Bibliography: Bilingual Education (page 463 of 829)

This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices.  Some of the authors featured on this page include Melissa K. Haubrich, Yuuko Uchikoshi, John Petrovic, Bertus Matthee, Lee Branum-Martin, Hung-Tzu Huang, Barbara R. Foorman, David J. Francis, Lesley Saunders, and Rachel Singal Garrett.

McClain, Margy (2010). Parental Agency in Educational Decision Making: A Mexican American Example, Teachers College Record. Background/Context: This article explores the experiences of one Mexican American family as they make a key curriculum choice for their 9-year-old son. Relatively little attention has been paid to parents' beliefs, attitudes, and, in particular, experiences as they actively engage in–and sometimes affect–their children's schooling. Parents' agency in utilizing various kinds of educational strategizing, especially immigrant and urban working-class parents, has been overlooked. Deficit theories of low-income families have a long history in educational thought. Although more recent scholarship has debunked these theories, they remain pervasive across the country. Educators often do not recognize the many ways in which urban parents may be involved in their children's schooling. Voices of parents themselves speaking to their experiences with schools are just beginning to emerge. Purpose: This article offers a rich example of the educational decision-making process of one Mexican American family. I take a phenomenological approach to examine human agency in specific familial decisions about this child's schooling that supports the parents' own vision of education. Here is a story of thoughtful, reflective decision-making that took place over a period of several years, when the parents finally decided to move their son from a transitional bilingual program at a public school to a parochial school taught in English. Research Design: This is a narrative inquiry based on interviews and observations that took place with one family and one focal child through the course of a calendar year. It is situated within the frame of an ethnographic study on the educational life worlds of the family. The analysis draws on van Manen's use of phenomenology to examine how parents reflected upon experience to better understand a situation, resulting in "lived experience," an understanding of the meanings a particular person finds in an event. Conclusions/Recommendations: Immigrant and other urban parents may be actively engaged in their children's education, asking important and valid curriculum questions in ways that remain invisible to educators. I suggest alternatives to deficit theories that render parents' perspectives invisible. Terms usually reserved for teachers can also be applied to parents: "knowledgeable observers" who make "pedagogically thoughtful" decisions about "curriculum." This perspective would recommend that educational practice and policy use theoretical frameworks stressing parents' roles as strong, positive, and active agents on behalf of their children and the need to develop dialogue based on respect. Further qualitative research in particular can provide needed depth in our understanding of parents' struggles to negotiate the boundaries of culture, history and biography as they guide their children through the complex maze of school.   [More]  Descriptors: Parochial Schools, Mexican Americans, Parent Participation, Ethnography

Soderman, Anne K. (2010). Language Immersion Programs for Young Children? Yes . . . but Proceed with Caution, Phi Delta Kappan. A dual immersion program in Chinese and English at the 3e International School in Beijing is helping children become fluent in both languages, even though many students spoke neither language when they entered the school. Children enter the program as young as two years old. Studies indicate that bilingual children have higher levels of cognitive flexibility than unilingual children, bilingual children become more aware of the meta-linguistic structures of language, and young children are fully able to handle bilingualism without becoming developmentally delayed in language. Dual language immersion programs must be carefully constructed and monitored and must provide best practice in skill building and language training.   [More]  Descriptors: Immersion Programs, Young Children, Developmental Delays, Bilingualism

Tong, Fuhui; Castillo, Linda G.; Pérez, Aida E. (2010). A Psychological Profile of Acculturation, Ethnic Identity and Teaching Efficacy among Latino In-Service Teachers, International Education Studies. This study examined psychological constructs of acculturation, ethnic identity, and teaching efficacy among 89 Latino in-service teachers serving minority students. Results showed significant differences in these constructs in relation to certification, program taught, and years of teaching. First, bilingual teachers were less likely to be assimilated to White-American culture compared to traditionally/alternatively prepared ESL teachers. Second, traditionally certified ESL teachers were more efficacious in controlling disruptive behavior than alternatively prepared ESL teachers. Finally, higher acculturated teachers were associated with university route and ESL program while low acculturation individuals were more likely to hold alternative certification and teach in bilingual program. Educational implications were discussed.   [More]  Descriptors: Acculturation, Ethnicity, Teacher Effectiveness, Self Efficacy

