REVIEW Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire (original) (raw)
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The Promise of Two-Language Education
Educational Leadership, 2016
A 12-year study compares how English language learners fare in English immersion, bilingual, and dual immersion programs. One in five school-age children in the United States speaks a language other than English at home (Camarota & Zeigler, 2015). Roughly half of these emerging bilingual students (Garcia, 2009) are classified as English language learners (ELLs) when they enter school, meaning they do not meet state or district criteria for English proficiency (Kena et al., 2015). As the fastest-growing official subgroup of students, ELLs are transforming schools across the country, in cities as well as in suburban and rural communities, in traditional immigrant-receiving areas as well as in new immigrant destinations. These students bring with them important assets that can enrich and strengthen schools (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2013). But questions persist about how best to ensure that ELLS can thrive academically, linguistically, and socially. Should ELLs be taught in bilingual classrooms that promote fluency in their home language and ensure access to core academic content while they develop English language skills? Or should they be taught in English immersion classrooms to maximize their exposure to English? How can we ensure that emerging bilingual students develop English proficiency and strong academic skills while they maintain and develop literacy in their home language? Over the past several years, we've been working closely with staff members in a large California school district to explore these questions. This district uses four different instructional models for English language learners: English immersion, transitional bilingual, maintenance bilingual, and dual immersion. We investigated how ELLs fared in these four types of programs. In particular, we compared students' progress from kindergarten through middle school as measured by their English proficiency development, their academic growth, and the rates at which they were reclassified from English learner status to fluent English proficient status. Competing Theories of Instruction for ELLs Education policymakers have fiercely debated the relative merits of teaching ELLs in English versus teaching them in a bilingual setting. Some of that debate is ideological and provides no useful guidance for educators. But some is grounded in reasonable disagreements about what kinds of learning environments are most effective for children learning English.
Popular views about language and how children and youth learn language are based mainly in cognitive approaches in support of a common knowledge theory of language development. This common theory feeds into the efforts to increase teacher and learner accountability as measured on narrow assessments of what it means to use language well and in academic contexts. I show how certain scholarship supports popular view of language and of first- and second-language development, and explore further the connections between the common theory and educational policies for teaching emergent bilinguals students and English learners. The article concludes with a discussion of alternative approaches to language and bilingualism, and particularly, what these alternatives mean for teacher education and practicing teachers who teach emergent bilinguals and English learners across disciplines. Alternative approaches include arguments for language learning as a complex adaptive system in which language emerges from localized practice, self-organizes in unpredictable ways, and co-adapts in a nonlinear fashion depending on the kinds of interpersonal interactions learning bring to and are afforded by practices.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2012
The development of English language learners (ELLs) was explored from kindergarten through eighth grade within a nationally representative sample of first-time kindergartners (N = 19,890). Growth curve analyses indicated that, compared to native English speakers, ELLs were rated by teachers more favorably on approaches to learning, self control, and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten and generally continued to grow in a positive direction on these social/behavioral outcomes at a steeper rate compared to their native English-speaking peers, holding other factors constant. Differences in reading and math achievement between ELLs and native English speakers varied based on the grade at which English proficiency is attained. Specifically, ELLs who were proficient in English by kindergarten entry kept pace with native English speakers in both reading and math initially and over time; ELLs who were proficient by first grade had modest gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native English speakers that closed narrowly or persisted over time; and ELLs who were not proficient by first grade had the largest initial gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native speakers but the gap narrowed over time in reading and grew over time in math. Among those whose home language is not English, acquiring English proficiency by kindergarten entry was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade compared to taking longer to achieve proficiency. Multinomial regression analyses indicated that child, family, and school characteristics predict achieving English proficiency by kindergarten entry compared to achieving proficiency later. Results are discussed in terms of policies and practices that can support ELL children's growth and development.