Language Goes To School
A podcast about multilingual education in New Mexico and beyond. We invite a wide variety of experts in the field of multilingual education to address theories, practices, policies, and issues related to multilingual education. The primary goal of the podcast is to provide a platform that brings the art and science of multilingual education from the classrooms, where it is practiced, to wider audiences. Your host is David Aram Wilson, a retired K-5 multilingual educator and currently a full-time lecturer at the University of New Mexico, where he educates future multilingual teachers.
In addition to tapping the Send a Text Message in the episode view of your podcast app, you can contact us via Facebook and Instagram @languagegoestoschool. Our e-mail address is languagegoestoschool@gmail.com. Our website is https://languagegoestoschool.buzzsprout.com. You can subscribe to the podcast by tapping Support the Show in the episode view. And please leave us a review in the show view of your app. Final sound mixing by Auphonic.com. Music by E. Grenga, C. Lawry, D. Stevens, M. McMahon/Ionics/RimoMusic. Artwork by Simon Young at Guerrilla Graphix
Episodes
31 episodes
Ishtar Rosario Medina: Goddess of Love, War, Fertility . . . and Bilingualism
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 Inte...
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Episode 28
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41:21
Ina Montoya: So, You Want to Learn Apache . . .
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 ...
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Episode 27
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49:48
Nancy Oakes: Up, Up, and Away, in a Belle Montgolfière
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 ...
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Episode 26
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49:30
Bardo Trujillo: Shredding the Guitar in Spanish
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 h...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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49:46
Nemiliztli Ortega Trinidad: Life is Bilingual
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 Trin...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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43:28
Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) Strikes Down "Thou Shall Not Teach German"
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 chi...
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Season 4
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Episode 4
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29:40
Adrián Sandoval: Water Is Life
“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 p...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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42:33
Dr. Shana Drake-Lavelle: No Interpreter Needed
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 c...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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41:45
Maame Adofoah Yamoah: Born Twi
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...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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52:55
Ander Rojano: Keeping the Historical Languages of Spain Alive
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 Castellan...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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55:00
Is English Really the Official Language of the United States? It Depends.
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 t...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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39:52
Dr. Stephanie Zarrasola says, "Smile! Tu dentista es bilingüe!"
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 ad...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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42:41
Philippe Bérard: Navigating the Language Triangle in Argentina
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. Cas...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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46:29
Dr. Lillian Gorman (Part 2): Grow Your Own Bilingual Teachers
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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37:26
Dr. Lillian Gorman (Part 1): The Old and the New in New Mexican Spanish
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 ...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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38:16
Bonus (Part 2): More Boxing with Ben and Bob!
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 mete...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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37:01
Bonus (Part 1): Boxing with Ben and Bob!
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, ...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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34:11
Leslie Hernandez: Excelling in Bilingualism, Biliteracy, and Braille!
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 can...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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37:09
Dr. Curtis Chávez: Native Learning Meets Maria Montessori!
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 cont...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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46:53
David Rogers: Cosechando Bilingual Talent Since 1996!
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, ...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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36:15
Warlance Chee (Part 2): The Planting of the Language!
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 u...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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27:05
Warlance Chee (Part 1): Fledging Speakers of Diné Bizaad from the Nest!
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 ...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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35:42
Fabiola Espinoza-Pacheco and Sinahi Oaxaca Seal the Deal!
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 languag...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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46:27
Arin Peywa and the Woolly Warriors of Zuni Pueblo!
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 languag...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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45:21