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Belinda Bustos Flores, Susan Keehn, and Bertha
Pérez
University of Texas at San Antonio
Case study methodology was employed to
explore the potentiality of normalistas and paraprofessionals as
prospective bilingual education teachers. The evidence of this study
suggests that both normalistas and paraprofessionals offer fertile
ground for bilingual teachers. The evidence further suggests that
careful selection of the potential candidates is crucial. Moreover,
the teacher preparation program must creatively examine and implement
a program of study that meets the needs of the target group. The
findings also reveal that as the participants move through teacher
preparation courses, members of both cohorts are willing to challenge
old notions formerly held. The normalistas are recognizing that
the U.S. system differs significantly from the Mexican educational
system. While drawing on the richness and merits of the Mexican
system, these immigrants are open to seeing merit in U.S. educational
methods. Conversely, the paraprofessionals are beginning to question
the deficit model pervasive in many of the schools in which they
have worked and to take a different stance toward authority figures.
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Guadalupe López-Bonilla
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
En este trabajo se analizan las estrategias
utilizadas por una maestra de cuarto grado de primaria en un programa
de inmersión bilingüe inglés-español. El propósito del trabajo fue
observar en qué medida la interacción entre la maestra y los alumnos
en un contexto bilingüe, el tipo de discurso, los materiales de
lecturas, y las actividades en clase, proporcionan las herramientas
necesarias para que el alumno acceda y a su vez sea capaz de producir
un discurso académico en español.
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Eileen Dugan Waldschmidt
Oregon State University
In this article I present a critical
ethnographic study of three Mexican-American bilingual interns reflecting
on the ability of an alternative licensure program to address barriers
that have traditionally prevented individuals from underrepresented
groups in the United States from entering teaching. Most financial
and work schedule barriers are addressed through a federal grant
supporting the program and the availability of evening and weekend
coursework. However, in this program they face new barriers including
reduction in salary during the internship, a stressful workload,
passing required teacher exams, inability to use their bilingual
education knowledge and skills, and mentors with no experience in
bilingual education and/or experience at the interns’ grade level.
In this article, the author offers a vision for transforming alternative
licensure programs aimed at diversifying the teaching force.
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B. Gloria Guzmán Johannessen and Isabel Bustamante-López
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
In this paper, the authors outline steps
for the development of academic language proficiency tests, assessment
instruments used to determine whether teacher candidates’ language
abilities are adequate to enable them to conduct instruction in
Spanish-English bilingual classrooms. The authors argue that it
is essential to understand the complexity of the language abilities
required of bilingual teacher candidates in the design of valid
and reliable academic language assessment instruments. They discuss
the utilization of language tests, not as measures to exclude teacher
candidates from bilingual credential or certification programs,
but rather for the development of courses aimed at enhancing the
Spanish language abilities of these teacher candidates. The authors
also recognize that teacher candidates, who share the same ethno-cultural
background of the students and who have similar social language
skills are valuable resources for the education system. They also
acknowledge the need for teacher candidates with cultural knowledge
and sensitivity and high-intermediate Spanish proficiency.
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Michelle Pierce, Salem State College
María Estela Brisk, Boston College
Situational autobiography is a methodology
that encourages the exploration of the situational factors affecting
bilingual learners. Learners write narratives that scrutinize the
factors affecting their struggles of adjustment and language acquisition.
In this study, an adult learner in a family literacy classroom completed
three situational autobiography chapters on language development,
friends and community, and school experiences. The learner also
implemented lessons using the same themes with her two children
at home. The written products of the adult learner and her two children,
written commentaries by the teacher-researcher (T-R), and interviews
with the adult learner were analyzed to determine (a) what the T-R
learned about the adult learner; (b) what the adult learner learned
about her children; and (c) what effect both projects had on the
adult learner. Findings support earlier claims that knowledge of
learners’ backgrounds and an understanding of the social context
in which languages are developed are essential to providing quality
education. Also revealed is the healing effect that situational
autobiography may have on people struggling with adjustment to a
new culture. Finally, situational autobiography as a shared literacy
activity can promote discussion that enables parents to support
more fully their children’s development as bilinguals and to understand
their own progress in acquiring a new language and culture.
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Lourdes Díaz Soto
Pennsylvania State University
This article depicts thirteen bilingual
children’s perceptions of their own bilingualism and biliteracy
by sharing conversations, drawings, and collages. Children expressed
the notion that their bilingualism/biliteracy is embedded in altruistic
helping relations while revealing issues of identity. The concluding
discussion centers on issues of social justice and equity in a post-monolingual
society.