Miranda, Norbella; Echeverry, Ángela Patricia (2010). Infrastructure and Resources of Private Schools in Cali and the Implementation of the Bilingual Colombia Program, HOW. Institutional factors affect the implementation of educational policies. Physical school infrastructure and the availability of resources determine to a certain extent whether a policy may be successfully transformed into practice. This article provides a description and analysis of school infrastructure and resources of private institutions of strata 1-4 in Cali and how these two factors relate to the implementation of the Bilingual Colombia Program (BCP). In general, it was found that schools were alike regarding the availability of general resources and the inadequate condition of some infrastructure aspects. Yet, significant gaps among schools were found in the availability and number of specialized resources for English language teaching. Results suggest that additional resources might need to be allocated in schools for a successful implementation of the BCP.   [More]  Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Private Schools, Elementary Education, Bilingual Education

Murphy, Audrey F. (2010). Bilingual and Bicultural, Principal. In recent years, the dual-language program model has become popular in many schools across the nation, and the classes have already been flourishing in countries outside the U.S. for years. Dual-language programs are an excellent way to provide academic instruction for both English-language learners (ELLs) and English-proficient speakers. Since both groups learn together, each benefits from the cooperative setting: The ELLs learn English and academic content, while the proficient English speakers learn another language and participate in an academically rigorous instructional setting. In this article, the author provides some suggestions on choosing a language and model, equipping the classroom, selecting teachers, programming the dual-language classes, and preparing an orientation meeting for parents and staff. The magic of dual-language programs is students collaborating on cognitively demanding tasks in both English and the target language. While working together in partnerships and studying together, both ELLs and English-proficient students learn about each other's language and culture–becoming bilingual and bicultural–which is truly a valuable commodity in the 21st century.   [More]  Descriptors: English (Second Language), Limited English Speaking, Bilingualism, Second Language Learning

Gao, Fang; Shum, Mark S. K. (2010). Investigating the Role of Bilingual Teaching Assistants in Hong Kong: An Exploratory Study, Educational Research. Background: Recent government initiatives in Hong Kong have focused on raising the participation of students from South Asian backgrounds in mainstream schools, to encourage their further integration into Hong Kong's educational system and society. These students' learning in mainstream schools takes place within the context of the central curriculum and, thus, students face the challenge of learning Chinese as an additional language. Mainstream schools sometimes provide additional support, including the provision of bilingual teaching assistants to address the specific needs of the students from South Asian backgrounds. Purpose: This exploratory study aims to investigate the roles of bilingual teaching assistants in Hong Kong. Method: Interviews were held with two bilingual teaching assistants from the South Asian community in Hong Kong who were working in a mainstream secondary school. Teachers from the school were also interviewed. Open-ended interview questions focused on perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of bilingual teaching assistants in Chinese-language-medium classes. The data were analysed to identify any emergent patterns and themes. Findings: The research findings indicate that the bilingual teaching assistants from the South Asian community not only took on the role of helping the learners from South Asian backgrounds in Chinese language acquisition, but also acted as cultural mediators between mainstream school culture and the culture of the South Asian community in Hong Kong. Conclusions: This small-scale exploratory research study suggests the importance of the role of bilingual teaching assistants in promoting equal access to quality education for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.   [More]  Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Chinese, Teaching Assistants, Language Acquisition

Uchikoshi, Yuuko; Maniates, Helen (2010). How Does Bilingual Instruction Enhance English Achievement? A Mixed-Methods Study of Cantonese-Speaking and Spanish-Speaking Bilingual Classrooms, Bilingual Research Journal. When literacy instruction is integrated and contextualized in a child's background knowledge and daily experiences, learning is increased. This mixed-methods study describes effective bilingual instruction in second-grade classrooms in the United States where teachers utilize students' linguistic capital and foster home-school connections, two factors that may assist in successful academic outcomes. Data were collected in four second-grade transitional bilingual classrooms in two working-class neighborhoods in a city in Northern California. A total of 34 Spanish-speaking English language learners and 33 Cantonese-speaking English language learners participated in the study. Students were assessed on a variety of English and native-language measures, home background data were collected from parental questionnaires, and classroom variables were collected from classroom observations and teacher interviews. Despite consistent findings in previous studies that ELLs tend to perform poorly on English reading comprehension measures when compared to monolinguals, on average, the bilingual children in this study had similar or even better scores when compared to their monolingual peers on both English decoding and reading comprehension measures.   [More]  Descriptors: Neighborhoods, Reading Comprehension, Bilingualism, Bilingual Education

