (1994) sees inquiryas an assumed “openness” tolearning, in which learners are notconstrained by predetermined objec-tives that restrict their “personal con-struction of meaning” (p. 1223). Norare inquiries imposed by others—teachers, peers, or parents—butinstead emerge from the learner.When children explore those areasthat most intrigue them, they becomevested in learning. These inquiries,whether separate from the curriculumor discovered within broad whole-class themes, are driven by the indi-vidual’s personal interests, whichbecome the driving force for learningas “learner-generated inquiries”(Pataray-Ching & Kavanaugh, 1999).

This study of learner-generatedinquiry intersects with research onEnglish language learners. WongFillmore and Snow (2002) arguethat teachers must be agents ofsocialization to effectively assiststudents in acquiring a second lan-guage. When teachers assume theseroles by contributing to and becom-ing part of the classroom’s physicaland social contexts, they enhancethe language-learning environmentand the practices, values, andbeliefs of the cultural community.

Further, the English languagelearner’s fluid and continual inter-change between school and homecultures influences the individual’sliteracy development. As individu-als build on what is “acquired athome from family members, child-

ren become socialized into the waysof thinking and behaving that char-acterize educated individuals” (WongFillmore & Snow, 2002, p. 17). Hence,within a learner-generated inquiry-based curriculum, teachers play asignificant role by providing thelearning structures in which thelearners’ literacy development mayflourish.

Additionally, teachers create learn-ing environments that approximateliteracy learning across diverseenvironments—academic andnonacademic, school and home,informal and formal—so thatstudents may build on existingschema as they expand theirliteracy repertoires. Once childrenlearn the cultural schema of a par-ticular community, they participatemore fully because they understandthe community’s underlying mean-ings (Carrell, 1987; Droop &Verhoeven, 1998; Drucker, 2003;Eskey, 2002). This research oninquiry-based curricula and second-language acquisition informs ourinterpretation of Han’s literacydevelopment.

HAN’S INQUIRY INTOA SECOND LANGUAGEAND CULTURE

Han inquired through assigned andunassigned oral and writtenlanguage engagements. As part ofher inquiry into learning language,learning through language, andlearning about language (Halliday,1980), Han observed and analyzed

others’ language engagements beforetaking risks with her own. Theseengagements made the curriculumpersonally and socially meaningfulbecause Han’s interactions andinquiries were all tied within asociocultural context, allowing Hanto construct ongoing semiotic inter-pretations of knowing through art,song, and print. In addition to theinstructional requirements, whichHan completed, she pursued learner-generated inquiries that were notimposed on or initiated by her peers,her teacher, or adult assistants.Through these processes of inquiry,Han constructed her own interpreta-tions of meaning and knowing.

By the third week of school, Hanactively observed and participated inliteracy. Han watched and copied Thi,a Vietnamese classmate, who played afood server at a restaurant. Thi tookBrooke’s food order, moved to thestove, and pretended to mix and stirthe ingredients. Together, they took outlittle plates and served the food thatBrooke ordered, placing the plasticfood items on Brooke’s plate. Hanbrought the foods out to Brooke, andwith Han standing at Brooke’s side,Brooke held up each of the plasticfoods and confirmed what Hanbrought to the table. “You brought mea pineapple, a banana, some pizza, andmilk,” Brooke said to Han. “Mmmm.This is all very good.” She pretended toeat the fruits while Han smiled. Duringher meal, Brooke dialed one of the toyphones and made a phone call to Han.“Ring, ring, ring.” Thi and Cindypicked up the other phone and handedit to Han. “Hello, is this Han?” Brookeasked. Han smiled. Then Thi told Hanin Vietnamese to say “hello.” Hansmiled shyly, so Brooke pretended totalk to Thi on the phone, “I’m just call-ing up some of my friends while I eatmy delicious lunch.” They talked for afew minutes then hung up. WhenBrooke completed her meal, Han tookher dishes and helped clean up.

Han observed andanalyzed others’

language engagementsbefore taking risks

with her own.

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On another day, Han shared herjournal entry with the class. “Heart,”Han said, describing the picture shehad drawn. Knowing how limitedHan was in her English, Brooke filledin the other words to help Hanexpress her thoughts, “You liked theheart?” Han nodded. “That’s a verynice comment,” Brooke said, encour-aging Han to continue sharing dur-ing future journal discussions.

