This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen, Sally Hood, Ge Wang, Susan Malone, Angelique Laurent, Clara Martinot, Jon Reyhner, Eric J. Johnson, Francisco Ramos, and Courtney Palmer.
(2009). California/Spain Visiting Teachers Program Participants' Opinions about the Use and Effects of Students' Primary Languages in the Classroom, International Multilingual Research Journal. This study examined opinions about some theoretical and practical tenets of bilingualism and bilingual education, as well as about the instructional use of English language learners' (ELLs) native languages in the classroom, of 77 teachers from Spain working in California as part of the California/Spain Visiting Teachers Program. In their responses, participants showed strong support for the tenets of bilingual education and for the use of ELLs' primary languages in class, agreed that primary language instruction contributes to the academic and English acquisition progress of ELLs, and opposed the discontinuation of ELLs' primary languages after these students had learned English. The results of the study show that 8 years after the passage of Proposition 227, which intended to eliminate the presence of minority languages in California public schools, participants continued to acknowledge the value of these languages in the linguistic and academic progress of ELLs. [More] Descriptors: Teacher Attitudes, Language Attitudes, Bilingual Education, Academic Achievement
(2011). Entitled or Excluded? Attitudes toward Access to Postsecondary Education for Undocumented Students, Current Issues in Education. This study examines the determinants of attitudes towards undocumented immigrant students' access to higher education, an area that has received little attention in the literature on immigration and public opinion. Theories of symbolic politics and labor market competition frame our research question. Using data from the 1994 General Social Survey, we find partial support for our predictions. Attitudes toward bilingual education, concerns about economic growth, and family income are significant predictors of public opinion regarding access to higher education for undocumented immigrants. [More] Descriptors: Undocumented Immigrants, Postsecondary Education, Access to Education, Educational Attitudes
(2001). Power, Politics, Bilingual Education, and School Success. A Review of: "Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire" (Jim Cummins); "At War with Diversity: U.S. Language Policy in an Age of Anxiety" (James Crawford); and "The Politics of Multiculturalism and Bilingual Education: Students and Teachers Caught in the Cross Fire" (Carlos J. Ovando and Peter McLaren, Eds.), Journal of American Indian Education. Reviews three new books about the current political battle over bilingual education, focusing on: bilingual education theory and the importance of transformative pedagogy; political analysis of bilingual education and key issues in indigenous language loss; and politics of multiculturalism. Discusses the maturation of bilingual education since passage of the Bilingual Education Act (Title VII) and implications for American Indian educators. Descriptors: Acculturation, American Indian Education, Bilingual Education, Book Reviews
(2016). Developing "Teaching-Specific" Spanish Competencies in Bilingual Teacher Education: Toward a Culturally, Linguistically, and Professionally Relevant Approach, Multicultural Perspectives. The emergence of K-12 bilingual/dual-language schools in the United States requires bilingual teacher education programs across the nation to continue to "build on the language strengths" of bilingual teacher candidates and provide them with ample opportunities to acquire the language competencies needed for teaching content-area knowledge across the bilingual curriculum. Although the need to prepare linguistically qualified bilingual/dual-language teachers is relevant to all language programs comprising the bilingual teacher education field, in this article the authors describe a culturally, linguistically, and professionally relevant approach for developing the teaching-specific Spanish language competencies of future bilingual teachers. Educating the new generation of linguistically qualified bilingual educators calls for an engaged and responsive pedagogy that will prepare teachers to orchestrate K-12 teaching and learning experiences where languages (Spanish, in this particular case) function as multidimensional bodies encompassing and empowering the cultures and funds of knowledge teachers and students bring to the classroom. [More] Descriptors: Spanish, Bilingual Education, Bilingual Teachers, Learning Experience
(2011). Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education in Papua New Guinea, International Review of Education. Papua New Guinea (PNG), an independent state in the southwest Pacific, is the most linguistically diverse country in the world. Its roughly six million people speak over 800 distinct languages. In spite of this diversity, in 1995 the Papua New Guinean government established a mother tongue-based bilingual education programme in which community languages are taught as a subject and used for instruction in the first three years of formal education. English is introduced as a subject in the third year of school and becomes one of the languages of instruction, with the community language, in early primary. In grades seven and eight, teachers use only English for instruction, although community languages can still be used informally. By the early 2000s, over 400 languages were being used in PNG's formal education system. This paper describes the background to PNG's bilingual education programme, then provides an overview of its main features and the positive outcomes as well as the problems encountered since it was initiated 15 years ago. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Foreign Countries, Bilingualism, Native Language
