This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Stacie Drese, Theodora G. Predaris, Christine R. Martinez, Jim Cummins, William H. Jeynes, Terry A. Osborn, Barbara Trudell, Joshua A. Fishman, Jorge Amselle, and M. Beatriz Arias.
(1997). Why Bilingual Education? ERIC Digest. This digest examines criticism of bilingual education and its effect on public opinion, discusses the rationale underlying good bilingual education programs, and summarizes research findings that reveal programs' effectiveness. Quality bilingual education provides students with knowledge and literacy in their first language, which indirectly but powerfully aid them as they strive for English proficiency. The best bilingual education programs include English-as-a-Second Language instruction, instruction in the first language, sheltered subject matter classes using intermediate-level English, and transition to the mainstream through gradual exit plans. A common argument against bilingual education is the observation that many people have succeeded without it. However, such people have often had the advantages of early schooling in their country of origin. Children who arrive with a good education in their primary language have already gained two objectives of a good bilingual education program: literacy and subject matter development. Research indicates that the ability to read transfers across languages, even when the writing systems are different. Despite what is presented to the public in the national media, research reveals much public support for bilingual education. Apparent opposition to bilingual education is often actually opposition to specific practices or regulations related to bilingual education. The "evidence" against bilingual education is not convincing and often involves mislabeling. Bilingual education could be improved by increasing student access to books in both languages. Contains 18 references. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Criticism, Educational Attitudes, Educational Research
(2007). Teacher Dispositions: Finding a Way to Identify with Struggling Language Learners, Online Submission. This article examines English as a Second/New Language teacher attitudes based on three personal stories and suggests study abroad as a way to foster necessary teacher dispositions. How can a teacher candidate master the array of teacher dispositions required by various sets of English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual/Bicultural Education (BBE) teacher education standards? How can schools of education encourage these dispositions? Would study abroad be essential for these teachers? In this article, ESL and BBE teacher education standards are explored, and stories from personal experience while abroad are linked with mandated teacher dispositions. The reader is asked to consider the possibilities/benefits/advantages of K-12 ESL and/or BBE teachers studying abroad, and the ensuing benefits that would accrue to their students. [This article was published in the "Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences," Volume 11, Number 3, pages 39-41.] [More] Descriptors: Schools of Education, Multicultural Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Personal Narratives
(2007). Rethinking Monolingual Instructional Strategies in Multilingual Classrooms, Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics / Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquee. Three inter-related assumptions regarding best practice in second/foreign language teaching and bilingual/immersion education continue to dominate classroom instruction. These assumptions are that: (a) the target language (TL) should be used exclusively for instructional purposes without recourse to students' first language (L1); (b) translation between L1 and TL has no place in the language classroom; and (c) within immersion and bilingual programs, the two languages should be kept rigidly separate. Research evidence provides minimal support for these assumptions and they are also inconsistent with the instructional implications of current theory in the areas of cognitive psychology and applied linguistics. Based on current research and theory, a set of bilingual instructional strategies are proposed and concrete examples are provided to illustrate how these strategies can be used together with monolingual strategies in a balanced and complementary way. [More] Descriptors: Best Practices, English (Second Language), Second Language Instruction, Bilingual Education Programs
(1980). Guide to State Education Agencies. Resources in Bilingual Education. This is a compendium of information on bilingual education from the state education agencies of the fifty states and seven territories of the United States. Entries are listed alphabetically by state; the seven territories are listed alphabetically following the states. Each entry includes the name of the state or territory; the name, address, and phone number of the department within each agency that deals with bilingual education; the contact person; the types, funding amounts, and numbers of Title VII programs within each state or territory; the numbers and funding amounts of state-funded programs; summaries of state bilingual education legislation and bilingual education teacher certification requirements; required textbooks for bilingual education; and the availability of literature describing bilingual program implementation and state-funded bilingual education research projects. Two charts describing the status of bilingual education legislation and teacher certification by state and territory are appended. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Federal Programs, Financial Support
