This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Christa van der Walt, Mary Anne Gentry, Francis M. Hult, Andrea Honigsfeld, Beth Martin, Cherie Satterfield Sheffer, Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, Kendall A. King, John W. Schwieter, and Stephen May.
(2007). Getting Back on the Horse: Reviving Bilingual Education Key. Issues for Policymakers, International Multilingual Research Journal. This article attempts to draw on the legal, policy, and educational experience that we have gained over the past 25-30 years to suggest directions for the future. It is uniquely timed, as we seem to have reached a period of retrenchment after a period of extensive activity. Ultimately, we have to move beyond the present and build on this past experience, or we will be sorry as a society. This article also assumes that bilingual education or native-language instruction must be a significant part of the response to the needs of English learners. It thus explores the historical evolution of bilingual education and the perceived cause of the backlash. It offers thoughts about how to respond to the antibilingual forces in a way that allows bilingual programming to grow in a positive way, freed of some of the baggage that has historically weighed it down. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Second Language Learning, Educational Experience, Bilingualism
(2011). Migrant Hispanic Students Speak Up: Linguistic and Cultural Perspectives on Low Academic Attainment, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education. The Hispanic population and their high school dropout rates in the United States have greatly increased over the last several decades. This study investigates linguistic and cultural issues that may have an association with high school abandonment among migrant Hispanic students. Open-ended interview questions were posed to a bilingual education administrator and four migrant Hispanic students in a small Midwestern high school in the United States. Participants reported that migrant Hispanic students are not prepared to live linguistically in the academic setting but merely to survive in it. From a cultural perspective, the data suggested that migrant Hispanic students can either allow social and cultural pressures within the school and community to negatively affect their educational engagement or they can acculturate with the dominant culture to minimize their "differentness." [More] Descriptors: High Schools, Dropout Rate, Bilingual Education, Dropouts
(2009). ELL Programs: Not "One Size Fits All", Kappa Delta Pi Record. Rising immigration in the United States has been accompanied by growth in the number of children from homes where a language other than English is spoken. Of utmost national concern is to provide the best possible program models and educational opportunities to address the diverse needs of this growing group of students. This article provides an overview of program organization issues related to the needs of elementary school English Language Learners (ELL). It discusses four most common program models, namely (1) Structured English Immersion; (2) English as a Second Language; (3) Bilingual Education; and (4) Dual Language. [More] Descriptors: Models, Bilingual Education, Second Language Learning, Educational Opportunities
(2003). Parents' Lack of Understanding of Their Children's Bilingual Education Programs, Bilingual Research Journal. A survey examined knowledge of the bilingual education program at a Houston (Texas) kindergarten among 19 Hispanic American parents. Few parents were familiar with the bilingual education practices and policies at their children's school, and their expectations for English-language instruction varied widely from what was actually happening in the classroom. Implications for educators are discussed. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, English (Second Language), High Risk Students, Hispanic Americans
(2011). English Language Teaching in Brunei: A View through a Critical Lens, RELC Journal: A Journal of Language Teaching and Research. The small sultanate of Brunei, located on the island of Borneo in the South China Sea, introduced bilingual education shortly after independence. As a consequence, Brunei's Ministry of Education outsourced much of its English language teaching requirements to qualified expatriate teachers. Despite over 25 years of systemic English language teaching in Brunei, there is a paucity of research and analysis on Brunei's unique TESOL context. This article goes some way to redress this paucity by providing a critical analysis of Brunei's English language teaching situation. The article links post-colonial theory, critical applied linguistics, critical TESOL and Bourdieuian notions of capital to account for the existence of a TESOL industry in Brunei and in the greater South East Asian region. The article then draws together these threads to provide educators with a rationale for learner motivation in Brunei. Finally, the article posits some research questions that may inspire future critical research in Brunei. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Criticism, Foreign Countries, English (Second Language)
(2009). Education Reform, Indigenous Politics, and Decolonisation in the Bolivia of Evo Morales, International Journal of Educational Development. The paper explores the relationship between education reform and Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) for Bolivia's majority indigenous peoples, as this has evolved since the 1990s into the era of Evo Morales, Latin America's first indigenous president, elected in 2005. In order to bring out the significance of the new Education Bill awaiting approval in parliament since 2006, the paper examines in detail the recent historical relationship between education reform and IBE, the role of the country's indigenous social organisations in evolving this relationship, and the ideological underpinnings of the new education reform legislation. [More] Descriptors: Indigenous Populations, Bilingual Education, Educational Change, Foreign Countries