Cummins (2001) describes languageproficiency as conversational fluency,discrete language skills, and academiclanguage proficiency. In the abovescenarios, we see Han inquiring intoconversational fluency as she learnsthe critical contexts that assist her indeveloping her other literate practices.

Han’s language and literacy de-velopment required her persistenceand desire to learn a new languageas a means of being able to functionand succeed in this classroom. Herinquiry into language and literacycontinued throughout the schoolyear. To examine the kinds of inquirythat can enhance a child’s literacy,Han’s yearlong inquiry is subdividedinto four categories: 1) inquiry intoliteracy at home; 2) active analysesof others’ literacies; 3) negotiationbetween Han’s interpretation ofclassroom events and her existingpersonal knowledge; and 4) connec-tions within and across pragmaticcontexts. Although the differentkinds of inquiry are separated foranalysis, these inquiries are actuallyfluid, overlapping, nonlinear, anddynamic. Through this web of expe-riences, Han constructed a semioticunderstanding, or personal inter-pretation, of language and literacy,enabling her to establish her identityand set the groundwork for futurelearning and cultural negotiations.

Inquiry into Literacy at Home

In school, Han often drew, wrote,read, and counted. Although shehad numerous choices for inquiry,

she engaged in those centers thatallowed her to practice her literacy, art,and math skills. In the middle of theyear, Han’s father told us through VanNguyen, Vietnamese translator, whyHan appeared to be so driven to workhard in school. He explained that earlyin the school year, the ESL teachercalled to say that Han was not doingwell academically. Brooke later sharedthat the ESL teacher called to addressHan’s behavior; Han needed additionalencouragement to stay with the classand participate in class activities.However, her family interpreted thecall as a report on Han’s academicprogress. Regarding education highly,Han’s mother told Han that if she didnot improve, her books would bethrown away. This response alsorevealed that books were already animportant part of Han’s home literacyenvironment and therefore one of thecritical components of her early liter-acy development (Harste, Woodward,& Burke, 1984; Hudelson, 1999). Hantranslated her parents’ threat to throwout all her books as a stronger motiva-tion to “do better” in school. Sheworked to make connections betweenthe teacher’s instruction and her owndiscoveries during morning centers, tomake connections between what sheperceived on her own and what herVietnamese-speaking friends couldclarify, to take greater risks withlanguage, and to master new concepts.

At home, Mrs. Huynh workedhard to support her daughter’sinquiries. Mrs. Huynh broughtout the letters of the alphabet,mixed them up, and asked Hanto put them back in order. Hanwent to sleep early and statedthat she woke up at 4 a.m. towork on the alphabet. Sheshowed her parents herfinished work in the morning.The family also had aVietnamese/English dictionary,alphabet books, books withdrawings and shapes, and

Vietnamese joke books that theybrought from Vietnam. Soon Hanbecame so driven to draw and writethat she preferred to do that for hoursinstead of doing anything else. “Once,I invited Han to go with me to thestore,” Mr. Huynh said, “but instead,she wanted to stay in her room for4–5 hours drawing and writing.”

On the weekends, a neighbor in thebuilding visited Han to help her withEnglish. He showed her objects andtaught her how to say their names.His teaching became evident inschool. Han played a computer gamein class in which she needed tomatch the letter with the picture ofan item that began with that letter.When the letter “k” appeared on thescreen and the pictures of a boat,heart, kite, and lamp appeared aschoices, Han chose the picture of thekite without hesitation. When weasked Han how she knew which pic-ture corresponded to the letter “k,”she responded, “Mr. Lomison.”Through Han’s inquiries intolanguage, she made connectionsbetween the vocabulary words shelearned at home with those she sawon the school computer.

Han’s father also shared that Hanenjoyed memorizing songs. Forexample, she memorized songs froma Vietnamese opera, which she heardon her grandmother’s videotaped

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Figure 1. Han singing the “AlphabetSong”

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recordings and then sang back to hergrandmother. We observed this sameenjoyment in school. One favorite athome and school was the “AlphabetSong.” When a classmate read theletters of the alphabet in a book, Hanwould automatically sing the “Alpha-bet Song” enthusiastically, preventingher classmate from singing it on hisown (see Figure 1). All of these eventsformed her cultural schema that gaveher the foundational structure sheneeded to make connections withschool literacy (Carrell & Esterhold,1983; Drucker, 2003; Heath, 1983;Weaver, 1994).

