# Multilingual Students Need Culturally Relevant Reading Materials, Educator Argues

Terri Ashchi, a veteran North Carolina educator, contends that cultural relevance in teaching materials directly boosts reading comprehension for multilingual students. The distinction matters: a child can decode words on a page without grasping their meaning, a gap Ashchi illustrates with her headline phrase.

Many multilingual learners face a specific literacy challenge. They develop mechanical reading skills, sounding out letters and words correctly, but struggle to extract meaning when texts contain cultural references unfamiliar to them. A story about Thanksgiving traditions or suburban American holidays may confuse students whose families observe different celebrations or come from countries with entirely different cultural contexts.

Research supports this observation. When reading materials reflect students' own experiences, languages, and cultural backgrounds, engagement increases and comprehension follows. Students see themselves in stories. They activate prior knowledge more easily. They connect new information to familiar concepts.

The literacy gap for multilingual students often reflects not a deficit in learning capacity but a mismatch between curriculum and student background. A student who reads fluently in Spanish may struggle with English texts not because of weak decoding skills but because the content assumes cultural knowledge they don't possess. Teaching "reading comprehension" without attending to cultural context treats symptoms rather than causes.

Ashchi's work in North Carolina points toward a practical solution: diversify classroom materials deliberately. Include texts by authors from students' communities. Use stories that acknowledge immigrant experiences, multilingual households, and non-dominant cultural traditions. Pair classic curriculum texts with contemporary works that mirror student realities.

This approach benefits all learners. Monolingual English speakers gain exposure to different perspectives and cultures. Multilingual students see their identities validated in school materials.

The challenge extends beyond book selection. Teachers need training in culturally sustaining pedagogy. Publishers need incentives to