This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta, Lisa Markman-Pithers, Joanne Jacobs, Anthony Garza, Connie Mayer, Herbert Igboanusi, Phyllis M. Robertson, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Lisa Barrow, and Kip Austin Hinton.
(2010). The Changing Context for Sign Bilingual Education Programs: Issues in Language and the Development of Literacy, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The widespread implementation of newborn hearing screening and advances in amplification technologies (including cochlear implants) have fundamentally changed the educational landscape for deaf learners. These changes are discussed in terms of their impact on sign bilingual education programs with a focus on the relationships between language and the development of literacy and the changing role of signed language in this process. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Deafness, Bilingual Education Programs, Bilingualism
(2016). "Pink Is a Girl's Color": A Case Study of Bilingual Kindergarteners' Discussions about Gender Roles, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. This article discusses the results of an empirical study that examined young bilingual students' discussions of picture books dealing with gender themes in a Spanish/English bilingual classroom. The study focused on the reading of five picture books by sixteen 5-year-old Mexican-origin children at a small charter school. The data were collected by video/audio recordings, interviews, and children's artifacts over a period of five months. The findings suggest that discussions about gender roles using two languages have potential to help kindergarten bilingual children think critically about gender roles and avoid gender stereotypes. This study aims to offer critical approaches to early childhood and bilingual education, providing insights into how teachers can create supportive literacy environments in which bilingual children can develop a critical awareness of gender and gender roles from an early age. [More] Descriptors: Mexican Americans, Bilingual Students, Picture Books, Charter Schools
(2011). The Role of Bilingual Education Teachers in Preventing Inappropriate Referrals of ELLs to Special Education: Implications for Response to Intervention, Bilingual Research Journal. Data from three interrelated studies of English Language Learners who were identified as having reading-related learning disabilities suggest that the majority of participants were misclassified. Bilingual education teachers and other educational professionals had difficulty distinguishing students for whom special education referral was appropriate from those whose learning problems could be explained by factors such as inconsistent schooling or failure to provide timely interventions to address their learning needs. The role of bilingual education teachers in screening, assessment, and progress monitoring; the delivery of tiered instruction; and the documentation of results over time is discussed, along with guidance for deciding whether a student should be referred to special education. Implications for the design and implementation of Response to Intervention for ELLs are also discussed along with the corresponding professional development needs. [More] Descriptors: Learning Problems, Intervention, Bilingual Education, Learning Disabilities
(2009). Costs and Benefits of Bilingual Education in Guatemala: A Partial Analysis, International Journal of Educational Development. The benefits of bilingual education for a disadvantaged indigenous population as an investment in human capital are significant. Students of bilingual schools in Guatemala have higher attendance and promotion rates, and lower repetition and dropout rates. Bilingual students receive higher scores on all subject matters, including mastery of Spanish. The efficiency of bilingual education is confirmed by a crude cost-benefit exercise. A shift to bilingual schooling would result in considerable cost savings because of reduced repetition. The higher quality of education generating higher promotion rates will help students complete primary education and will substantially increase completion rates at low cost. The costs saving due to bilingual education is estimated at $5 million, equal to the cost of primary education for 100,000 students. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Students, Human Capital, Indigenous Populations, Dropout Rate
(2013). An Interdisciplinary Collaboration between Computer Engineering and Mathematics/Bilingual Education to Develop a Curriculum for Underrepresented Middle School Students, Cultural Studies of Science Education. There is a strong need in the United States to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Drawing from sociocultural theory, we present approaches to establishing collaborations between computer engineering and mathematics/bilingual education faculty to address this need. We describe our work through the Advancing Out-of-School Learning in Mathematics and Engineering project by illustrating how an integrated curriculum that is based on mathematics with applications in image and video processing can be designed and how it can be implemented with middle school students from underrepresented groups. [More] Descriptors: Middle School Students, Disproportionate Representation, Educational Cooperation, Bilingual Education
(2016). The Language-in-Education Politics in Nigeria, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Against the backdrop of the rejection of mother tongue-based bilingual education in Southern Nigeria and in Northern linguistic minority areas, this study investigates the micropolitics of language education by interrogating everyday language practices of education stakeholders which are at variance with language-in-education policy. It relied on a wide range of data collected through carefully documented observations of classrooms and school community language practices, semi-structured interviews with publishing managers, informal interviews with teachers as well as a questionnaire survey (covering a comprehensive cross-section of stakeholders across the country). Findings suggest that only a uniformly implemented education policy in all schools across the country can restore the use of Nigeria's indigenous languages as media of instruction in primary schools. The study recommends a combination of advocacy and research findings to get the policy-makers and education stakeholders to accept first language-based (or L1 based) educational reform. [More] Descriptors: Language of Instruction, Politics of Education, Native Language, Educational Change