(2001). The New Face of Bilingual Education: Is It Worth the Battle? One School's Struggle. This study examines the changing role of bilingual education in a Title I elementary school in Northern California in the wake of the passage of Proposition 227. It is found that native language literacy is an important component in the academic success of English language learners and that reading in the native language does not detract form from learning to read in English but in fact supports the development of English reading skills. It was found that while it was difficult to establish an exact formula for success in bilingual education, several factors were found to contribute to such success including high expectations for language minority students, strong English language development programs, and program support at all levels. The author of this study, a teacher researcher, kept a daily journal of the effect the administrative decisions had on a day-to-day basis on instruction, daily practice, and student placement decisions. (Contains 16 references.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Elementary Education, English (Second Language), Language Minorities
(1999). Quality Bilingual Education: Defining Success. LAB Working Paper No. 1. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for defining success in bilingual education. Defining success is a difficult and elusive task. Indicators of success are at the center of much controversy, and a review of the research of the last 30 years reveals varying trends in the underlying notion of success. Most studies focus on the ability of bilingual education programs to enhance students' performance in English academic areas, especially language and mathematics. By the late 1980s bilingual education researchers shifted their focus to identify characteristics of effective bilingual programs, as a part of the effective schools movement. This paper shows how research over the years has focused on certain components of the framework and how some recent trends are consistent with this broader definition. Definitions of success are discussed and followed by an overview of the current bilingual education debate–including the English-only movement, two-way immersion models, and traditional English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) models. Studies of "Effective Bilingual Education" are discussed as well as studies that seek to put positive outcomes in context. It is concluded that there are two types of research–one type that that aims at judging the effectiveness of bilingual education centers by focusing on the language of instruction and models; the other type looks at specific instructional practices in detail. Good practices are likely to promote learning, but they do not guarantee student performance. Four tables and 53 references are included. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingual Education Programs, Elementary Secondary Education, English Only Movement
(2007). Violence in the Curriculum: Compulsory Linguistic Discrimination in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies. In the small border town focalized in this article, just north of the Mexican and US border stations, daily businesses, including city council meetings, retail, and public services, are conducted in Spanish. Only the schools insist upon English, this insistence backed by state proposition 200, funded primarily by Ron Unz, but passed by Arizona voters in 2000. This is the type of policy Valdez criticizes when she explains the great burden that is placed on bilinguals through public policies. She identifies these policies as symptoms of public anger, writing that bilinguals "provoke the wrath of those who view concessions to linguistic diversity as fundamentally un-American". Furthermore, Corson explains that English-only policies reduce the status of minority-language speakers in every public context. While racial discrimination was once openly condoned and practiced under legal protection in the United States, Espinosa-Aguilar explains that it now continues under less blatantly racist guises, such as legal discrimination that is "masked as language policy". As an educator, the author found Arizona a frustrating place to work. So many voter initiatives were passed during her tenure there, all of which seemed counter-intuitive to her as a teacher. While educational research has largely supported bilingual education as a way to help students become competent in English, public policies in Arizona were forcing schools to discontinue their bilingual programs. The author shares a school incident to prove that Arizona's English-only policies encourage violence by their innate racism and the discriminatory practices they demand. [More] Descriptors: Language Planning, Educational Research, Racial Discrimination, Bilingual Education
(1986). A Review of the Effectiveness of Bilingual Programs with Limited-English-Speaking Children. A review of literature concerning the effectiveness of bilingual education programs consists of three sections, each containing descriptions of one or more studies and evaluations of the studies' significance. The first examines broad studies of the factors promoting or affecting bilingual education program success. The second section looks at research concerning attitudes toward bilingual education. The third section focuses on the need for program evaluation. Implications are drawn as follows: (1) a more uniform definition of bilingual education is needed; and (2) more evaluative research on bilingual education programs and their impacts is needed. Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Educational Attitudes, Limited English Speaking, Literature Reviews