Active Analyses of Others’ Literacies

Han learned that she could gainaccess into this classroom commun-ity by observing others participatingin it. As she engaged in her ownactivities of writing letters and num-bers, drawing pictures, and playingcomputer games, she also observedher classmates, learning from them,participating with them, and makingadjustments in her own personalknowledge about language and liter-acy. Krashen (1982) describes thisperiod as the “silent period” in whichsecond language learners go througha period of listening to, watching,and learning from others aroundthem until they develop enough self-confidence to take risks withlanguage on their own.

Such observations may also beinterpreted as inquiry. In the thirdweek of September, Brooke helpedHan and another student make abooklet of shapes. Han closelywatched her classmate complete hisbook and read it to Brooke. Quietly,Han worked on her own booklet,choosing the correct color for eachpage. When she was through,Brooke asked Han to read her book.Han did not appear to understand,so Brooke pointed to each shape,said the word, and looked at Han.Brooke demonstrated the process

until Han repeatedafter her. Han spokevery quietly, unsureof herself.

On another day Hanwatched a classmate,Anita, trace a stencilof letters and picturesonto the magic slate.After she traced all ofthem, Brooke askedAnita what each let-ter stood for in rela-tion to the picture.Han listened carefullyas Anita identifiedeach letter and thecorresponding pictures that began withthose letters’ sounds (see Figure 2).

These engagements show that Han’sobservations were not passive, butactive processes within each “lit-eracy event” (Heath, 1983). Sheregularly analyzed the processesthrough which others were able toaccomplish their tasks with ac-curacy. Han appeared to be askingherself: How are they accomplishingthat? How can I do that? What col-ors go with what page? Whatinstruments do I need to draw thosepictures and letters? And she drewtentative conclusions: “That saysorange. That says apple. I can usethe stencil to help me draw the pic-tures.” Each day for Han was filledwith inquiries involving intenseobservation, question-posing, andtheorizing about her world. Hantook in information, connected itwith existing hypotheses, and madeadjustments to fit her new schema.

Negotiation between Han’s Interpretation of Classroom Eventsand Her Existing Schema

Bruner (1990) contends that mean-ing is a “culturally mediatedphenomenon that depends upon theprior existence of a shared symbolsystem” (p. 69). Through her contin-ual inquiries into language, Han

learned that she had to engage inactivities, even if she was unsureabout their meaning or significance.She saw others place value in theletters and words that lined theclassroom walls. Her teacher askedher to write in her daily journal bycopying letters and words frombooks or by writing the letter thatbegan the word for the picture thatthey drew. In addition, Brooke’sdaily read-aloud time affirmed thevalue of words in stories.

These experiences taught Han thesignificance of letters and words.She saw these symbols in school andat home in stories that her parentsread to her in Vietnamese. Han’sexperiences with literacy sparked herinterest in writing. In one of herearly attempts with print, Han wroterandom letters on the page whileplaying in the kitchen area with herfriend (see Figure 3).

Pelletier and Lasenby (2003) assertthat children’s early forms of writingare generated through imitation,instruction, and construction. That is,children imitate writing from theirprint environment, conventionalizewriting through direct instruction,and construct writing in real-worldtasks. Han continued to notice wordsposted on the walls. One day Han

Figure 2. Han watches classmate trace lettersand pictures on magic slate

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overheard Brooke and anotherstudent discussing the student’s Junebirthday. Brooke pointed to the wallat the 12 monthly birthday cakes. Asa way to recognize and celebrateeach child’s birthday, Brooke hadwritten each student’s name individ-ually on construction paper candlesand placed them on the appropriatecakes. On a strip of constructionpaper, Han started copying what shesaw—“March,” “April,” and “June”(see Figure 4).

We asked her what those wordswere, but she was unable to tell us.She appeared intrigued by thewords on the birthday cakes, butcould not yet understand why theywere significant. The letters andwords on the classroom walls con-tinued to catch Han’s attention. Inone of her daily journals, she copiedthe letters off the alphabet chart.That day, she shared with the classher journal entry, in which she hadwritten some of the letters of thealphabet, “ABCDEeFHij.”