Huang, Hung-Tzu (2010). How Does Second Language Vocabulary Grow over Time? A Multi-Methodological Study of Incremental Vocabulary Knowledge Development, ProQuest LLC. This study investigated the longitudinal development of L2 vocabulary by 17 individual adult L2 learners in an English as a second language (ESL) instructed context over one academic year, combining a longitudinal case study design with two cross-sectional comparisons in order to enhance (a) detailed documentation addressing the idiosyncrasy of L2 vocabulary learning and (b) comparability across previous and future research. The research design and theoretical framework emphasized the incremental and multidimensional nature of L2 vocabulary development.   Seventeen L2 learners from intermediate ESL writing courses at a U.S. university were recruited for participation in a one-academic-year investigation for the longitudinal case study. They contributed triangulated data through four semi-structured vocabulary interviews designed after Schmitt (1998), two standardized vocabulary tests of vocabulary size (Nation, 1990) and suffixation knowledge (Schmitt & Meara, 1997) administered in a pre-post test design, and written assignments produced throughout the research period. A hierarchical cluster analysis and other analytical and graphic display techniques from Dynamic Systems Theory (DST, e.g., Larsen-Freeman, 2006) were applied to the interpretations of individual L2 students' development. For the purpose of providing a backdrop on the instructional context in which participants of the longitudinal case study were situated, cross-sectional data were collected involving vocabulary tests (n = 123) and a learner corpus of placement essays (n = 150) within the same instructional context as the longitudinal case study.   The findings showed that individual learners exhibited growth in meaning, grammar information, and collocation knowledge, but no change in spelling and association knowledge. The development in meaning, grammar, and collocation knowledge were found to be supportive of each other. In addition, improvement of vocabulary size mainly came from low-frequency words while advancement of morphological knowledge was manifested in productive derivational knowledge. Investigation into writing assignments collected over the research period suggested that L2 learners' opportunities for vocabulary output and development were affected by instructional contexts in which participants were situated. The study contributes insights for the development of theoretical models of L2 vocabulary learning. It also demonstrates the need for adopting multiple methodologies in the same design and for emphasizing ecological validity in L2 vocabulary development research.   [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: Writing Assignments, Research Design, Investigations, Models

Saunders, Lesley (2010). The Challenges of Small-Scale Evaluation in a Foreign Country: Reflections on Practice, Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability. This paper is a reflection on practice. It begins by briefly describing an evaluation of an externally-funded education programme in Kosovo (a new country in south-east Europe). The programme was managed by Save the Children in Kosovo and aimed to develop and promote models of inclusive education through three strands of activity. The first of these provided a bi-lingual multicultural learning environment for children of 3-5 years; the second was designed to integrate children with special educational needs and disabilities into mainstream education; and the third was concerned to support the inclusion of Roma/Ashkali/Egyptian children in primary schooling. The three strands of the programme were piloted in selected schools in different municipalities throughout the country for between 1 year and 3 years. The client (Save the Children in Kosovo) commissioned an independent evaluation to assist with decision-making at a time of transition for the programme. The author (who was the evaluator) discusses how she attempted to address the methodological challenges often typical of this kind of work: a small budget, a compressed time-frame, a complex and volatile socio-political climate and, last but not least, a contractual requirement to produce authoritative recommendations for action. She goes on to reflect on how and why various unplanned events and encounters that occurred outwith the parameters of the evaluation made a significant contribution to its outcomes. The author invites comments from other evaluators about their experiences in similar situations.   [More]  Descriptors: Municipalities, Educational Needs, Evaluators, Inclusive Schools

Sailors, Misty; Hoffman, James V.; Pearson, P. David; Beretvas, S. Natasha; Matthee, Bertus (2010). The Effects of First- and Second-Language Instruction in Rural South African Schools, Bilingual Research Journal. In this article, we report on the results of a project devoted to improving literacy in South Africa's rural schools; specifically we report the results of an intervention study that centered on improving mother-tongue literacy instruction offered to learners in Grades 1 and 2 in South African schools. Our findings demonstrate that there are positive and strong effects for the home-language initiative that was tested in this study. Our data suggest that there is a high level of value added to performance in both the home-language and English-language learning of the students in this study when a much more print-rich environment was provided in the home language. These findings challenge the deficit myth often associated with children who come to school with a first language different from the medium of instruction. Further, these data suggest that providing instruction in both first and second languages can have a positive impact on development in both languages.   [More]  Descriptors: Rural Schools, Foreign Countries, Literacy, Intervention

Haubrich, Melissa K. (2010). An Examination of the Relationship between Language-Based Instructional Strategies and Academic Achievement, ProQuest LLC. Programs representing various instructional strategies have been designed and implemented in public schools to teach non-English speaking students. This study addressed the relative effectiveness of two strategies designed to enhance non-English speaking students' chances of academic success. The research problem was: Do language-based instructional programs for English language learners yield different levels of student achievement? The theoretical framework predicted that students in the English as a second language (ESL) program would be expected to learn language related skills better than content related skills since instruction is delivered only in the English language. Further, the theory predicted that students in the bilingual self-contained program would be expected to learn non-verbal academic content better than language related skills since most of the language in which the instruction is being delivered is in the native language. In grades one through four, students in an ESL instructional program were taught with an English language dominated strategy whereas students in a bilingual self-contained were taught primarily in their native Spanish language. Results of the study partially confirmed the theoretical predictions in that students taught with bilingual self-contained instructional strategies outperformed the ESL students in verbal (reading) and non-verbal (mathematics) domains. The study confirms the effectiveness of instruction in the native language of English language learners in core academic domains.   [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: Second Language Learning, Instructional Effectiveness, Educational Strategies, Research Problems

