This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Sandiso Ngcobo, Rose Drury, Elizabeth Venables, Susana A. Eisenchlas, Salman Al-Azami, Emilee Moore, Herbert Igboanusi, Matiu Tai Ratima, Brahim Chakrani, and Andrea Parmegiani.
(2014). From Bengali to English: Sequential Bilingualism of a Second-Generation British Bangladeshi, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The paper discusses sequential language acquisition of the researcher's daughter Safa who transformed from a monolingual Bengali speaker to an almost monolingual English speaker in a few months after moving to the UK. Safa was born in Bangladesh and was a monolingual Bengali speaker until she was three years and nine months when the family moved to the UK. Unlike most research on sequential bilingualism, Safa's transition from Bengali to English went through a period of an invented language, which she developed and used for a few months. Safa then underwent language shift as Bengali became her passive language. Safa's loss of fluency in Bengali was mainly due to the absence of Bengali linguistic environment, because her family lived outside the community. Safa's mother's indifference to Bangladeshi ethnicity and her parents' positive attitude towards Britishness meant that her decline in Bengali did not cause them much concern. Despite the lack of proficiency in Bengali, Safa still retains a strong ethnic Bangladeshi identity. Tabors and Snow's four-stage developmental process of sequential second-language acquisition has been applied to find the similarities and differences in Safa's case, while language maintenance and shift theories have contributed to the analysis of the process of her language shift. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Second Language Learning, Language Fluency, Bilingualism
(2014). Silencing Bilingualism: A Day in a Life of a Bilingual Practitioner, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Based on sociocultural theories of learning, this paper draws on findings from a research project "a day in a life of a bilingual practitioner". It explores how two multilingual practitioners in English early years settings supported the learning of young 3-4 year-old children, and their parents and teachers. The paper challenges the current binary opposition of viewing the development and maintenance of home languages and English as existing at two ends of a spectrum in young children's lives and their learning. The data reveal the tensions between this perceived opposition and the silencing of multilingualism enacted by bilingual practitioners in early years settings. We argue that while bilingual practitioners have the potential to draw on their "funds of knowledge", the reality in these classrooms does not allow them to support bilingual learning. The paper concludes that bilingual children's, parents' and practitioners' untapped "funds of knowledge" need to be opened up in order to inform a new bilingual pedagogy in the early years. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Preschool Teachers, Language Usage, Bilingual Teachers
(2014). The (Dis)ownership of English: Language and Identity Construction among Zulu Students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper explores the role English and isiZulu play in the identity construction of a group of black South African university students from disadvantaged backgrounds enrolled in a bridge programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I will discuss how, in post-apartheid South Africa, language practices continue to foster inequality, despite a constitution that grants official status to 11 languages. Attitudes towards language in South Africa are extremely complex. While native speakers of African languages tend to be highly invested in their mother tongues as markers of identities and carriers of traditional culture, they often oppose policies aimed at promoting a greater use of their mother tongue in domains of power, especially in education. I will unravel some of these complexities by adopting a theoretical framework that draws on post-modern, feminist and post-colonial conceptions of identity to examine students' discourses about the ownership of English. These discourses reveal that while there is consensus among students that their mother tongue is a fundamental part of who they are, positions vary greatly with respect to the role English can play in the identity construction of a native isiZulu speaker. Nevertheless, even the students who strongly reject the possibility of ever owning any other language besides their mother tongue, stake a collective claim to English as "everybody's language" and as agents in the nation-building process that characterises post-apartheid South Africa. [More] Descriptors: Self Concept, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, African Languages
(2014). Te Rita Papesch: Case Study of an Exemplary Learner of Maori as an Additional Language, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper presents a case study of the life experiences of one exemplar adult second language Maori learner–Te Rita Papesch. Te Rita was one of 17 participants who were interviewed as a part of the first author's PhD study which sought to answer the question: what factors lead to the development of proficiency in te reo Maori amongst adult learners. We have chosen to focus on Te Rita's case because it illustrates four themes common across the cohort of 17. First, Te Rita was primarily motivated to learn te reo as a means to better understand her own identity as a Maori. Second, she was open to change. Third, she demonstrated a commitment to building strong relationships with her mentors and fellow speakers. Fourth, Te Rita was able to transfer skills from other parts of her life into the language-learning context. [More] Descriptors: Case Studies, Malayo Polynesian Languages, Interviews, Language Proficiency