Britton (1993) describes eachengagement as a “predictive appara-tus” in which each encounter buildsupon the next with the hopes thatthe collective body of interactionswill eventually mean something later(p. 193). In this sense, Han hypothe-sized that meaning was mediatedthrough letters, words, and pictures,

and if she wanted to enter into thismeaning-making environment, shehad to mimic their forms, practicetheir usage, and learn the sharedinterpretations these symbol systemsrepresented. And while Han mightnot have understood the significanceof each literacy engagement, shecontinued to persist, building a“cumulative representation of [her]interactions with [her] environment”(Britton, 1993, p. 193).

Connections within and across Pragmatic Contexts

Han began to recognize the utility ofprint across pragmatic contexts andthe different purposes of literacyacross genres. Literacy was no longeran individual exploration, but asocial inquiry in which she used andobserved others using print for com-municative purposes. These connec-tions within and across pragmaticcontexts became part of her overallinquiry process into language.

For example, Han enjoyed using theMagna Doodle stencil to trace theletter “a” and the picture of anapple. While this appeared to be apassive activity, it was part of herlarger inquiry into understandingthe written English language. Thefollowing week when Han watcheda classmate draw and write, sheobserved the string of capital letters

her friend wrote across the page—FIOLALOAMGOO—and focused onthe “A.” “Apple,” she said. This asso-ciation demonstrated a tremendousconnection. Han both identified theletter “A” within the context of theMagna Doodle stencil, and in otherfonts, such as another child’s stringof letters. Further, while the MagnaDoodle activity was an individualexploration, the literacy event thatfollowed became a social activity inwhich Han attempted to converseabout her writing.

By late March, Han’s literacy devel-opment began to exceed many ofher classmates’. This became appar-ent one day when she listened in asHope wrote a letter to her mother.Han overheard us asking Hope if shewanted to tell her mother that sheloves her in her letter. Hope wantedto, but said she did not know how towrite “I love you.” Han immediatelyspelled “I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U” clearlyand accurately. When Hope askedhow to write these letters, Hanpointed to each letter and Hopecopied them on her paper (see Figure5). Han’s abilities to assist other stu-dents demonstrated her developingcultural schema (Drucker, 2003) andconnections she had forged acrossvarious pragmatic contexts.

Han’s reading development in-creased throughout the rest of the

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Figure 3. Han’s early writing Figure 4. Han copies the months of the year

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school year. Through her manyobservations of Brooke reading tothe class, her friends reading books,and her own experiences listeningto books on tape, Han knew how tohold a book upright and how toturn the pages in the right direction.She interacted with the text byidentifying letters and shapes. Onebook included one descriptive wordon each page—wet, rough, soft,smooth, furry, prickly, squishy, andsticky. She asked me to read thebook to her. On the first page, Ipointed to the word and asked,“What’s that?”

Han said “W.”

“Uh-huh. ‘W’ is for wet.” I pointedto all of the wet objects on thepage. This process continued foreach page, and Han successfullyidentified the first letter of eachword, “R” for rough, “S” for soft,“S” for smooth, “F” for furry, “P”for prickly, and so on.

In another book about seasons,spring, summer, fall, and winterwere each printed on a separatepage. However, even when the sea-son was read aloud to Han, shechose to identify pictures. On thepage about summer, Han pointed tothe apple tree. “Apple tree,” shesaid. Then she brushed her fingeracross the sign above the doghouse.I asked her what the sign said, and

Han yelled, “D for doggy!” Han alsoidentified other pictures: “redapple,” “pumpkin,” “baby bird,”“snowman,” and “house.” Han’sattention to letters and illustrationshelped her make sense of text anddemonstrated her developmentaluse of and attention to her seman-tic, syntactic, and graphophoniclanguage cues (Goodman, 1973).

These interactions with text enabledHan to make connections acrosspragmatic contexts in her writing bylabeling her drawings. In one journalentry in the second half of the schoolyear, she drew a picture of a Barneybook. After drawing a tall rectangu-lar shape to represent a book andcurvy lines at the top to indicate thebook’s pages, she signified book bywriting “Bk” in the middle of thedrawing. On another day, she drew apicture of a duck. Then on the topright-hand corner of her page, shewrote “A DK” for “a duck.”

While most of Han’s classmateswere writing individual letters ofthe alphabet or associating initialsounds of words with theirappropriate letters, Han’s writingexceeded those skills. Her inventedspelling included both the first andlast sounds of words, indicating herdeveloping ability to discriminatesounds in words. In addition, sheused a complete phrase to identify

her drawings. That is, instead ofwriting “dk” to describe her drawing,she wrote “a dk,” a syntactically andsemantically appropriate phrase.

