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Editor's
Introduction
Virginia González
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Parental Involvement
in Education: Attitudes and Activities of Spanish-Speakers as Affected
by Training
Cynthia Duke Gitelman Brilliant
George Washington University
Abstract
This study compared school-related attitudes and activities of Spanish-speaking
parents who participated in the Parent Resource Person Group (experimental
group N = 47) with those who did not (control group N = 84). Low
response by culturally and linguistically diverse parents to surveys
is often misinterpreted as a lack of interest in their children’s
education. The author maintains that parents’ lack familiarity with
schools and resources and schools’ lack culturally appropriate research
methodology and cross-cultural sensitivity. Study subjects received
surveys, calls, and postcards in Spanish. A small sample (N = 8)
participated in telephone interviews. Findings revealed that the
group receiving parent liaison training participated in a wider
variety of school-related activities more frequently. Language and
cultural issues impact the type and frequency of parental involvement.
Non response does not equate with not caring.
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Bilingual Education
Teachers’ Beliefs and Their Relation to Self-Reported Practices
Belinda Bustos Flores
University of Texas at San Antonio
Abstract
This exploratory survey study investigated teachers’ beliefs about
the nature of knowledge and how these beliefs influenced self-reported
practices. An epistemological framework was used to explore these
bilingual teachers’ beliefs (N = 176). A bi-methodological approach
was used to analyze the data. Themes for open-ended responses were
identified and triangulated with descriptive findings. Multivariate
analysis determined the relationships between variables. Findings
demonstrated that bilingual teachers have specific beliefs about
how bilingual children learn. Results indicated that prior experiences
do influence bilingual teachers’ beliefs, especially professional
teaching. A theoretical, philosophically grounded teacher preparation
program is considered vital in the preparation of effective teachers,
for there to be a congruity between beliefs and practices. Lastly,
to understand classroom realities, the exploration of teachers’
beliefs, formations of beliefs, and the influence of beliefs on
teaching practices must continue.
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The Expected and
Unexpected Literacy Outcomes of Bilingual Students
Anita C. Hernández
Stanford University
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to compare the writing proficiencies
of first- and second-language learners and to examine their teachers’
beliefs about the writing students produce. The four fifth-graders
were nominated by their teachers as either strong or weak writers.
Text analysis methods were used to analyze the writing proficiencies
manifested in the compositions and interviews with the teachers
about their views on writing. The results suggest that the writing
skills of strong second-language children writers are virtually
indistinguishable from those of strong first-language children.
Furthermore, the weak second-language writers in this study did
not lag significantly behind the first-language writers. Finally,
parents’ informal Spanish-language instruction, coupled with formal
English instruction, was sufficient for some bilinguals to write
in Spanish. The study has implications for expanding the L1 and
L2 relationship–L2 can support expanding L1 literacy. It also provides
direction for the type of writing instruction that second-language
learners considered weak writers need in order to become strong.
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The
Role of Prefabricated Language in Young Children’s Second Language
Acquisition
Natsuko Shibata Perera
San Francisco State University
Abstract
This study investigates how young learners of English as a second
language become both capable of socializing in and linguistically
creative in English, through the use of prefabricated language (PL).
Four preschool Japanese children in two-way immersion programs were
observed from the stages of single-word to multi-word utterances.
Along with journals kept by the observer and the subjects’ parents,
each subject’s conversations in school were tape recorded once a
week. The utterances were transcribed and coded according to the
definitions of PL, analyzed PL and creative language. The utterances
of peers and teachers were examined to determine if interactions
enhanced PL analysis. The results show that most of the novel sentences
were constructed from PL or analyzed PL, but not from the free combination
of words. Although the study did not find clear evidence that no
internal process was necessary for the creative process, it implies
that there is an important role for PL as a scaffold for linguistic
creativity. The study provides pedagogical implications for the
use and analysis of PL in immersion classrooms.
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Teachers’
Opinions About the Theoretical and Practical Aspects of the Use
of Native Language Instruction for Language Minority Students: A
Cross-Sectional Study
Francisco Ramos
Florida International University
Abstract
The results of studies analyzing teachers’ opinions about the theoretical
and practical aspects of the use of native language instruction
for language minority students appear to reflect a clear discrepancy:
There is strong support for the underlying theory, while there is
less support for its practical implementation. The present study
analyzed 218 K–8 teachers’ responses to a questionnaire dealing
with the aforementioned issue. In addition, the study also examined
which factors influenced their opinions, and whether their opinions
varied across different grades (K–2nd, 3rd–4th, 5th–8th). Consistent
with previous research, support for the theoretical principles underlying
the use of the students’ native language was strong. Support for
its practical implementation was less positive. No clear predictors
of attitudes toward the issue being investigated were found. Alongside,
no significant variations in opinions were found among the groups
in which the teachers were clustered (K–2, 3–4, 5–8). The results
of the present study appear to indicate that teachers were guided
by their own beliefs at the time of answering the survey. The need
for more research in this area is underscored, as is the need to
incorporate and take into consideration teachers’ personal opinions,
feedback, and input at the time of designing teacher preparation
programs.
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Community
Language Resources in Dual Language Schooling
Patrick H. Smith
Universidad de las Américas-Puebla
Abstract
This ethnographic case study was concerned with the
role of community-based, minority-language resources in dual language
schooling, and their influence on the use of Spanish by children
from English-speaking and Spanish-speaking homes. Integrating theory
from the fields of language planning, language revitalization, community
participation, and funds of knowledge, the study triangulated data
from participant observation in classrooms; interviews with educators,
parents, and community members; and document and archival analysis.
Examination of minority-language use at an established, highly regarded
dual language school and of the shifting patterns of language dominance
in the Mexican American neighborhood surrounding it revealed that
the minority-language resources most immediately available—held
by fluent bilingual elders and recent immigrants from Mexico—were
less likely to be incorporated into planned curriculum than the
knowledge and experiences of majority-language parents and elite
bilinguals. This finding is attributed to the social distance between
educators and neighborhood families, the ambivalence of Mexican
American parents and school staff toward the use of non-standard
varieties of Spanish in schooling, and the need for greater awareness
of processes of language shift and loss. Implications for dual language
practice and further research are discussed.
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Book
Review
Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual
children in the crossfire
By Jim Cummins
Reviewed by John E. Petrovic and Susan Olmstead
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