(2016). "Practiced" Linguistic-Cultural Ideologies and Educational Policies: A Case Study of a "Bilingual Sweden Finnish School", Journal of Language, Identity, and Education. This article explores linguistic-cultural ideologies and educational policies as they emerge and are negotiated in everyday life in a bilingual school setting located in the geopolitical spaces of Sweden. Taking sociocultural theory and discourse analysis as points of departure, we focus on empirical examples of classroom interaction and locally established formal policing. Linguistic-cultural ideologies and educational policies that frame life at the school are investigated by employing nexus analytical methods, focusing on social (inter)actions through which a number of locally and nationally relevant discourses circulate. Our findings indicate that refocusing ideology and policy research from the lens of a "practiced" perspective allows the situated and distributed nature of everyday life to inform issues related to bilingualism as well as their relations to wider societal discourses. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the crucial role of educators in (re)locating bilingual education in its societal contexts as well as making these connections visible in classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Case Studies, Swedish, Finno Ugric Languages
(2007). Two Tests of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Education in Preschool, Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Three meta-analytic studies have shown that bilingual education is an effective method for teaching students who are English language learners. However, there is limited evidence of the effectiveness of bilingual education in preschool. This study used multiple years of data from the Manchester (New Hampshire) Even Start program and relevant comparison groups to conduct two separate tests of the effectiveness of bilingual education in preschool. The results support the effectiveness of bilingual education in preschool, but only at marginally significant levels of statistical inference. A fixed effects model of literacy outcomes comparing a cohort of students who had received bilingual education in preschool but English-only education in kindergarten with a cohort of students who received English-only education in both preschool and kindergarten showed evidence of an achievement gap (favoring the students receiving bilingual education) that emerged at the end of preschool but had closed by the end of kindergarten (10 values ranged from 0.028 to 0.068). Also, an analysis of two years of preschool data from an Even Start program that utilized bilingual education in the first year, but not the second, showed that Even Start students who did not receive bilingual education performed worse on posttest literacy assessments when controlling for pretest scores (p values ranged from 0.056 to 0.060). However, when estimated with a control group consisting of only English language learners, this negative effect was no longer significant. Although the study provides some evidence of the effectiveness of bilingual education in preschool, further research is needed to validate these findings. [More] Descriptors: Control Groups, Bilingual Education, Second Language Learning, Program Effectiveness
(2016). Unanswered Questions in Colombia's Foreign Language Education Policy (Preguntas por responder en la política educativa de lenguas extranjeras en Colombia), PROFILE: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development. Following the trend of much of the Western, non-English speaking world, Colombia has tirelessly strived for spreading English education in an effort to augment economic benefits. This paper aims at providing a critical account of foreign language education policy in Colombia, with special attention to English. It outlines the impact of its multiple transitions over the past decades through a historical description that overviews all previous policies, the critical reception by scholars, and present-day initiatives. We then move on to analysing the choice of English as a synonym for bilingualism and conclude with emerging questions that are to be considered for future debates and reassessments of Colombia's English-Spanish bilingual education policy. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction
(2010). Before the Federal Bilingual Education Act: Legislation and Lived Experience in California, Peabody Journal of Education. The federal Bilingual Education Act (BEA; 1968) augured a new era in the national politics of diversity, schooling, and state, and California became symbolic of the problems and promise of bilingual pedagogy. This article explores how the BEA was pivotal not only in conceiving a federal commitment to the educational achievement of limited-English-speaking children but also in spurring state and local action. Yet close attention reveals how philosophically and fiscally limited were the terms of the federal act. California had been experimenting with bilingual education in many districts, where innovative programs operated independently of state or federal involvement. On one hand, the emerging legislative structure embodied by the federal BEA pushed districts and states to question the received attitudes about Mexican American underachievement that permeated their practice. On the other hand, the BEA supplanted earlier, locally developed programs, increasing oversight and enforcement and often casting districts as villains and at times even checking adventurous earlier programs. In the 1960s, Californians as well as national politicians and educators engaged in an unprecedented, bipartisan dialogue about bilingual education, in which California conservatives earnestly advocated albeit moderate programs during these early but crucial years in the modern history of bilingual education. [More] Descriptors: Modern History, Mexican Americans, Bilingual Education, Bilingual Students
(2016). The Marketing of Dual Language Education Policy in Utah Print Media, Educational Policy. We argue the emergence of a shift in U.S. language education policy discourses from an equity/heritage (EH) framework focused on equity for English learners and non-English heritage languages, toward a global human capital (GHC) framework linked to neoliberal considerations of the language skills of individuals and nations. This discursive shift represents a change in the audience to which language education programs are primarily marketed. Drawing on a critical approach to content analysis to test for evidence of this discursive shift in Utah, we analyzed 164 articles from 5 Utah newspapers from 2005 to 2011 that assigned value statements to dual language and bilingual education. EH values declined or changed little over time whereas GHC values increased. Policy implications are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Educational Policy, Content Analysis, Outreach Programs, Institutional Advancement