This combined use of language cuesdemonstrated her growing commandover the English language, most evi-dent when Han wrote a letter to herfriend (see Figure 6). We asked Hanwhat she wrote, and she said, “Mary.I love MaryRose.” In this simple let-ter, Han had written all the parts ofa complete sentence—a subject, verb,and direct object. She no longerneeded to copy commercially printedmaterial or the works of classmates.She was able to generate andcommunicate her own meaning insocially appropriate ways, demon-strating an emerging understandingof the deep structure of this secondlanguage and this second culturalcommunity (Droop & Verhoeven,1998; Eskey, 2002; Weaver, 1994).The message showed no idiomatic ortranslational miscues from her firstlanguage to English. Still, Hanpointed to the “E,” which was float-ing above the letter “M” and thenpointed to the letter “s” at the edgeof the paper, indicating that the “E”was supposed to follow the “s.” Weasked her what happened. She shylysmiled and shrugged. She pulled outan envelope, and starting at its leftedge, she wrote “MaryRose,” fitting

Figure 5. Han helps classmate spell words bypointing to alphabet chart

Figure 6. Han’s letter to her friend

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all the letters in their proper places.She carefully folded up her letter,slid it in the envelope, and deliveredit to her friend’s cubby. In onesense, Han told us that she knew the“E” was supposed to follow the “s,”but she had just run out of room. Inanother sense, Han showed us thather inquiries into language, whilenow functional, were ongoing,developing, and discovering.

When Han entered school, she, likemost other classmates, could notidentify letters or write her name.She associated with only two Viet-namese friends, who spoke bothVietnamese and English. She reliedon them to learn many classroomroutines. While many of herclassmates struggled with identify-ing the first sounds of words at theend of the school year, Han success-fully wrote the first sounds of manywords. She knew the “AlphabetSong,” and she wrote and identifiedmost of the letters in the alphabet.She could identify a triangle,square, rectangle, heart, and circle.She knew colors such as blue, red,yellow, and purple. When shewanted to spell someone’s name ora word, she resourcefully looked forthe name or word writtensomewhere around the room.

Han was speaking in complete sen-tences and with correct pronuncia-tion. For example, at the art table,Brooke overheard Han saying, “Willyou pass me the green?” “Could Ihave the pink?” “Just a minutewhen I’m done,” and “You couldhave the blue.” Her spoken andwritten literacies had increased sodramatically that Han was able toplay games with her peers and par-ticipate in their conversations.

CONSTRUCTING SEMIOTICINTERPRETATIONS OF KNOWING

Cummins’s (2001) domains ofliteracy—conversational fluency

(informal oral proficiency), discretelanguage skills (skills learned underdirect instruction), and academicproficiency (specialized vocabularyand complex written and oralsentence structures)—can function asa dynamic whole within an inquiry-based curriculum rather than as alinear process. An assessment withina linear model might suggest thatHan is flourishing within the con-versational and discrete levels andhas not yet entered significant aca-demic contexts. However, assessmentof Han’s literacy development withinan inquiry-based model suggeststhat Han has already begun toacquire the foundations of academicliteracy. The foundations ofacademic literacy—attention to con-text, curiosity about the functionsand structures of language, recogni-tion of literacies and literate behav-iors that carry power or culturalcapital within the classroom context,experimentation with new syntacti-cal forms, recognition of thecommunicative power of language,an intuitive sense of how languageworks, and the successful cross-application of literate practicesacross cultural contexts such as home and school—are already part of Han’s literate experiences and practices.

Placing the three domains ofliteracy within a semiotic frameworkilluminates our understanding ofHan’s literate practice and Brooke’sfacilitation of Han’s literacy growth.A semiotic framework explains howthe three domains work together asa dynamic whole within diverseinquiry contexts. The examples ofHan’s learner-generated inquiries inher home, her analyses of others’ lit-eracies, her interpretations of class-room events and existing personalknowledge, and her connectionswithin and across pragmaticcontexts, are only a few of the mul-tiple inquiries Han engaged in

throughout the school year. Each ofthese experiences built upon the pre-vious ones, forming new theories ofknowing and meaning.

