Ricardo the Reticent: Clawing the Home Language Back From the Brink

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.