(1993). Bilingual Education: Politics, Practice, and Research. Ninety-Second Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part II, Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. This yearbook is a collection of essays on aspects of bilingual education as it affects the Hispanic population of the United States and, more particularly as it affects students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The yearbook includes the following chapters: "Contextualizing Bilingual Education" *Ursula Casanova, M. Beatriz Arias); "Symbols and the Political Context of Bilingual Education in the United States" (Walter G. Secada, Theodora Lightfoot); "The Evaluation of Bilingual Education" (Ann C. Willig, J. David Ramirez); "Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language: The Elementary School" (Robert D. Milk); "Secondary Schooling for Students Becoming Bilingual" (Tamara Lucas); "Assessment of Students in Bilingual Education" (Carmen Mercado, Magdalia Romero); "Language and Culture in the Preparation of Bilingual Teachers" (Barbara J. Merino, Christian J. Faltis); "A Look at Language as a Resource: Lessons from La Clase Magica" (Olga A. Vasquez); and "The Home-School Connection in Bilingual Education" (Claude Goldenberg). A glossary and name and subject indexes are included. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingual Teachers, Cultural Context, Elementary Secondary Education
(2007). American Educational History: School, Society, and the Common Good, SAGE Publications (CA). Designed for undergraduate and graduate courses in education, this book covers education developments and trends beginning with the Colonial experience through the present day, placing an emphasis on post-World War II issues such as the role of technology, the standards movement, affirmative action, bilingual education, undocumented immigrants, and school choice. It introduces cutting-edge controversies in a way that allows students to consider a variety of viewpoints and develop their own thinking skills and examines the educational history of increasingly important groups in U.S. society, including that of African American women, Native Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans. It contains 15 chapters: (1) The Colonial Experience, 1607-1776; (2) The Effects of the Revolutionary War Era on American Education; (3) The Early Political Debates and Their Effect on the American Education System; (4) Education, African Americans, and Slavery; (5) The Education of Women and Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans; (6) The Widespread Growth of the Common School & Higher Education; (7) The Effects of the Events During and Between the Civil War and World War I; (8) The Liberal Philosophy of Education as Distinguished from Conservatism; (9) The Great Depression and the Long-Term Effects on World War II and the Cold War on American Education; (10) The Civil Rights Movement and Federal Involvement in Educational Policy; (11) The Turbulence of the 1960s; (12) The Rise of Public Criticism of Education; (13) The Rise of Multiculturalism & Other Issues; (14) Educational Reform under the Republicans and Democrats; and (15) Other Recent Educational Issues and Reforms. [More] Descriptors: African Americans, United States History, Civil Rights, Females
(2007). Local Community Perspectives and Language of Education in Sub-Saharan African Communities, International Journal of Educational Development. The use of local languages in formal education is a widely debated educational strategy in sub-Saharan Africa. National-level policies abound which permit mother-tongue instruction in primary grades, and yet successful implementation of those policies is not merely so common. The reasons for this are varied, but one powerful reason has to do with the perspectives and desires of stakeholders in the education process who reside in the local community: teachers, parents, community leaders, school authorities, and the children themselves. Responding to their particular historical, social and economic context, these stakeholders have developed their own perspectives on the nature and outcomes of formal education as well as beliefs about the utility and proper place of the local language. As stakeholders in the local education process, each of these groups has an impact on the successful implementation of formal programs of mother-tongue-mediated learning. Thus, as Stroud [2003. "Postmodernist perspectives on local languages: African mother-tongue education in times of globalisation." "International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism" 6.1, 17-36.] has noted, community participation in the development and use of minority languages can help to keep linguistic globalization at bay; however, the effectiveness of this process is profoundly dependent on the language attitudes of the community members. This paper examines the perspectives of people living in several rural African communities regarding the purposes and outcomes of formal education, as well as their perspectives on the "proper" language choice for schooling. Examining data from language communities in Cameroon (the Bafut, Kom and Nso'), Mali (the supyire and Bamanankan [Bambara]) and Kenya (the Kipsigis [Kalenjin] and Tharaka), the paper examines commonalities and distinctions among stakeholder groups across these language communities. The interaction of stakeholder perspectives with the range of national and local language policies in place is also discussed. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational Strategies, Community Attitudes, Community Involvement
(1996). The Failure of Bilingual Education. This monograph is based on a conference on bilingual education held by the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) in September, 1995 in Washington, D.C. CEO made repeated attempts to secure speakers representing the pro-bilingual education viewpoint; the paper by Portes and Schauffler represents this view. Papers presented include: "Introduction: One Nation, One Common Language" (Linda Chavez); "Bilingual Education and the Role of Government in Preserving Our Common Language" (Toby Roth); "Is Bilingual Education an Effective Educational Tool? (Christine Rossell); "What Bilingual Education Research Tells Us" (Keith Baker); "The Politics of Bilingual Education Revisited" (Rosalie Pedalino Porter); "Realizing Democratic Ideals with Bilingual Education" (Irma N. Guadarrama); "Language and the Second Generation: Bilingualism Yesterday and Today" (Alejandro Portes and Richard Schauffler); "Educating California's Immigrant Children" (Wayne A. Cornelius); "Breaking the Bilingual Lobby's Stranglehold" (Sally Peterson); "Parental Choice in Burbank, California" (Lila Ramirez); "Bilingual Education Alternatives" (Patricia Whitelaw-Hill); "Bilingual Education in the Classroom" (Suzanne Guerrero); and "One Parent's Story" (Miguel Alvarado). An appendix offers details on a pending lawsuit concerning bilingual education, and a compiled index of bilingual education statistics is included that was assembled and graphed by Jorge Amselle. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Court Litigation, English Only Movement, English (Second Language)