In every semiotic event, there is anobject, a sign, and an interpretent(Peirce, 1985). Each inquiry eventfor Han became a semiotic interpre-tation of language and literacy. Butthe combined semiotic experiences,or what Eco (1985) describes as aglobal semantic web, are theinterpretation and understandingthat are constructed as theindividual links together a series ofmetaphors to form new semanticmeanings (see Figure 7).

In this case, all of Han’s inquiries—home literacies, others’ literacies,classroom events—within and acrosspragmatic contexts form a globalsemantic system of Han’s languageand literacy knowing. Her interpre-tation of each inquiry event becomespart of her web of experiences, andshe constructs an understandingabout how she can use both writtenand oral language to participatefully in her classroom culture. Everyinquiry that she explored from herown interests added to thestorehouse of theorizing she madethroughout the year. This combinedunderstanding has shaped hercultural identity as a language user.

NEGOTIATING LANGUAGEAND CULTURAL IDENTITY: THEORIZING POINTS OFCONTESTATION FOR HAN

According to the Vietnamese culture,it is the man’s responsibility to takecare of the family. If he is the eldestson, he must be sure his parents, chil-dren, and siblings are all taken careof. This is why it is not uncommonfor Vietnamese families to haveextended families and several genera-tions living in one household(Rutledge, 1992). Mr. Huynh, the onlyson, moved to the United States with

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his mother, wife, and sister in hopesof having a better life in the UnitedStates. When we asked Mr. Huynh ifhe and his wife intend to becomeU.S. citizens, Mr. Huynh said that hiswife wanted to become a citizeneventually, but he did not have thosesame aspirations at this time. How-ever, he planned to live in the UnitedStates permanently.

The following year, he intended tosend Han to a Vietnamese school on weekends so that she wouldlearn how to write and read in Vietnamese. When we asked whatgoals he had for Han, he remarkedthat he wanted Han to speak andwrite in both English andVietnamese. However, he hoped that she would speak and write Vietnamese a little better and thatshe would not become tooproficient in spoken and writtenEnglish. According to theVietnamese translator, Van Nguyen,and documented by Rutledge(1992), his comments reflect thebelief within the Vietnamese culturethat if women are too educated,they might have a hard time findinga husband. This belief stems in partfrom Vietnamese family traditionsthat place women as subservient tomen. Because it is the man’s

responsibility to take care of hisfamily and make the importantdecisions that affect them, his intel-ligence should be superior. If thewomen are too smart, they maybegin to question the man’sdecisions and even the traditionalroles of husband and wife, disrupt-ing generations of tradition in theVietnamese culture.

Mr. Huynh spoke proudly about hisdaughter. He described Han asresponsible, determined, self-disciplined, and easygoing. He rarelyneeded to discipline her. He onlyrecalled three incidents when shehad misbehaved—once for showingdisrespect for her grandmother byrequesting that her grandmotherleave her bedroom, another for slap-ping her father’s hand away when hecaused her to make a stray mark onher drawing, and a third time whenshe wrote alphabet letters all overthe walls of their rented apartmentthat Mr. Huynh subsequently had torepaint. In these rare cases, Han’spunishment involved kneeling untilher mother or father permitted her tostand. According to Vietnamese cus-tom and the family’s religiousbeliefs, kneeling would make Hanthink about what she had done andpray to God for forgiveness.

Mr. Huynh taught Han the traditionsand customs of the Vietnamese cul-ture. According to tradition, hisnewborn son will eventually beexpected to take care of the family—grandmother, mother, Han, anyyounger siblings, his wife, and chil-dren. In this scenario, Han and theother siblings would be expected torespect the family decisions that heryounger brother would assign. Inthis way, Han would support thefamily unit.

However, as with many familieswho emigrate to the United States,there is a big difference between afirst-generation Vietnamese inAmerica, such as Han’s parents, anda second-generation VietnameseAmerican, such as Han and heryounger brother. In the future, asHan continues to live andparticipate in the American culturethrough school and work, she willalso acquire the values andtraditions of a western lifestyle thatwill oftentimes conflict with herVietnamese culture. She willundoubtedly observe her peers talk-ing back to teachers and parents.She will see other girls pursuingtheir education. She will learn whatit means to be independent and tothrive and succeed as an individualrather than only as a contributingfamily member. And unless herVietnamese community is able tosupport her Vietnamese education,Han will have more opportunity toattain higher educational levels inEnglish than in Vietnamese.

