A Drummer With One Hand: Are We Assessing Multilingual Children Fairly?

When I watched a video of Ofelia García lecturing on translanguaging, one thought left me puzzled. She argued that by assessing a multilingual child in only one language, we are assessing less than half of their repertoire, unfairly disadvantaging them compared to monolingual children who are assessed in their entire language repertoire. She compared this to assessing two drummers: “someone plays with two hands, the other one only plays with one, and you're thinking that the sound has to be the same” (MuDiLe 2017, 2017, 10:46-10:57).

At first, I strongly disagreed. I didn't understand why a person who speaks two languages was being compared to a drummer using only one hand. If we continue the musical instrument metaphor, I see speaking multiple languages as being able to play multiple instruments. Each learned language brings something new, expanding cognitive functions and abilities. From this perspective, when we assess only one language, we are assessing proficiency in one specific instrument, seemingly placing everyone in equal conditions.

To give another example: it is like when we want to study abroad, we must prove our proficiency in the language of instruction. The institution will not give us extra credit for our other languages; they will only assess our ability in the one required for academic success.

However, after further reflection on García's point, I realized she was focusing her lecture specifically on children, particularly language minority children in the context of U.S. immigrants. Understanding that these children are already in a stressful situation, forced to quickly adapt and learn a new language, helped me understand her "drummer" metaphor. I think this also applies to children learning English in their home countries. It takes years to master a new language, and if we test new learners solely in the target language, we risk misjudging their actual knowledge. It is well known that listening comprehension develops long before speaking. As Stephen Krashen stated, beginning to speak is not the start of language acquisition (Mark Rounds, 2010).

If we take that into account, along with the principles of translanguaging, we should shift our focus from assessing pure linguistic accuracy of young learners in one language to evaluating a student's overall communicative competence and conceptual understanding. This means creating assessments that allow learners to demonstrate their knowledge using their full linguistic repertoire, ensuring we are measuring their intellect and comprehension, not just their proficiency in a single code.

In my class, if I ask my students something and they reply in a mix of English and their L1, or just in their L1, I see it as an achievement. It means they understand what I am saying and are confidently using their full language resources to communicate. With them being just four years old, that is more than enough.

 

References:

MuDiLe 2017. (2017, October 11). Ofelia García - Translanguaging [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l1CcrRrck0

Mark Rounds. (2010, October 15). Stephen Krashen on Language Acquisition [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTsduRreug

AI tools (DeepSeek) were used for checking grammar, punctuation and the APA layout; all content was researched and composed by the author