This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Barbara Trudell, Diem Nguyen, Cory A. Buxton, Walter G. Secada, Zoila Tazi, Daniel J. Weiss, William Zahner, Debra J. Ackerman, Margie Probyn, and Jennie S. Brotman.
(2015). Unpacking Ideologies of Linguistic Purism: How Dual Language Teachers Make Sense of Everyday Translanguaging, International Multilingual Research Journal. This article draws on qualitative data from two Spanish-English dual language elementary classrooms to explore how teachers in these classrooms made sense of the everyday practice of bilingualism. Methodologically, this study relied on participant observation, video recording, and semi-structured interviews. Conceptually, this article draws on the notion of "translanguaging" to describe how these teachers and their students moved fluidly across multiple languages and dialects in their everyday interactions. Drawing on "language ideological inquiry", this article illustrates that these teachers' perspectives on translanguaging sometimes echoed ideologies of linguistic purism that emphasize language separation, while also reflecting counterhegemonic ideologies that privilege Spanish and promote bilingualism. Teachers' everyday language use and instructional practices both reflected and contrasted with their stated ideologies. It is argued that a more nuanced understanding of teachers' complex language ideologies can inform efforts to help them embrace translanguaging pedagogies that recognize and build on students' everyday bilingualism. [More] Descriptors: Qualitative Research, Bilingual Education, Spanish, Bilingualism
(2015). Pedagogical Translanguaging: Bridging Discourses in South African Science Classrooms, Language and Education. This paper reports on the classroom languaging practices of a group of science teachers in rural and township schools in South Africa where the majority of learners learn through the medium of English, despite the fact that it is the home language of only a small minority; and learners' poor English proficiency frequently restricts their access to the curriculum. The purpose of the study was to explore how these science teachers utilised the linguistic resources of the classroom–the learners' home language and English–and if their practices might improve learners' opportunity to learn science. A series of lessons for each teacher was videotaped and the teachers were interviewed on their language attitudes and practices. The focus is on one teacher, who demonstrated a skilled "bridging discourse" across modes, discourses and languages to provide learners with what appeared to be improved opportunities to learn science. What distinguished this teacher's practice from that of the other teachers was his systematic and purposeful use of the learners' home language in what has been termed "pedagogical translanguaging" as opposed to the relatively brief and reactive code-switching or complete avoidance of the learners' home language evident in the other classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Teaching Methods, Code Switching (Language), Language Proficiency, Science Instruction
(2015). Fostering Structurally Transformative Teacher Agency through Science Professional Development, Journal of Research in Science Teaching. This study draws on data from a 10-month critical narrative inquiry of science teaching and learning in a third grade, dual language, integrated co-teaching classroom. The teachers were participants in a 14-week science professional development seminar that enrolled inservice and preservice teachers and focused on enhancing science teaching and learning in the classroom while drawing on the unique resources of the city. Data for the study include classroom audiotape, student work samples, audiotape of teacher planning meetings, semi-structured interviews, and a team portfolio. Data were analyzed using constant comparative methods. The findings illustrate a dialectical relationship between agency and structure and show a transition from more structurally reproductive toward more structurally transformative teacher agency over time. The emphasis on literacy in the school, the dual language program, and teachers' lack of science content knowledge tended to promote structurally reproductive agency, whereas the teachers' participation in a science professional development program and the unique context of a museum climate change exhibit fostered more structurally transformative teacher agency. Student agency was greatest when teachers engaged in more structurally transformative forms of agency. [More] Descriptors: Transformative Learning, Science Instruction, Faculty Development, Bilingual Education Programs
(2015). Fourth-Grade Emergent Bilingual Learners' Scientific Reasoning Complexity, Controlled Experiment Practices, and Content Knowledge When Discussing School, Home, and Play Contexts, Teachers College Record. Background: In exploring how emergent bilingual learners' prior knowledge from home and play contexts might influence their scientific reasoning, this study drew upon two distinct research traditions: (a) experimental research from the developmental and cognitive psychology tradition, and (b) research on culturally and linguistically diverse learners from the sociocultural tradition. Purpose: As part of a larger research project to improve science teaching and learning in culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools, we explored the knowledge that fourth-grade emergent bilingual learners brought to the classroom from home and play contexts, as well as the knowledge that was developed in the classroom. We considered how this out-of-school and in-school knowledge related to students' academic abilities to reason scientifically, to follow controlled experiment practices, and to demonstrate knowledge of core science concepts in school. Setting: The research was conducted in elementary schools in a large urban school district in the southeastern United States with a linguistically and culturally