(2011). Educational Linguistics in Practice: Applying the Local Globally and the Global Locally, Multilingual Matters. This volume provides a state-of-the-art snapshot of language and education research and demonstrates ways in which local and global processes are intertwined with language learning, use, and policies. Reflecting but also expanding on Nancy Hornberger's ground-breaking contributions to educational linguistics, this book brings together leading international scholars. Chapters present new research and cutting-edge syntheses addressing current theoretical and methodological issues in researching equity, access, and multilingual education. Organized around three central themes–bilingual education and bilingualism, the continua of biliteracy, and policy and planning for linguistic diversity in education–the volume reflects the holistic and dynamic perspective on language (in) education that is the hallmark of educational linguistics as a field. [More] Descriptors: Applied Linguistics, Bilingual Education, Multilingualism, Educational Research
(2014). Contesting Public Monolingualism and Diglossia: Rethinking Political Theory and Language Policy for a Multilingual World, Language Policy. In many language policy and political theory discussions, there is an overt skepticism, and at times outright hostility, towards the ongoing maintenance of private and, especially, public multilingualism, particularly when these include/incorporate the languages of linguistic minorities. For linguistic minority individuals, ongoing multilingualism is seen as delimiting the possibilities of their integration into the national society and the successful acquisition of the dominant (national) language(s). For linguistic minority groups, the maintenance/support of minority languages is viewed as a willful form of communal ghettoization, while any accommodation of public multilingualism–via, for example, bilingual education–is concurrently constructed as both an obstacle to effective communication for these groups in the wider society and a threat to their social mobility. The latter preoccupations with effective communication and social mobility also underlie recent linguistic cosmopolitan arguments in political theory that link globalization, communication and social mobility inextricably with the need for acquiring English as the global lingua franca. In this article, I critique and contest both this ongoing opposition to multilingualism, and the related privileging of English as global lingua franca, drawing primarily on political theory accounts, by way of example. Following from this, I argue that ongoing support for individual and public multilingualism provides not only greater opportunities for linguistic justice but also, counter-intuitively, facilitates wider inclusion and social mobility for linguistic minorities in an increasingly globalized world. [More] Descriptors: Monolingualism, Language Minorities, Language Maintenance, Social Mobility
(2014). Heritage Language Literacy Maintenance: A Study of Korean-American Heritage Learners, Language, Culture and Curriculum. How heritage learners successfully maintain their heritage language (HL) and literacy is a significant topic of discussion in the field of bilingual education. This study examines what factors are most closely associated with literacy competence by inspecting Korean heritage learners' language and literacy practice patterns and their literacy performance. Using language background surveys and Korean writing samples gathered from 56 Korean-English bilingual students in grades 4-12 and university undergraduates, it was discovered that participants' levels of Korean literacy were positively associated with home Korean language use and focused Korean language practice, whereas they were negatively correlated with years of US stay, years of schooling in the USA, and home English language use. A regression analysis revealed that the quality and range of HL practice was the only significant predictor of HL literacy skills. In addition, a one-way ANOVA indicated no significant difference for HL writing scores across four age groups (i.e. elementary school, middle school, high school, and college), which implies that HL literacy does not necessarily develop or accumulate with cognitive maturity or length of schooling, a finding dissimilar to conventional native language and literacy development. [More] Descriptors: Korean, Language Maintenance, Literacy, Writing Evaluation
(2011). "Literacy Is the Ability to Read and Write English": Defining and Developing Literacy in Basic Schools in Ghana, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. How do teachers define literacy, and how do their perceptions influence their approach to the teaching and learning of literacy? These and other questions relating to literacy generally formed the focus of this ethnographic case study in two urban public primary schools in Ghana. The paper also considers teachers' views on mother tongue literacy. Teachers tend to perceive literacy as the ability to read and write English or an international language like French, etc. and scarcely consider mother tongue literacy as relevant. Teachers' perceptions tend to be reflected in their pedagogical approach, which generally involves error correction and grammar-based language teaching, as well as in their assessment of literacy. Although teachers and society at large tend to have unfavourable attitudes to mother tongue/bilingual education, in the real classroom situation teachers tend to code switch between English and the local language on the grounds that pupils' understanding of English is inadequate. [More] Descriptors: Native Language, Bilingual Education, Foreign Countries, Reading Ability
(2007). The Efficacy of ASL/English Bilingual Education: Considering Public Schools, American Annals of the Deaf. The study investigated the efficacy and viability of American Sign Language (ASL)/English bilingual education for public schools serving deaf and hard of hearing children. Prior research related to ASL/English bilingual education is reviewed. Quantitative data related to the reading comprehension achievement of 25 deaf and hard of hearing students that were collected for the study are analyzed. The subjects' school program is described in depth. Overall performance of the sample is discussed. A description of high and low gainers is included. A statistically significant correlation between years of ASL usage and reading achievement is identified. Implications for the implementation of ASL/English bilingual methodology are reviewed, and suggestions for future research are offered. [More] Descriptors: Hearing Impairments, Educational Methods, Reading Comprehension, Public Schools