(2012). Selected Factors Related to the Mathematics Academic Achievement of Eighth Grade English Language Learners, ProQuest LLC. The purpose of this study was to examine selected factors related to the 8th grade mathematics achievement levels of English Language Learner (ELL) students in selected South Texas middle schools. The dependent variable, ELL mathematics achievement, was measured by the ELL student's raw score on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) or the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness linguistically accommodated test (STAAR L). The factors examined in this study were 1) parent's educational background, 2) socioeconomic status, 3) parental involvement status at school, 4) number of people in the household, 5) family structure, 6) primary home language, 7) student's gender, 8) English language proficiency level, 9) number of years classified as an ELL, and 10) type of bilingual education program participated in. This is a quantitative study that utilized parent questionnaires and student raw STAAR/STAAR L Math scores as sources of measurement. The researcher administered one researcher-created survey to the parents of eighth grade ELL students from ten selected middle schools in two South Texas school districts. The parent survey consisted of six questions. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine if ELL math achievement is a function of the independent variables. The null hypotheses for the present study were tested with an F distribution at the 0.05 level of significance. The review of literature on bilingual education identified the conceptual framework for this study. The conceptual framework was based on Mikow-Porto, Humphries, Egelson, O'Connel, and Teagues' (2004) English Language Learners in the South East: Research, Policy, and Practice, Gallo, Garcia, Pinuelas, and Youngs' (2008) Bilingual Education Program Inconsistencies, and Nieto's (2009) Brief History of Bilingual Education in the United States. The findings from this study indicated the following: (1) Eighth grade ELL mathematics achievement is a function of English language proficiency level and number of years classified as an ELL student, (2) Eighth grade ELL mathematics achievement is not a function of parent's educational background, socioeconomic status, parental involvement status at school, number of people in the household, family structure, primary home language, student's gender, and type of bilingual education program participated in. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: English Language Learners, Grade 8, Mathematics Achievement, Middle School Students
(2016). Call It What It Is: Monolingual Education in U.S. Schools, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. In the U.S., non-bilingual education designed for English speakers goes by many names–mainstream, regular, normal, English, and others. Drawing from research on discourse, normality, and framing, this conceptual paper examines each of the popular labels for English-medium education in the U.S., and demonstrates their unsuitability. Inspired by the discursive shift toward the term emergent bilinguals, a more accurate label is proposed for these non-bilingual programs and classrooms: monolingual education, highlighting the one feature they have in common. Naming classrooms as monolingual can reveal their subtractive nature, and embrace a discourse that positions bilingual and multilingual programs as normal, or even superior. A number of implications are addressed, for students, schools, and the education system. [More] Descriptors: Monolingualism, College English, Discourse Analysis, Educational Practices
(2016). Learning English: Accountability, Common Core and the College-for-All Movement Are Transforming Instruction, Education Next. Ninety-five percent of students at Redwood City's Hoover School, in San Mateo County, California, come from low-income and working-class Latino families, and nearly all start school as English language learners (ELLs). The elementary and middle school piloted the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) program in 2009 in hopes of raising reading and math scores and moving more students to the college track. Programs like SEAL offer a fresh approach to educating English language learners. The focus in schools is shifting from the language of instruction to the quality of instruction. As a result, long-standing debates about whether English learners should be taught only in English or also in their native tongue feel increasingly obsolete. This article discusses the rise of bilingual education across the United States and what the education system is doing to keep up with this trend. [More] Descriptors: Accountability, Common Core State Standards, College Preparation, Low Income Students
(2016). Supporting Young English Learners in the United States, Future of Children. Simply put, children with poor English skills are less likely to succeed in school and beyond. What's the best way to teach English to young children who aren't native English speakers? In this article, Lisa Barrow and Lisa Markman-Pithers examine the state of English learner education in the United States and review the evidence behind different teaching methods. Models for teaching English learner children are often characterized as either English immersion (instruction only in English) or bilingual education (instruction occurs both in English and in the students' native language), although each type includes several broad categories. Which form of instruction is most effective is a challenging question to answer, even with the most rigorous research strategies. This uncertainty stems in part from the fact that, in a debate with political overtones, researchers and policymakers don't share a consensus on the ultimate goal of education for English learners. Is it to help English learner students become truly bilingual or to help them become proficient in the English language as quickly as possible? On the whole, Barrow and Markman-Pithers write, it's still hard to reach firm conclusions regarding the overall effectiveness of different forms of instruction for English learners. Although some evidence tilts toward bilingual education, recent experiments suggest that English learners achieve about the same English proficiency whether they're placed in bilingual or English immersion programs. But beyond learning English, bilingual programs may confer other advantages–for example, students in bilingual classes do better in their native languages. And because low-quality classroom instruction is associated with poorer outcomes no matter which method of instruction is used, the authors say that in many contexts, improving classroom quality may be the best way to help young English learners succeed. [More] Descriptors: English Language Learners, Teaching Methods, Bilingualism, Bilingual Education