(2011). Bilingual Education in Southwest China: A Yingjiang Case, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Yingjiang is a frontier county in southwest Yunnan, China, with distinctive ethnic and cultural diversity. Bilingual education (BE) has been a prominent feature in Yingjiang since the 1950s due to supportive policies and measures at various levels. BE in Yingjiang developed so well in the 1980s that a bilingual school was awarded the title of 'flower of ethnic minority education'. However, since the late 1990s, BE in Yingjiang has gone dramatically downhill. The old "followers of bilingual education" are in danger of withering. This can be seen from the shrinkage of the scale of BE and the dramatic reduction of bilingual schools and bilingual students. At the same time, the number and quality of bilingual teachers has been called into question. This paper, based on a document review and a field study, discusses the challenges and prospects for BE in Yingjiang. It is argued here that as the ethnic minority people in Yunnan are trying to make socioeconomic progress like other places in China, it is necessary to promote BE by reviewing the current BE mechanism, social reality and to take more sensible measures to revitalize BE, as was done in the late 1980s. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Students, Bilingual Schools, Bilingual Education, Cultural Pluralism
(2011). The Color of Language: The Racialized Educational Trajectory of an Emerging Bilingual Student, Journal of Latinos and Education. This article examines how bilingual programs are often guided by larger social constructs of race and language ideologies that give rise to the often inconsistent, and even contradicting, perceptions of Latina/o, Spanish-speaking students' academic preparedness and abilities. I examine a number of language ideologies as they manifested in a case study of an emerging bilingual student who went from being labeled at risk in a pre-K remedial bilingual program to gifted in a kindergarten two-way dual-language program, as he naturally progressed through one of the school district's bilingual education trajectories. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Students, Ideology, Bilingual Education Programs, Bilingualism
(2011). Latino Immigrant and Guest Bilingual Teachers: Overcoming Personal, Professional, and Academic Culture Shock, Urban Education. School districts that offer bilingual education often find it difficult to hire enough teachers for their growing Latino populations. To expand the pool of bilingual teachers, some districts recruit teachers from Spanish-speaking countries. Yet there has been little research on how these teachers fare or what supports they need to succeed. This article investigates issues confronted by 31 foreign-educated Latino teachers, teaching in a high-needs Midwestern urban district while attaining U.S. certification. The article delineates the teachers' personal, professional, and academic adjustments and describes the elements they required for success, emphasizing the importance of social capital. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Culture Conflict, Bilingual Teachers, Hispanic Americans
(2016). Polylanguaging, Integrational Linguistics and Contemporary Sociolinguistic Theory: A Commentary on Ritzau, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. In this article, we take up and expand upon a number of issues of linguistic theory raised in Ursula Ritzau's recent article "Learner language and polylanguaging: how language students' ideologies relate to their written language use" published in the "Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism". The present critique is informed by an integrational linguistic approach, from which perspective polylanguaging was recently discussed by one of the present authors. In the first part of this commentary we pinpoint and offer a critical analysis of some of the claims raised in Ritzau's article, providing a rationale for these claims from the perspective of the polylanguaging theorist and discussing its implications. In the second part we embark on a more general critique of polylanguaging and related branches of modern sociolinguistics by making explicit reference to an integrational semiology, showing that the linguistic philosophy of the former rests on the same mythical assumptions as the founding school they criticise (i.e. Saussurean structuralism). We also respond to some of the–in our view, inadequately grounded–criticisms that Ritzau raises in respect of integrational linguistics. [More] Descriptors: Linguistic Theory, Language Attitudes, Written Language, Criticism
(2009). Bilingualism and Phonological Segmentation of Speech: The Case of English-French Pre-Schoolers, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. From studies of bilingual education practices, some authors have suggested that bilingualism, in a favourable environment, facilitates development of metaphonological abilities. In a monolingual context, these abilities develop in interaction with literacy. The objective of the present study is to determine if bilingual children have some metaphonological knowledge before learning to read. In other terms, does bilingualism improve metaphonological abilities? To answer this question, 50 prereaders were tested: 30 of them were monolingual French speakers; 20 were bilingual English-French speakers from a traditional French school. To test phonological abilities, two tasks were set: a free phonological segmentation task and a phonemic deletion task. Bilingual prereaders did not show better performance at the tasks but did show a different way of segmenting items. The results are discussed in the framework of phonological development theories and bilingual education. [More] Descriptors: Phonology, Bilingual Education, Monolingualism, French
(2016). Nurturing Bilingual Learners: Challenges and Concerns in Singapore, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Singapore's bilingual policy legitimises English not only as the language of governmental administration and interethnic communication, but also as the medium of instruction in all schools on all levels and across all subjects except mother tongues (MTs). As a result of these politics of language recognition, a visible shift has occurred in all ethnic groups away from MTs towards English. To rectify the language shift situation, the government has emphasised that developing bilingualism and raising bilingual children should begin in preschools. In this paper, we examine two top-down official documents: "Review of Mother Tongue Languages Report," issued in 2011, and "Nurturing Early Learners Framework for Mother Tongue Languages," developed in 2013. Attempting to identify some of the complex factors that influence language shift, we present an intertextual analysis of the "Report" and the curriculum "Framework." In doing so, we compare the consistencies and locate the implicit inconsistencies in the policy position on bilingual education in preschools. We conclude the article by outlining the implications for changing the current bilingual educational models and providing teacher training programmes that maximise the learning opportunities of young bilingual learners. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Educational Policy
