Fair trade: two-way bilingual education

One approach to bilingual education that has gained increasing support from parents, educators, and researchers in the United States is one in which English language learners and English proficient students share a classroom and receive instruction in both English and the dominant language of the English language learners. In most such two-way bilingual education programs, the stated goal is for both groups of students to learn each other’s language. In this paper, I briefly review the background to this approach.Following this, I present a case study of one such two-way bilingual program in which the student population came from Latino and African-American backgroundsSome of the Latino students were Spanishdominant while others knew little Spanish. The African-American students knew little or no Spanish when they arrived at school and, furthermore, many had limited experience with the variety of Standard American English spoken in the classroom. Students in the two-way bilingual education program did as well as or better than their peers who were being educated either in English-only classes or in transitional bilingual education classes. For students in the two-way program, Spanish reading ability for Spanish speakers developed at a faster rate than English reading ability for English speakers, and Spanish-dominant students did better in English than Englishdominant students did in Spanish. Data from classroom observation show that the formal assessment procedures were not able to capture much of the learning that took place in the classrooms. Nevertheless, the findings add to the evidence found in previous research that two-way bilingual education is an effective approach for both English proficient students and English language learners.Un enfoque empleado para la enseñanza bilingüe que viene recibiendo un respaldo cada vez mayor por parte de padres, educadores e investigadores de los EE.UU. consiste en la integración de aprendices de inglés y de usuarios nativos de la lengua, los cuales comparten aula y reciben enseñanza tanto en inglés como en la lengua dominante de los aprendices de inglés (español). En la mayoría de estos planes de enseñanza bilingüe de doble vía, el objetivo explícito es que cada grupo aprenda la lengua del otro. En este trabajo hago un breve repaso de los antecedentes de este enfoque y luego presento un estudio de caso que se basa en un plan bilingüe de doble vía en el cual el alumnado proviene de las comunidades latino y afroestadounidense. Algunos de los alumnos latinos tenían el español como lengua dominante mientras que otros sólo tenían conocimientos básicos de la lengua. Los alumnos afroestadounidenses tenían conocimientos básicos o nulos de español al inicio del plan; además, muchos tenían poca experiencia con la variedad de inglés estadounidense estándar que se usaba en el aula. Los alumnos del plan bilingüe de doble vía obtuvieron resultados iguales o superiores a los de sus compañeros que recibían clases impartidas bien sólo en inglés o de enseñanza bilingüe transitoria. En el caso de los alumnos del plan de doble vía, la destreza de lectura en español para los hispanohablantes se desarrolló con mayor rapidez que la destreza de lectura en inglés para los anglohablantes; además, los alumnos que tenían el español como lengua dominante obtuvieron mejores resultados en inglés que aquellos obtenidos en español por los alumnos que tenían el inglés como lengua dominante. Los datos de las observaciones de clase muestran que los procedimientos formales de evaluación no fueron capaces de captar una buena parte del aprendizaje que tenía lugar en el aula. Sin embargo, los resultados se suman a las pruebas provenientes de investigaciones previas que indican que la enseñanza bilingüe de doble vía es un enfoque eficaz tanto para usuarios nativos como para aprendices del inglés