(2014). The Struggle to Maintain Identity in Higher Education among Zulu-Speaking Students, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The 2002 Language Policy for Higher Education (LPHE) identifies the currently dominant language of instruction–English–as being a possible barrier to many African students in accessing and successfully completing studies at higher education level. The LPHE thus requires that black African languages be developed at Higher Education Institutions for use as languages of teaching and learning, alongside English and Afrikaans. It is hoped that such a move would, among other things, enable South Africans to take pride in being bi/multilingual. Hence, this paper examines the relationship between language identity and bi/multilingual education. In conducting the study, the participants who are mostly isiZulu speaking in an educational institution in which their primary language (L1) dominates on campus and in the surrounding community were exposed to Zulu–English instructional material in their academic literacy and communication skills course. While the findings indicate a strong African pride among the majority of respondents about the use of their languages in education, concerns, however, are raised about the negative impact this might have on their development of proficiency in English and the practicality of bi/multilingual instruction on campuses with a diverse racial student population. This view indicates a struggle experienced by many Africans between maintaining their languages in education and developing English that is in high demand in education, commerce and as a common language of communication across ethnic and racial lines in South Africa and elsewhere. [More] Descriptors: African Languages, Native Language, Self Concept, Foreign Countries
(2014). Naturalism and Ideological Work: How Is Family Language Policy Renegotiated as Both Parents and Children Learn a Threatened Minority Language?, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Parents who enroll their children to be educated through a threatened minority language frequently do not speak that language themselves and classes in the language are sometimes offered to parents in the expectation that this will help them to support their children's education and to use the minority language in the home. Providing language-learning opportunities for parents with children in minority-language education is understood as good practice in language revitalization, but there is little research on the efficacy of this practice. I will present data from narrative, life-history interviews with mothers who have learned Scottish Gaelic to some level and who have children who attend Gaelic-medium education, and I will discuss the difficulties they encounter in establishing new norms of language use in the family and the strategies they use to effect a new language policy in the home. I will show how these mothers work to establish a new norm of Gaelic use in the family in opposition to a common background ideology that understands language as a natural object, and therefore, that it is wrong and bad parenting to "force" a language on a child. [More] Descriptors: Family Relationship, Language Usage, Language Attitudes, Bilingualism
(2014). Constructing Content and Language Knowledge in Plurilingual Student Teamwork: Situated and Longitudinal Perspectives, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper explores how students in an Educational Psychology subject in a university L2 immersion context accomplish learning, mobilise their plurilingual repertoires and restructure their participation in carrying out a teamwork task over the course of approximately one week. The study is novel in several ways. First, it aims to fill a gap in the literature by exploring dynamics of knowledge construction in a multilingual, "internationalised" university classroom, a context that is currently underrepresented in research, although increasingly common in practice. Second, the theoretical-analytical framework, inspired by socio-constructivism and conversation analysis, lends support to both situated and longitudinal arguments for learning; perspectives that are often examined separately in interactionist literature. Finally, the framework is used to seek evidence of knowledge construction not only in terms of the second language but also in terms of disciplinary content and by paying particular attention to how students participate and use their available languages in managing the different task stages. The results not only demonstrate the utility of the proposed framework but also highlight how the mobilisation of plurilingual repertoires may be advantageous for learning and participation in similar higher education classroom settings and, ultimately, for doing internationalisation. [More] Descriptors: Multilingualism, International Education, Guidelines, Educational Psychology