(1977). Bilingual Education-A Perspective. This paper defines bilingual education and notes that because of bilingual education's broad definition, a number of vastly different types of programs and program goals are being pursued. Four broad categories of bilingual education programs based on four different kinds of community and school objectives are discussed in this paper. Each of these is illustrated by an existing or proposed bilingual education program for some Spanish Speaking community. Several rationales advanced for bilingual education are reviewed. Briefly discussed is the issue of how bilingual education might affect the future of language teaching and language learning in the United States. Most American bilingual education programs are viewed as academically compensatory and as socioeconomically compensatory for disadvantaged minority group children from non-English speaking families. It is noted that if bilingual education is sold as a "compensatory promissory note", teachers and citizens will be disappointed. A number of questions about bilingual education are discussed within a comparative and sociolinguistically-oriented framework. Among these are: (1) Must one language always be an "other" tongue? (2) Can the school "go it alone" for bilingual education? (3) Can community interest be too divisive for the good of bilingual education? (4) Does the world or mankind really need all those ethnic languages?. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingual Students, Bilingualism, Definitions
(2009). Right Pedagogy/Wrong Language and Caring in Times of Fear? Issues in the Schooling of Ethnic Kurdish Children in Denmark, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Cummins calls on educators to promote critical dialog during micro-interactions with students, times when students acquire knowledge and negotiate their identities. For critical dialog to flourish, educators must create caring environments. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether a discourse of caring was transmitted to ethnic Kurdish students enrolled in a bilingual/bicultural education program in Denmark, and the mitigating role that macro (societal) factors, such as a discourse of fear played in their educators' attempts to create safe, caring havens for critical dialog. To do so, I deconstruct issues that arose when an educator taught a novel study unit as a springboard for developing critical literacy. I adopted a critical ethnographic case-study approach that featured interviews, extensive participant-observation, and document analysis. There were mixed results with more at issue than pedagogical and linguistic factors. Macro-level discourses mitigated the success of the intervention, as did identity issues related to ethnic solidarity; however, some pedagogical features of the program opened up spaces for the ethnic Kurdish children to critically examine fear of "difference." [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Language Minorities, Indo European Languages, Turkish
(2007). Language and Cultural Diversity in U.S. Schools: Democratic Principles in Action, Rowman & Littlefield Education. "With the idea in mind that America will continue to move toward a truly democratic society, however slowly, the contributors of these eight articles and introduction examine the possibility that language and culture will eventually not be an impediment to fulfilling the idea that America is a democracy. Diversity is at the heart of today's education debates. Often, school policies and programs designed to encourage and embrace diversity are met with public ire and a deep misunderstanding of how diversity serves learning. This work explains how diversity is an essential element in classroom settings. As children from around the world continue to pour into U.S. classrooms, an understanding of cultural and linguistic diversity in its broadest sense moves to the foreground. In a post 9/11 world, the benefits of understanding diversity take on urgent meaning. The introductory chapter, "Participating in Democracy Means Participating in Schools," sets the tone for the discussion to follow. As the geographic backgrounds of immigrants becomes increasingly diverse, religion must be added to previous discussions of race, ethnicity, and language. Thus, the need for the public to understand how shifts in population affect schools, makes this work a vital resource for anyone concerned with education today. This book contains nine chapters: (1) Introduction: Participating in Democracy Means Participating in Schools (Terry A. Osborn and Dina C. Osborn); (2) Emergent Possibilities for Diversity in Reading and the Language Arts (Cara Mulcahy); (3) Bilingual Education: Good for U.S.? (Mileidis Gort); (4) Accent and Dialects: Ebonics and Beyond (Timothy Reagan); (5) A Case Study in Cultural and Linguistic Difference: The DEAF-WORLD (Timothy Reagan); (6) Foreign Language Education: It's Not Just For Conjugation Anymore (Terry A. Osborn); (7) Multicultural Education Is Good for the United States Beyond Sensitivity Training (Wanda DeLeon and Xae Alicia Reyes); (8) Policies for a Pluralistic Society (Casey Cobb and Sharon F. Rallis); and (9) What September 11 Also Teaches Us (David Gerwin and Terry A. Osborn). [More] Descriptors: Cultural Pluralism, Educational Change, Sensitivity Training, Multicultural Education