Han’s experiences as a VietnameseAmerican, then, will be vastly differentfrom those of her parents. Hers will bea search for her own ethnic identity asa Vietnamese American (Fischer,1986). She will notice a differencebetween several groups of people.First, those Vietnamese children, suchas herself, who migrated to the UnitedStates at a young age and adapted thewestern culture; second, the broad

Figure 7. Han’s global semantic system on language and literacy

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group of Americans with whom shewill play, go to school, and study;and third, those Vietnamese childrenwho migrated as teenagers and maybe more intimately connected to theirVietnamese traditions because ofprolonged contact with their nativeculture.

The classroom environment thatBrooke established provided Hanwith the space and freedom togrow. While there were manyorganizational and instructionalstructures in place, there was muchroom for Han to pursue her learner-generated inquiries. This classroomenvironment encouraged andsupported Han’s inquiries into asecond language and a second cul-ture. She had many opportunities toexperiment with written and orallanguage as she interacted with herfriends at centers, completedrequired assignments with herteacher’s assistance, and transactedwith the print-rich environmentaround her.

Further, the classroom environmentwas a complementary extension toHan’s home environment. Even ifHan’s parents were not proficient inthe English language, they knewthat by emphasizing the importanceof Han’s education through books,alphabet games, singing, and even-tually Vietnamese language school,they were supporting Han’sinquiries into developing thissecond culture while maintainingher primary culture. With all thesestructures in place, Han could flour-ish in both cultures, claiming herown identity as a VietnameseAmerican and as a user of English.

As Han continues in formal Americanschooling, her learner-generatedinquiries will become more sophisti-cated and complex. Han’s challenge,and our challenge as educators, willbe to create curricula that will helpHan thrive intellectually and explorenew ideas and academic disciplineswhile still remaining connected to asense of culture and community.

Such curricula will encourage her toinvest authority in her culture and toderive questions based on this author-ity, as well as to place her experiencesin dialogue with those of others.

Clifford (1997) argues that museumsare more than cultural storehouses;they are points of contestation popu-lated with cultural and political val-ues. Comparisons may be drawn toour classrooms in which culturalintersections or “contact zones” (Clifford, 1997) occur for people fromdifferent geographical and historicalroots. These intersections may createtension between home and schoolcultures. A rich curricula, one thatwill be a bridge rather than a barrierbetween home and school, willencourage children like Han, if shedesires, to inquire more profoundlyinto her cultural identity and to“(re)invent and discover” (Fischer,1986) new ways of defining who sheis and who she will become, perhapsone who is both firmly rooted in thepast and grounded in the future.

Inquiring into a Second Language

The multimedia resources of the Internet can support thelanguage explorations of children. These Internet sitesdescribe just a few supportive online activities that invitestudents to creatively explore learning English.

• Repeat after Us, Your Online Library and Language Lab,http://www.repeatafterus.com/, is a free resource forinquiries into pronunciation and reading fluency in Eng-lish. The site was founded by Ellie Wen, a high schoolstudent who saw children struggling with pronunciationin an ESL class and decided to build a Web site toprovide free texts and audio clips. Through the efforts ofother students and faculty, this site has become anaward-winning, critically acclaimed online library andlanguage lab. The contents include fluent audio read-alouds of poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, children’sstories, nursery rhymes, memorable quotes, and stories

from around the world. One section allows youngchildren to echo read nursery rhymes and to engage inrepeated readings.

• Interesting Things for ESL Students, http://www.manythings.org/, offers various types of online sources,many of which include multimedia interactivity, such asaudio support. Students explore language in different for-mats, such as using a cell phone for vocabulary study,unscrambling sentences, playing with an onscreen mag-netic board, gaining access to over 700 signs, and learn-ing a new song through Podcast. A link leads to questionsfor students and teachers—What is Sentence Singer andhow does it work? How can computer-assisted writingsupport ESL students’ inquiries into language?

—Linda D. Labbo

Internet Sites That Support the Language Inquiries of ESL Students

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Inquiring into a Second Language

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Author Biographies

Jann Pataray-Ching is professor of edu-cation at California State Polytechnic Uni-versity, Pomona, California. BrookeKitt-Hinrichs teaches at Zeman Elemen-tary School in Lincoln, Nebraska. VanNguyen is a bilingual liaison for LincolnPublic Schools in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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