(2014). One-Parent-One-Language (OPOL) Families: Is the Majority Language-Speaking Parent Instrumental in the Minority Language Development?, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The aim of this study is to examine the strategies majority language-speaking parents use to support the development of the minority language in families who follow the pattern of exposure known as one-parent-one-language (OPOL). In this particular pattern of raising a child bilingually, each parent speaks only their own native language to their children. Previous studies concerned with language development in children raised under the OPOL pattern primarily focused on how input from the minority language-speaking parent affects minority language development, leaving the role of the majority language-speaking parent largely unexplored. To address this gap, a case study was carried out on three families in Brisbane, Australia, who reported following the OPOL pattern. Video and audio recordings were taken, along with interviews using an elicited recall task based on the recordings to gather data on the families' language practices and motivations. The results of the qualitative analysis suggest that, in these families, the majority language-speaking parent plays an important role that extends beyond the provision of input in the majority language and may contribute to fostering minority language development and maintenance. [More] Descriptors: Language Minorities, Video Technology, Audio Equipment, Second Language Learning
(2014). Accent and Identity: Exploring the Perceptions among Bilingual Speakers of English as a Lingua Franca in Hong Kong, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This paper reports on a study that investigated the perceptions of a group of bilingual speakers of English and Chinese in Hong Kong concerning issues surrounding accent, identity and English as a lingua franca (ELF). Data were primarily collected via in-depth interviews with 28 university students in Hong Kong who are also regular users of English in lingua franca contexts. The analysis shows that the participants' perceptions of their preferred identities as speakers of English in ELF settings in relation to accent were varied and complex. Among the participants who preferred to use a local accent of English, their preference was not necessarily motivated by the need for expressing their lingua-cultural identity, but primarily by pragmatic considerations. It was also found that some participants' desire to speak English with a native-like accent was associated with their wish to present a positive identity or self-image as bilingual speakers of English. The paper calls for the need to recognize the role of individual variations in accent preferences for identity construction in ELF. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Bilingualism, Dialects, Pronunciation
(2014). The Effect of Sociolinguistic Factors and English Language Proficiency on the Development of French as a Third Language, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The classroom demographics in French immersion (FI) programs across Canada are changing: There are a growing number of multilingual students who are learning English as a second language (L2) and French as a third language (L3). However, little is known about the development of French language proficiency and reading skills of multilingual students in the FI programs. The association between sociolinguistic factors as well as metalinguistic awareness, language proficiency, and literacy skills in the L2 and language proficiency and literacy skills in the L3 was investigated in this study. The sample included 55 students with an average age of 11 years and six months, in early FI programs who were tested at the end of Grade 6. Multiple regression analyses revealed that oral language proficiency and reading comprehension in English predicted oral language proficiency and reading comprehension skills in French, controlling for amount of reading in French and morphological awareness in English. This study demonstrated that although the majority of instruction in FI programs is in French, multilingual students continue to develop age-appropriate oral language proficiency and reading skills in English and French. [More] Descriptors: Sociolinguistics, Multiple Regression Analysis, Reading Comprehension, French
(2014). Emergent Literacy Performance across Two Languages: Assessing Four-Year-Old Bilingual Children, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. There are few emergent literacy assessments available for bilingual children. This study investigated the usefulness of a screening battery of oral language and print-related measures as an assessment tool for bilingual Samoan-English speaking children. A total of 18 children were recruited from three Samoan language immersion kindergartens (Aoga Amatas) in Auckland, New Zealand. A control group of 15 monolingual children were recruited from neighbouring kindergartens. Both Aoga Amatas and the kindergartens run programmes that are based on Te Whariki–the New Zealand National Early Childhood Curriculum–regardless of the language spoken. The bilingual children were assessed on two occasions, once in English and once in Samoan by undergraduate speech pathology students, who were fluent in Samoan or English, on measures of story retelling and comprehension, phonological awareness, letter name knowledge and vocabulary. Results were analysed for each language, and across languages using composite scoring, and showed that the bilingual children's performance in one language (either Samoan or English) significantly underestimated their composite language performance. Furthermore, the bilingual children significantly outperformed their monolingual peers on receptive vocabulary when composite scoring was used. Practical implications of these findings are outlined. [More] Descriptors: Emergent Literacy, Bilingualism, Second Language Learning, Speech Language Pathology