Garrett, Rachel Singal (2010). Multilingualism, Mathematics Achievement and Instructional Language Policy, ProQuest LLC. A significant and growing proportion of students in the United States speak primarily a non-English language at home. This dissertation contributes to the understanding of academic achievement patterns among language minority students in the United States.   The first essay uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Class of 1998 (ECLS-K) to characterize the development of mathematical skills of multilingual children. Although descriptively children from households with a predominant non-English language are disadvantaged, previous work has suggested their relative strength in acquisition of math skills. My study focuses on three questions: (1) Do bilingual children learn math faster than monolingual children?, (2) Does the bilingual benefit accrue only when mathematical content becomes more complex, and (3) Does bilingualism associate with heightened attentional abilities? Empirical results suggest that bilingual children do indeed increase in math skills at a faster rate, and that the rate of growth associates positively with the reported amount of non-English language spoken at the household. There is inconclusive evidence to associate higher growth rates with the introduction of more complex mathematical material. Last, while bilingualism is found to positively associate with teacher reports of the child's attentional behavior, this does not mediate the impact of bilingualism on math learning.   The second essay then looks at the adoption of state level English immersion policy. After California passed Proposition 227 in 1998 to essentially cease ESL and bilingual instruction, Arizona and Massachusetts passed similar measures in 2000 and 2002, respectively. I use both the ECLS-K and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data to examine state level achievement patterns with respect to these English immersion policies, taking into account differential effects by state and child's language background. Results generally indicate either no policy impact or a negative impact on achievement for language minority students, while some positive effects are found among language majority students, thus calling into question the effectiveness of the policy in its stated goals.   [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: Language Minorities, Educational Policy, Language of Instruction, Mathematics Achievement

Colon-Muniz, Anaida; SooHoo, Suzanne; Brignoni, Evangelina (2010). Language, Culture and Dissonance: A Study Course for Globally Minded Teachers with Possibilities for Catalytic Transformation, Teaching Education. The study explores the impact of a course taught abroad, with the objective of preparing globally minded intercultural educators proficient in second language and culture pedagogy for English learners. The findings suggest that the course content is more powerful when teacher candidates experience cultural and linguistic immersion simultaneously.   [More]  Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Teacher Education Programs, Program Evaluation, Bilingual Education

Petrovic, John; Majumdar, Sikharini (2010). Language Planning for Equal Educational Opportunity in Multilingual States: The Case of India, International Multilingual Research Journal. This article develops the interface between language policy and planning and equal educational opportunity (EEO). Tracing the trajectory of the development "equal educational opportunity" as a normative ideal, this study argues that language policy must serve to promote "actualist" conceptions of EEO. To do this, acquisition planning, as a component of language planning, must respect the first languages of children in school through the provision of multilingual education. Otherwise, EEO is not served. The study uses the complex case of India and its "three-language formula" to explore the interface between language policy and planning as it relates to EEO, noting the possibilities and challenges that this interface raises in the Indian context.   [More]  Descriptors: Language Planning, Multilingualism, Foreign Countries, Educational Opportunities

Branum-Martin, Lee; Foorman, Barbara R.; Francis, David J.; Mehta, Paras D. (2010). Contextual Effects of Bilingual Programs on Beginning Reading, Journal of Educational Psychology. This study of 1,338 Spanish-speaking 1st graders examined contextual effects of bilingual programs on reading comprehension and the effect of language of instruction within these contexts. The study included 128 classrooms in 32 schools located in border Texas and in urban Texas and California. These classrooms used either English immersion or Spanish maintenance bilingual programs. Detailed observations of teachers' instructional language were made, sampled within the year. The analyses allowed classroom-level differences to be separated from student-level differences, and for Spanish and English passage comprehension to be considered simultaneously. While mean differences between programs were reduced for English passage comprehension, maintenance programs still outperformed immersion programs in Spanish. Results also indicated large program and locale covariance differences at the classroom level, implying important differences in how these programs operate in these locales.   [More]  Descriptors: Reading Comprehension, Immersion Programs, Beginning Reading, Language of Instruction

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