diverse student population. Participants: A total of 81 fourth-grade students from 27 teachers' classes across six schools were interviewed during a three-year period. These students were selected for equal distribution across four ESOL levels, two home languages (Spanish and Haitian Creole), and two genders. Intervention: After being taught by their classroom teacher using a project-developed curriculum unit on the topic of energy that was developed to specifically support bilingual learners, selected students participated in an interactive interview with a member of the research team. Research Design: The design can be described as analytic interview, in which (a) neither control group nor pre/post comparisons were used, (b) students were selected purposefully from classrooms based on demographic criteria, (c) student responses were coded both qualitatively and quantitatively, and (d) a sufficiently large sample size was used to allow for statistical analysis of student responses. Findings: Students' English proficiency level correlated with their ability to express scientific reasoning (in English), but not their ability to engage in controlled experiment practices. The home, school, or play context of the interview questions correlated with students' ability to express science content knowledge about energy. Conclusions: The uneasy tension of applying both cognitive and sociocultural theoretical traditions enriches and also complicates our understanding of how students learn to reason scientifically, how they engage in controlled experiment practices, and how they express science content knowledge. Curriculum materials, student assessments, and teacher professional development can all benefit from a better understanding of how emergent bilingual learners leverage their prior knowledge and epistemologies from both home and school contexts, as they engage in science learning. [More] Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Bilingual Education, Bilingual Schools, Bilingualism
(2010). Universalist and Differentialist Approaches to Instruction for High-School-Age Immigrants: Tensions in Practice and Policy, Bilingual Research Journal. Drawing on data from a 3-year qualitative study on the transition of immigrant youth, we seek to understand the connections among district programming and policy, teacher perspectives, and the ways in which students experience initial schooling. Specifically, this article examines the following research questions: How does district leadership define the challenge and opportunities of working with older immigrant students? In the face of this definition, what approaches and perspectives to instruction are taken by teachers at the Northwest Newcomer Center? To answer these questions, we juxtapose the ideas and beliefs of various personnel in the district regarding the best way to educate recent immigrants. To sharpen our analytic lens, we utilize the concepts of universalism and differentiation (Reeves, 2004) as a tool to explore the perspectives that teachers and leaders took in educating immigrant students and the impact that this had on practice. [More] Descriptors: High School Students, Immigrants, Teaching Methods, School Districts
(2010). A Comparison of Third Grade English Language Learners' Reading Test Scores from Urban Classrooms Taught by Native or Non-Native English Speaking Teachers, ProQuest LLC. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which third grade English reading achievement scores, as measured by the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS), differed between two groups of students–those educated in transitional bilingual classrooms taught by native-English speaking teachers (NESTs) and those educated in transitional bilingual classrooms taught by nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs). A second purpose was to determine the extent to which third grade Spanish reading achievement scores, as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), differed between two groups of students–those educated in transitional bilingual classrooms taught by native English-speaking teachers and those educated in transitional bilingual classrooms taught by nonnative English-speaking teachers. Methodology: ANCOVA was used to analyze data for each of the two research questions in my study. Participants were selected using purposive sampling from 31 elementary schools in a large urban school district in Texas. Findings and Conclusions: Findings from question one in my study established that the teacher's native language was not a significant variable in impacting students' scores on the TELPAS reading. Findings from question two in my study established that the teacher's native language was not a significant variable in impacting students' scores on the TAKS Spanish reading. [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: Grade 3, English Language Learners, Elementary School Students, Reading Tests
(2015). Inequalities of Multilingualism: Challenges to Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education, Language and Education. This paper discusses structural and ideological challenges to mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) which has in recent years been gaining ground in many educational contexts around the world. The paper argues, however, that MTB-MLE is set against these challenges – referred to here as inequalities of multilingualism – which prevent MTB-MLE from being implemented successfully. The first section provides a brief background of significant phenomena which have led to the emergence of MTB-MLE as a viable form of education around the world. The second section describes some features of inequalities of multilingualism by situating the paper within sociolinguistic and sociopolitical contexts in Asia, especially Southeast Asia, to be followed further in the third section with a more targeted discussion of such inequalities using a recent case of linguistic discrimination in the Philippines as an example. The paper highlights the continuing vulnerabilities of mother tongues in education even if official discourse and policy seem to work for them. [More] Descriptors: Native Language, Multilingualism, Native Language Instruction, Sociolinguistics