(2012). Coloured Language: Identity Perception of Children in Bilingual Programmes, Language Awareness. Research involving bilingual education programmes has largely focused on cognitive and academic outcomes, with a paucity of studies investigating what involvement in these programmes means to the participants. Viewing identity using the dynamic systems theory perspective, this paper reports on a study analysing how children experience their linguistic and personal identities through their language awareness within bilingual programmes and explores the influence enforced bilingualism has on these perceptions. Seventy-six children from dual-language bilingual schools participated in the study. A "language silhouette" was coloured by participants according to the languages they felt determined their identity and a questionnaire for fourth-grade participants sought to analyse feelings associated with participants' languages and language use. Recurring patterns in the silhouettes were studied for frequency and further evaluated according to grade level, number of languages spoken, and type of language. Results support the hypothesis that responses from bilingual/multilingual participants whose languages are supported will differ from responses of those whose languages are unsupported in the schools. An unexpected difference was also observed between multilingual and bilingual perceptions of linguistic identity. The findings have important implications for language awareness for children in bilingual and multilingual education programmes. [More] Descriptors: Metalinguistics, Bilingual Schools, Bilingual Education Programs, Multilingualism
(2013). Bilingual Welsh-English Children's Acquisition of Vocabulary and Reading: Implications for Bilingual Education, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Previous studies have highlighted early differences in bilinguals' rate of language acquisition in comparison with monolinguals. However, these differences seem to disappear with increasing age and exposure to the language, and do so quicker in dominant community languages than in minority status languages. This study aimed to replicate these findings in relation to literacy development. Three groups of Welsh-English bilinguals (L1 Welsh, simultaneous bilinguals and L1 English) were given receptive vocabulary tasks and reading tasks in Welsh and in English. An additional group of monolingual English-speaking controls was given the English tasks. Results revealed differential performance among the bilinguals in relation to the English tasks, with the L1 English bilinguals and monolinguals performing closer to age norms than L1 Welsh and simultaneous bilinguals by the end of primary school education. No differences were found between the L1 English bilinguals and the monolinguals on either task. On the Welsh measures, performance mirrored those of previous studies, on both tasks, demonstrating higher levels of performance relative to increasing amounts of exposure to Welsh. The implications of these findings for bilingual education strategies, particularly in relation to the development of bilingual language competence in minority language situations, are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Second Language Learning, Welsh, Receptive Language
(2011). Education for Bilingualism: Connecting Spanish and English from the Curriculum, into the Classroom, and Beyond (Educación para el bilingüismo: español e inglés conectados desde el currículo hasta el salón de clase, y más allá), PROFILE: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development. I present here the results of a qualitative research study on the impact of a curriculum that connects learning events in Spanish and English in authentic communicative performances during its first year of use in a private school in a medium-size Colombian city. I did discourse analysis of interviews with participating teachers and class observations including small in-situ interviews with teachers and students. They revealed positive changes in the language learning environments of the school, the teachers' ideas about language and language learning, and the students' communicative skills and ways of learning. I use these results to introduce the concept of "education for bilingualism" to replace that of "bilingual education" we use in Colombia. I find the practices of the latter ineffective in our mostly monolingual context. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, Language Teachers
(2010). The Context of Language Planning in Multilingual Higher Education, Language Learning Journal. In his latest survey of the prospects for English language teaching in the next 50 years, David Graddol claims that over half the world's international students are taught in English and that universities are increasingly offering courses in English. This seems to be a necessary condition for achieving excellence and prestige. At the same time, the use of English is becoming commonplace and bilingualism is valued more than monolingual, home language speakers of English. These statements must be examined critically in the light of efforts to offer mass higher education in South Africa and to deal with students who may not be well prepared for tertiary studies. It must also be seen in the context of low status languages that may have official status in South Africa but that may feel threatened in the presence of English. This article attempts to show that tertiary bilingual education is determined and conditioned by the same factors that obtain for bilingual education in general: social, historical, socio-structural, cultural, ideological and social psychological factors (as identified by Hamers and Blanc). The claim in this case is that such factors can help educational language planners to understand the birth and growth of bilingual higher education institutions so as to show how spaces can be created for minority and/or low status languages alongside English. An international perspective is offered in comparison to the South African situation in an effort to show how bi/multilingual higher education institutions with a longer history than that of South African institutions grow and change in the face of similar challenges. [More] Descriptors: Higher Education, Language Planning, Bilingual Education, Multilingualism