(2014). A Case Study of Bi-Literacy Development among Children Enrolled in an Italian-English Dual Language Program in Southern California, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study examines bi-literacy development among 60 children enrolled in an Italian-English dual language (DL) program in Southern California. Using a variety of measures including (1) oral reading fluency (ORF), (2) accuracy scores, and (3) standardized test for the assessment of reading (STAR) test's estimates of reading ability for English, the study investigates how Italian and English literacy skills emerged and developed among first-, second-, and third- graders–and among English speakers and learners–educated via Italian immersion. The study also examines the extent to which ORF was correlated, and therefore transferred, between languages. The results indicate that reading fluency emerged first in Italian for all students. However, in a relatively short period of time, it became comparable across languages and even higher in English for English-speaking students. Correlations between Italian and English reading fluency scores were statistically significant and moderately high. This finding suggests that Italian decoding skills transferred to English, possibly helping children develop English literacy while primarily instructed in Italian. STAR test results further indicate that after a brief, initial lag in English reading skills, students caught up to and eventually read increasingly better than grade level in English. This finding confirms the possible long-term benefits of DL instruction on English reading development. [More] Descriptors: Oral Reading, Reading Fluency, Correlation, Italian
(2014). What Makes a Taiwan CLIL Programme Highly Recommended or Not Recommended?, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. In order to meet the challenges of the international competitive environment, Taiwan's Ministry of Education (MOE) is promoting institutes of higher education to establish degree-based Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes with the goals of enhancing students' English proficiency and attracting more international students. In 2011, the MOE conducted a national-scale appraisal of the 92 CLIL programmes. This study focuses on comparing and contrasting two programmes in the same university which were classed by the appraisal as highly recommended and not recommended. The study adopts methodological triangulation, including analysis of the documents detailing what made the programmes successful and unsuccessful and investigation of the learners' perceptions and attitudes towards their CLIL education through questionnaire and interviews. Results indicate that the high- and low-level stakeholders' perspectives and expectations concur in the programme deemed successful by the MOE but diverge for the unsuccessful programme. Further analysis raises questions concerning teacher training for CLIL programmes, the reaction to native speakers and local teachers in the programmes and the desirability of supplementary language support. The study indicates areas of concern and future areas of investigation. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, English (Second Language), Second Language Instruction, Language Proficiency
(2014). The Work of Ideology: Examining Class, Language Use, and Attitudes among Moroccan University Students, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This article investigates overt language attitudes and linguistic practices among French-taught university students in Morocco, showing the relationship between language behavior and attitudes. The results reveal a class-based divide in respondents' patterns of language use, in their support of the French monolingual sanitized classroom, and in their attitudinal dispositions toward the dominance of French as the language of instruction. Within the classroom, the hegemonic role of French is reinforced in student-teacher interactions through the exclusive use of French as the de facto code for "modern" knowledge, whereas the local languages Moroccan Arabic, Standard Arabic, and Berber are portrayed as inadequate within the educational context. This divide between local and Western languages is a work of the institutionalization of French colonial ideologies, which continue to establish the use of Western languages as representing the engines of modernity. This is shown uniformly in the responses of all three classes in favoring the exclusive use of French and English as languages of instruction for science and technology. Thus, language politics within post-modern Moroccan schools continue to marginalize the political economy of local codes in their role in defining Moroccan society. [More] Descriptors: Language Attitudes, French, Semitic Languages, Language Variation
(2014). The English-Only Language Education Policy in the Gambia and Low Literacy Rates, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The education policies of 1988-2003 and 2004-2015 in The Gambia make provisions for the use of the L1 or area languages to serve as the media of instruction from Grades 1 to 3 and as school subjects from Grade 4 onwards. However, the policy on the use of L1 for teaching has not been implemented and what is practised instead is the use of English as a means of teaching from pre-primary to the tertiary level education. Since English is the weakest language of the pupils, schools witness high drop-out rates, limited access to education, inability to read with understanding in the early grades, a lack of understanding of the content of the subject taught, and more seriously, high rate of illiteracy. The present paper reviews the English-only education policy in The Gambia and proposes a reform of the education policy in that country. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Language Planning, Educational Policy, Illiteracy