(2011). Peerlingual Education: A Socioeducational Reaction to Structured English Immersion, Journal of Latinos and Education. This discussion emphasizes the importance of collaborative learning methods to compensate for the legal restrictions placed on school districts by Arizona's anti-bilingual education law, Proposition 203. Grounded in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of learning, peerlingual education is described as an invaluable resource based on the linguistic competencies of Latino students in Phoenix, Arizona. Although this collaborative approach is portrayed by educators and students as the primary strategy for classroom language assistance, the current implementation lacks structure and cultural sensitivity. Based on ethnographic inquiry, conceptual and methodological suggestions are offered to strengthen the effectiveness of peerlingual education in underresourced contexts. [More] Descriptors: Learning Theories, Classroom Communication, Bilingual Education, Cooperative Learning
(2011). Building a Cross-Cultural Community through a Dual Language Immersion Program, Learning Languages. This research study evaluates the effectiveness of a Spanish-English dual language immersion (DLI) program. Many researchers have found that high-quality and long-term DLI programs promote academic achievement and high levels of language proficiency for both language groups. Despite the evidence, leaders from the field of bilingual education have identified urgent research questions and barriers to research in dual language education. One of these areas targets the societal, cultural, and political climate that surrounds multilingualism. The leaders stated that opposition to multilingualism creates "an antagonistic climate that has strong impact on dual language programs and those who do research in them." Leaders in the field recommended that dual language educators collaborate to advocate for an "additive" view of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this report, the researcher presents collaborative efforts of DLI teachers to instill cross-cultural interactions from the classroom to the community. The research findings from this study demonstrated it takes more than a bilingual education program to build a cross-cultural community. Once children step outside the program, they are encircled by a community that separates itself by language and culture. Although the teachers and staff who work in the DLI program have striven to reach out to parents and the community about the cognitive, economic and affective benefits of learning other languages, advocacy is needed on a wider scale. The researcher has assisted the principal and teachers in the advocacy process through publicizing assessment results to administrators, parents, and the bilingual education community. The researcher recommends the establishment of bilingual parent liaisons who would systematically provide parent training so that they would then have the knowledge to advocate for themselves, their children, and the value of living in a cross-cultural society. [More] Descriptors: Program Effectiveness, Cultural Pluralism, Bilingual Education, Bilingualism
(2016). Responding to the Call: Developing and Assessing Pedagogical Spanish Competencies in Bilingual Teacher Education, Bilingual Research Journal. Bilingual teacher education scholars continue to advocate for the improvement of Spanish language-related teacher preparation practices. However, the field is in need of research on how bilingual teacher educators across the U.S. are addressing this task in their work with future teachers. In responding to this call, I describe an approach and an activity for developing and assessing what I denote as the "pedagogical Spanish" competencies of prospective bilingual teachers. After emphasizing the value of content-based and task-based strategies for developing professionally relevant Spanish competencies, I provide an assessment of the "teaching-specific" oral language performance of two future bilingual teachers. To conclude, I identify implications for curriculum design and classroom practice, and invite scholars to participate in the formation of the "Language in Teacher Education Research Network" (LANTERN), a collaborative aimed at conducting systematic research on best practices for developing and assessing/evaluating language competencies in (bilingual) teacher education. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Teacher Education, Spanish, Bilingual Teachers
(2014). Bridging Bilingual and Special Education: Opportunities for Transformative Change in Teacher Preparation Programs, Association of Mexican American Educators Journal. This article reports on the design and performance of ALAS (Acquisition of Language Skills and Academic Literacy) Teacher Education Project designed to bridge Biliteracy and Special Education teacher preparation. ALAS was designed by faculty in two higher education departments engaged in teacher preparation to respond to California's need for bilingual special education teachers, where less than 2% of special education teachers in California are credentialed in both bilingual and special education disciplines (CBEDS, 2013). In California about 1 in 4 students are identified as English Language Learners (ELLs). The ALAS project actively addresses the lack of academic programming to develop qualified bilingual special education teachers to meet the needs of K-12 ELLs via teacher education courses, specialized conferences, teaching practicum in the two disciplines of bilingual/biliteracy and Special Education Mild-Moderate emphasis. The article reports on five years of data (2008-2013) that examines the conceptual design of the ALAS two-year teacher preparation program, the use of seven standards to evaluate the program, and participants' perceptions on the strengths and needs of their training. The evolving results have implications for teacher preparation curriculum change and reform in addressing ELLs to match the needs of the client school communities. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Special Education, Teacher Education, English Language Learners