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Alfredo Benavides Since the Bilingual Research Journal moved to Arizona State University in 1998, our corner of the profession has survived two attempts to eliminate bilingual education. California's Proposition 227 was enacted in June 1998, and Arizona's Proposition 203 was approved by voters in November 2000. The full weight of these dramatic changes in policy has yet to be felt or fully assessed. These two very similar propositions are an attempt to outlaw bilingual instruction in the two states. They are aimed primarily at those forms of bilingual instruction designed to serve as bridges to the acquisition of English.
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The Absence of
Language Policy and its Effects on
Michael Brunn Abstract Language is a change agent that can contribute to, or limit a migrant student's acculturation into a different sociocultural context. In schools, language policies for second language learners prescribe the types of education minority children receive and their levels of achievement; they are informative of the students' self perceptions, they can either impede or promote children's social acceptance within, and acculturation to the educational community; and they can organize opportunities for students to acculturate to the cultural constructs and the social norms of their adopted community. The major question asked was, how does a school's language policy function to separate and how does it work to integrate majority and minority cultural groups? Semi-structured interviews (N = 54) included 33 teachers and six administrators. In part, the data revealed that the school's language policy was not a useful resource the students could employ to access the sociocultural constructs of the school, to achieve recognition in the classrooms and hallways, and to acculturate to the norms of their new school. The goal of the policy making was to avoid marginalizing the new students, but the processes of acculturation were effectively disempowered through the inability of the policy to address the social and academic needs of the migrant students.
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The English
Literacy Development of Bilingual Students
Stephen B. Kucer
Cecilia Silva Abstract This research project investigated the English literacy development of bilingual (English/Spanish) students beginning their formal transition into English literacy in a whole-language classroom. The curriculum consisted of four components: theme-based literacy activities, teacher reading, free reading, and free writing. Instruction was meaning-focused, and written language conventions were demonstrated through the use of contextualized mediations. Literacy growth was measured through pre/post-reading miscue and retelling analysis, holistic and analytic writing analysis, and spelling assessments. Analysis of the reading miscue data indicated statistically significant improvements in the students' ability to produce more meaningful sentences. Additionally, retelling analysis showed significant gains in the overall number of retelling units and matches produced by the students. Analytic writing analysis showed improvement in capitalization and spelling, as well as the number of words produced in a story. Spelling improvement was also noted in an analysis of words produced in isolation. Holistic analysis of the students' written stories did not indicate significant improvement, nor did the analytic analysis show an increase in the number of sentences or the conventional use of punctuation. Results suggest that literacy development may require differentiated mediation, i.e., some tasks may require more direct mediation than others.
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Perceptions
and Needs of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Parents of
Nydia Torres-Burgo
Pamela Reyes-Wasson
Rita Brusca-Vega Abstract The purpose of this study was: (a) to determine
if and how the reported involvement and perceptions of Hispanic
and non-Hispanic parents of children with learning disabilities
differed with respect to the special education process in a large,
culturally diverse, urban school district; and (b) to suggest ways
in which the involvement of parents from diverse cultural and linguistic
backgrounds might be advanced by local school personnel. Results
indicated that while parents from both groups were often not adequately
included in some of the most basic aspects of the special education
process, Hispanic parents were at greater risk for poor treatment.
This was especially true concerning knowledge of the IEP and communication
with school personnel. The reluctance of principals to explore these
issues was also revealed. Establishment of parent support groups
in native language, collaboration between bilingual and special
education staff, inclusion of bilingual parent advocates at staffings,
and school-wide assessment of parent satisfaction and treatment
are among the recommendations made.
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Loss of Gender Agreement in L1 Attrition: Preliminary Results
Raquel T. Anderson Abstract The purpose of the present investigation was to obtain preliminary data on the effects of first language (L1) loss on the Spanish of bilingual children, particularly with respect to noun phrase (NP) gender agreement. Two children, bilingual in English and Spanish, were followed longitudinally and their use of gender agreement was examined. Data on incidence and type of NP gender agreement errors were obtained. Results of the investigation suggest that Spanish gender agreement morphology may be vulnerable to language loss. Nevertheless, differences in relative impact of L1 loss on gender agreement varied among the children. In contrast to previous research with Spanish-speaking children who are learning English as a second language and who have language impairment, it appears that gender errors are the result of the language contact situation, and not because of language learning deficits. Possible reasons for the observed patterns and directions for future research are presented.
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Learning
Words from Books: The Effects of Read
Sharon H. Ulanoff
Sandra L. Pucci Abstract This study compares the gains made in second language vocabulary as a direct result of different literacy lessons implementing two bilingual methodologies: concurrent translation and preview-review. Students in the three randomly selected third-grade classes in the Los Angeles area were chosen to serve as the control (no treatment), concurrent translation, and preview-review groups. The children were given a pre test to assess their knowledge of selected vocabulary items. After the administration of the pre-test students in Group1 (control) listened to a story in English with no intervention or explanation of the story. Students in Group 2 listened to the same story in English with the reader using the concurrent method (translating the story from one language to the other). Group 3 heard the same story in English after having the teacher build background knowledge by previewing important points and difficult vocabulary in Spanish (preview). They also reviewed the story in Spanish after the reading in order to reinforce important points (review). All three groups were given a post test of the same vocabulary items after the treatment and one week later to examine gains in scores. Results indicate that not only did the students in the preview-review group score significantly higher than the control and concurrent translation groups, the concurrent translation group scored the lowest of all three groups and improved slightly one week after treatment. These findings demonstrate positive implications for the use of strategies which build background knowledge as a means of teaching second language vocabulary to English learners.
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Maturational
Constraints in Language One and Language Two:
Norbert Francis Abstract Research on first language acquisition in young children and second language learning in older children and adults has examined the possible role played by maturational constraints (related to the notion of a critical period for language acquisition). The following article reviews findings from investigations that studied the special circumstances of delayed first language learning and the effect of age on second language learning. Findings suggest that: (a) the observed phenomenon of a critical period in language development merits further study, and (b) the ability to attain native-speaker grammatical competence may actually begin to diminish earlier than puberty. The discussion of the current research presents bilingual educators with a new framework from which to reconsider a number of pedagogical issues and recent controversies regarding school language policy.
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Developing Voice: Teacher Research in Bilingual Classrooms
Aida A. Nevárez-La Torre Abstract This paper explores the potential contributions that teacher research can make to enhance the practice of teachers who work with linguistically diverse students. The main premise to be discussed in this paper is that teacher research can serve as a tool for empowerment in that it can help teachers voice their knowledge and promote change in linguistically diverse settings. The discussion centers on the experiences of the Bilingual Teachers Research Forum, composed of a group of bilingual teacher-researchers in an urban setting. Six essential elements that have given cohesion to the research experience of Forum members are analyzed, namely: process, voice and dialogue, context, community of collaboration, problem solving and theorizing, and transformation. The author considers how teacher research raised teachers' awareness about the political dimension of their own practices and how these teachers have taken steps to improve their classroom practice and school settings. The author proposes that teacher research in bilingual settings is beneficial and powerful because it can encourage teachers to think and act like "transformative intellectuals" (Giroux, 1988) in their politicized work environments.
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Making content comprehensible for English
language learners: The SIOP model. Reviewed by Karen L. Newman and Martha Nyikos
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