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Gloria Dyc
University of New Mexico-Gallup
The premise of this paper is that teachers
can gain insights by situating themselves as learners of the first
and second languages of their students. The research for this paper
was conducted at the University of New Mexico-Gallup, a campus committed
to the development of literacy in both Navajo and English. The Navajo
Nation would like to see a two-year Navajo language requirement
for regional colleges; a language proficiency exam is required for
the placement of teachers on the reservation. At the same time,
a high level of English literacy is required for Navajo students
who wish to enter the professions in which they are under-represented:
the sciences, medicine, and law. This paper examines the situation
of regional language learners through field studies and classroom
practices. The author also draws on research on language attitudes,
contrastive analysis of Navajo and English, and discourse strategies.
This analysis is necessary for the development of authentic bilingualism
in the Four Corners region.
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Tomoko Wakabayashi
Harvard University/San Jose State University
The present study explores the outcomes
of early bilingualism for speakers of the society’s majority language
in a Japanese context. English and Japanese proficiency of 48 Japanese
high school students attending an English medium international school
in Japan were assessed. Cummins’ common underlying proficiency (CUP)
theory was supported in both basic interpersonal communicative skills
(BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). In addition,
initial schooling in Japanese seemed to help students develop the
highest level of balanced bilingualism found in the school. As a
whole, for Japanese majority students attending an international
school in Japan, systematic teaching of Japanese academic and technical
skills in students’ earlier years of schooling may enhance cognitive
academic proficiency in their two languages.
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Bruce D. Baker and Paul L. Markham
University of Kansas
This article presents an overview of
state funding policies for serving Limited English Proficient (LEP)
students and analysis of aid allocation practices across the states
using data from the National Center for Education Statistics Common
Core of Data. The major finding of this study is that state efforts
to help local districts are often poorly conceived and/or applied,
and often inadequate. We conclude with three policy recommendations
for enhancing the present knowledge base, including the need for
(a) expanded national, state, and local awareness of policies and
practices across the states regarding limited English proficient
(LEP) children, and improved monitoring of the effectiveness of
those policies and practices toward achieving specific objectives;
(b) empirically derived cost estimates of opportunities for LEP
children; and (c) a set of frameworks for developing and adapting
funding policies to various state contexts aimed toward achieving
the goal of adequate services for LEP children.
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Sheila M. Shannon, University of Colorado at
Denver
Madeline Milian, University of Northern Colorado
In this article the authors present the
results of a survey conducted with parents whose children are enrolled
in dual language programs in Colorado. Furthermore, they describe
why these parents were motivated to participate in a survey. Colorado
is one of the states in which Ron Unz, a politician from California,
is attempting to get voters to amend their state constitution to
eliminate bilingual education as he did in both California and Arizona.
Despite Unz’s ignorance about what constitutes a bilingual program
and his dismissal of dual language programs as too few in number,
the results of the survey clearly indicate that both English- and
Spanish-speaking parents freely choose these bilingual programs
for their children, understand the model of dual language, and believe
them to be effective. Although there were some differences between
the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking parents’ responses, particularly
to open-ended questions, overall the survey findings dramatically
counter bilingual opponents’ claims that parents, particularly immigrant
parents, do not want bilingual education for their children or that
bilingual programs are forced upon them.
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Félix Montes
Intercultural Development Research Association
This article describes the implementation
and assessment of the Content Area Program Enhancement (CAPE) model.
Based on the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, CAPE
fosters a collaborative environment among teachers, administrators,
and practitioners to improve instruction and achievement for English
language learners. Specifically, the CAPE implementation in a predominantly
Hispanic school district in south Texas is examined in terms of
program goals, instructional support, administrator and teacher
program critical assessment, and student assessment through the
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, a high-stakes, state-mandated
test. The CAPE approach was found effective with English language
learning students, including those who were at-risk of dropping
out of the school. Through several paired-samples t-tests on the
students’ reading and mathematics Texas Learning Indexes, the program
was found to improve the student scores in both domains. The research
also confirms that school commitment to improve their teacher instructional
approach was crucial to the success of program implementation.
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Eileen N. Ariza
Florida Atlantic University
Traditional methods of language teaching
include drills and repetitions with little emphasis on communication.
Students who are anxious about their listening and speaking abilities
tend to maintain an affective barrier that can make language acquisition
almost impossible. This paper shares a teacher’s dilemma and eventual
success as she tries to teach Spanish to four monolingual English-speaking
Puerto Rican boys who have recently, and reluctantly, relocated
to Puerto Rico. The youngsters are unapproachable until the teacher
begins to implement strategies from the older language teaching
methodology, Charles Curran’s Community Language Learning (CLL),
which focuses on strategies that reduce anxiety, as the teacher
plays the role of understanding and empathetic counselor. The uses
and implications of this method are also discussed.
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Book Review
By Ellen Bialystok
Reviewed by Masahiko Minami
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