(2010). Language, Culture, Development and Politics: Dimensions of Local Agency in Language Development in Africa, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Support for the use of local languages for learning and communication is currently in fashion among national policy-makers in Africa. This position has been promoted by UNESCO and other local-language advocates for years; more recently it is being seen favourably by a range of influential international institutions. However, even positive language policy usually depends on local action to give it shape and sustain it. In many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, community-level institutions–language committees–are taking an active part in a wide range of processes for language development including orthography development, the production of local-language literature, literacy programmes, multilingual education programmes and advocacy at local and national levels. These institutions share a core commitment to seeing increased use and/or recognition of the language of the local community. This paper explores the defining dimensions of local-language committees in sub-Saharan Africa, including their place in the interplay between national policy and local practice. [More] Descriptors: Language Planning, Committees, Multilingualism, Foreign Countries
(2015). The Impact of Discrimination on the Early Schooling Experiences of Children from Immigrant Families, Migration Policy Institute. How the young children of immigrants experience their early school years may in large part determine their academic future and negatively affect their emotional, social, and mental development. Children benefit from a positive, supportive learning environment where their contributions are valued; many from immigrant families, however, experience discrimination in school during their early, impressionable years. The experiences that children have in their first classrooms are foundational to how they think about themselves as learners, students, and members of the larger communities around them. Any experiences of discrimination at this vulnerable age can negatively affect personal development and academic trajectories, and limit the emotional benefits of early childhood education. This report, part of a research series supported by the Foundation for Child Development, maps the types of personal and structural discrimination that young children of immigrants may experience at school, and the consequences of discrimination for children, their families, and schools. It begins by describing how discrimination in the early years can affect a child's development, academic performance, and later mobility. The report then outlines types of discrimination that young children of immigrants may experience at school. The report concludes with recommendations that focus on training teachers, building relationships between schools and immigrant communities, and encouraging more varied, culturally sensitive learning experiences. Contents include: (1) Introduction; (2) How Discrimination in School Affects Young Children: (a) The Effects of Discrimination on Children's Development and Academic Performance; (b) Discrimination and Parental Engagement in School; and (c) The Role of Local Contexts and Attitudes; (3) Types of Discrimination Experienced; (a) Personal Forms of Discrimination; and (b) Structural Forms of Discrimination; (4) Reasons for Discrimination in the Early School Years: (a) Lack of Meaningful Connections with Immigrant Communities; (b) Focus on Immigrant Families' Deficits Rather than Assets; (c) Inadequate Teacher Preparation and Recruitment; (d) Testing Pressures in the Early Grades; and (e) Negative Labels and Concerns over School Readiness; and (5) Recommendations. [More] Descriptors: Immigrants, Educational Experience, Young Children, Academic Achievement
(2010). What's in a Face? Visual Contributions to Speech Segmentation, Language and Cognitive Processes. Recent research has demonstrated that adults successfully segment two interleaved artificial speech streams with incongruent statistics (i.e., streams whose combined statistics are noisier than the encapsulated statistics) only when provided with an indexical cue of speaker voice. In a series of five experiments, our study explores whether learners can utilise visual information to encapsulate statistics for each speech stream. We initially presented learners with incongruent artificial speech streams produced by the same female voice along with an accompanying visual display. Learners successfully segmented both streams when the audio stream was presented with an indexical cue of talking faces (Experiment 1). This learning cannot be attributed to the presence of the talking face display alone, as a single face paired with a single input stream did not improve segmentation (Experiment 2). Additionally, participants failed to successfully segment two streams when they were paired with a synchronised single talking face display (Experiment 3). Likewise, learners failed to successfully segment both streams when the visual indexical cue lacked audio-visual synchrony, such as changes in background screen colour (Experiment 4) or a static face display (Experiment 5). We end by discussing the possible relevance of the speaker's face in speech segmentation and bilingual language acquisition. [More] Descriptors: Stimuli, Artificial Speech, Earth Science, Statistics