FAIR TRADE: TWO-WAY BILINGUAL EDUCATION

AbstractOne approach to bilingual education that has gained increasing support from parents, educators, and researchers in the United States is one in which English language learners and English proficient students share a classroom and receive instruction in both English and the dominant language of the English language learners. In most such two-way bilingual education programs, the stated goal is for both groups of students to learn each other’s language. In this paper, I briefly review the background to this approach.Following this, I present a case study of one such two-way bilingual program in which the student population came from Latino and African-American backgroundsSome of the Latino students were Spanishdominant while others knew little Spanish. The African-American students knew little or no Spanish when they arrived at school and, furthermore, many had limited experience with the variety of Standard American English spoken in the classroom. Students in the two-way bilingual education program did as well as or better than their peers who were being educated either in English-only classes or in transitional bilingual education classes. For students in the two-way program, Spanish reading ability for Spanish speakers developed at a faster rate than English reading ability for English speakers, and Spanish-dominant students did better in English than Englishdominant students did in Spanish. Data from classroom observation show that the formal assessment procedures were not able to capture much of the learning that took place in the classrooms. Nevertheless, the findings add to the evidence found in previous research that two-way bilingual education is an effective approach for both English proficient students and English language learners.ResumenUn enfoque empleado para la enseñanza bilingüe que viene recibiendo un respaldo cada vez mayor por parte de padres, educadores e investigadores de los EE.UU. consiste en la integración de aprendices de inglés y de usuarios nativos de la lengua, los cuales comparten aula y reciben enseñanza tanto en inglés como en la lengua dominante de los aprendices de inglés (español). En la mayoría de estos planes de enseñanza bilingüe de doble vía, el objetivo explícito es que cada grupo aprenda la lengua del otro. En este trabajo hago un breve repaso de los antecedentes de este enfoque y luego presento un estudio de caso que se basa en un plan bilingüe de doble vía en el cual el alumnado proviene de las comunidades latino y afroestadounidense. Algunos de los alumnos latinos tenían el español como lengua dominante mientras que otros sólo tenían conocimientos básicos de la lengua. Los alumnos afroestadounidenses tenían conocimientos básicos o nulos de español al inicio del plan; además, muchos tenían poca experiencia con la variedad de inglés estadounidense estándar que se usaba en el aula. Los alumnos del plan bilingüe de doble vía obtuvieron resultados iguales o superiores a los de sus compañeros que recibían clases impartidas bien sólo en inglés o de enseñanza bilingüe transitoria. En el caso de los alumnos del plan de doble vía, la destreza de lectura en español para los hispanohablantes se desarrolló con mayor rapidez que la destreza de lectura en inglés para los anglohablantes; además, los alumnos que tenían el español como lengua dominante obtuvieron mejores resultados en inglés que aquellos obtenidos en español por los alumnos que tenían el inglés como lengua dominante. Los datos de las observaciones de clase muestran que los procedimientos formales de evaluación no fueron capaces de captar una buena parte del aprendizaje que tenía lugar en el aula. Sin embargo, los resultados se suman a las pruebas provenientes de investigaciones previas que indican que la enseñanza bilingüe de doble vía es un enfoque eficaz tanto para usuarios nativos como para aprendices del inglés

Easy as pie? Children learning languages

_________________ Abstract Many people seem certain that children learn additional languages rapidly and with ease. This "fact" is widely believed, but research in a number of language learning contexts suggests that it is necessary to refine -if not to refute -this assumption. In this paper, some of the experience and research that have been used in support of the conclusion that "younger is better" will be reviewed. The relevance of this conclusion to different learning and teaching environments will be discussed, and the conventional wisdom that for children, language learning is easy as pie will be challenged. The emphasis will be on how different learning contexts and conditions lead to different outcomes as well as how research designed to answer one question is often cited to answer another -one that it cannot in fact answer. __________________ There are many myths about language acquisition. Among the most persistent is the myth that language learning is easy for children and that it is accomplished in a remarkably short time. We often hear assertions such as "younger is better" and "kids soak up languages like sponges." Because they think that children learn languages easily, many people take it for granted that it is best to plunge them into the new language. The aquatic metaphors of immersion and submersion are widely used, reflecting th

What's an ESL Teacher Good For?

While ESL teachers often must play many roles, their fundamental task is to help learners progress in their ability to use English. In this paper, the ESL teacher's role as a language teacher is explored and five specific areas of responsibility are elaborated: (I) Providing comprehensible input; (2) Preparing learners to cope with non-classroom language; (3) Providing references and resource materials and guidance as to their use; (4) Providing focused instruction in particular areas of language or language use; (5) Providing corrective feedback under certain conditions

Input and Acquisition in Second Language Classrooms

In the speech of a group of francophone ESL learners, we examined introducer forms used to initiate picture descriptions. We then compared the learners' use of these forms to the corresponding forms in the classroom language the learners were exposed to-textbook language, the students' own classroom language, and their teachers' language. We also compared the learners' use of introducers to that of native speakers performing the same task. Some of the non-target-like characteristics of the learners' language were found to correspond to characteristics of the input they received

How Languages are Learned

This book consists of the following discussions : Language learning in early childhood, Explaining second language learning, Individual differences in second language learning, learner language, observing learning and teaching in the second language, second language learning in the classroom and popular ideas about language learning revisited