(2010). Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching?, Modern Language Journal. This article reports on research that questions commonsense understandings of a bilingual pedagogy predicated on what Cummins refers to as the "two solitudes" assumption. It sets out to describe a flexible bilingual approach to language teaching and learning in Chinese and Gujarati community language schools in the United Kingdom. We argue for a release from monolingual instructional approaches and advocate teaching bilingual children by means of bilingual instructional strategies, in which two or more languages are used alongside each other. In developing this argument, the article takes a language ecology perspective and seeks to describe the interdependence of skills and knowledge across languages. [More] Descriptors: Educational Strategies, Bilingual Education, Monolingualism, Foreign Countries
(2015). Enhancing Young Hispanic Dual Language Learners' Achievement: Exploring Strategies and Addressing Challenges. Policy Information Report. ETS RR-15-01, ETS Research Report Series. Dual language learners, or DLLs, may have greater school readiness needs due to the key role English oral language skills play in the development of emerging literacy skills in English and their overall academic achievement. This especially can be the case if children's capacity to benefit from classroom instruction and interact with teachers and fellow students is dependent on their English language proficiency. This policy report examines key factors contributing to young Hispanic DLLs academically at-risk status, as well as the emerging research base on strategies for supporting the learning and development of DLLs in preschool and the early primary grades. Also addressed are the practical, on-the-ground implementation challenges to be addressed if early education programs are to incorporate these strategies. [More] Descriptors: Hispanic American Students, Bilingual Education, School Readiness, Oral Language
(2015). World of Learning: Houston Independent School District 2014 Annual Report and 2015 Calendar. No other city in the nation more clearly exemplifies the dramatically changing social, political, and economic landscape of America's urban centers than Houston. Houston has transformed from a bi-racial southern city on the bayou to one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse communities in the nation. Houston Independent School District (HISD) faces unique challenges in this new landscape and the solutions require leadership, innovation, collaboration and hard work. Quality education transforms the lives of children and is the cornerstone for Houston's future prosperity and success. It is every Houstonian's responsibility to ensure that every child has access to a high quality education regardless of ZIP code. This 2014 annual report presents HISD's vision for graduates as leaders, critical thinkers, college-ready learners, and skilled communicators who are adaptable and productive. In an effort to produce adaptable and productive graduates with cross cultural skills, HISD is expanding its dual language offerings in 2015 from 28 elementary schools to roughly 50 campuses. HISD also has a number of other initiatives designed to prepare students to 2015. Included in this report are highlights of revenues and expenditures, numbers of students served, number of employees, number of schools serving HISD students, amount of scholarships and financial aid offered to seniors in 2014, number of languages spoken across the district, dual language instruction provided, number of dual credit courses, bond initiative building modern schools across Houston, percent of rated HISD schools that met state student progress standard, and percent of rated schools that met state closing performance gaps standard. [More] Descriptors: Elementary Secondary Education, Public Education, Educational Quality, Global Education
(2010). Talking while Computing in Groups: The Not-so-Private Functions of Computational Private Speech in Mathematical Discussions, Mind, Culture, and Activity. Students often voice computations during group discussions of mathematics problems. Yet, this type of private speech has received little attention from mathematics educators or researchers. In this article, we use excerpts from middle school students' group mathematical discussions to illustrate and describe "computational private speech." We analyze four examples of computational private speech using lenses from neo-Vygotskian psychology, sociolinguistics, and distributed cognition. Our analyses of computational private speech challenge the individualistic developmental assumptions of some neo-Vygotskian theories of private speech, and we show how this form of private speech can serve socio-cognitive functions during group mathematical discussions. [More] Descriptors: Inner Speech (Subvocal), Sociolinguistics, Computation, Middle Schools
(2015). Language Modeling and Reading Achievement: Variations across Different Types of Language Instruction Programs, Reading & Writing Quarterly. This study investigated the degree to which the quality of teachers' language modeling contributed to reading achievement for 995 students, both English language learners and native English speakers, across developmental bilingual, dual language, and monolingual English classrooms. Covariates included prior reading achievement, gender, eligibility for free lunch, and ethnicity. A 2-level hierarchical linear modeling analysis revealed that (a) prior achievement, Latino ethnicity, and eligibility for free lunch contributed significantly to the model but gender did not; (b) students gained 3 points for each unit increase in the quality of language modeling across classrooms; and (c) reading achievement for English language learners was not significantly different than that for native English-speaking students. In addition, cross-level interactions revealed that the slope of the quality of language modeling and reading achievement for students in monolingual English classrooms and developmental bilingual classrooms was stronger than that for students in dual language classrooms. We discuss classroom implications of bilingualism and language modeling in improving reading outcomes. [More] Descriptors: English Language Learners, Native Speakers, Language Usage, Teacher Student Relationship