Case Summary Presentation- Week 13

Week 12: The #13 lives of multilingual children in public school

Week 12

The #13 lives of multilingual children in public schools: "The Girl Who Wouldn't Sing" (pg. 13-21); "Prospectus", (pg. 22); "Learning Silence" (p.23), "No Questions Asked" (pg.70); and "English Con Salsa" (287).

Choose two of these stories and write a reflection for each and post on your blog. Make sure to label the title of each story or poem and respond to at least two classmates.

“Prospectus”(pg.22)

“Prospectus” written by Joe Nieto is a very touching and deep poem that reflects on the life and ambitions of an American Indian student who, due to the circumstances of his life, has to set up goals in his life at an early stage. According to Santa Ana (2004), Joe Nieto, originally from New Mexico, is a tenth grader young student who attended Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma. In his poem, Joe narrates the way he used to live in his town. The only dream that he has was that one day he will speak English. I believe that he thinks, like many people who would like to be successful, that speaking the language of the majority would make him successful. It seems that he lives in a poor condition and the only way to succeed is to leave that place and accomplish his goals by learning the language and growing professionally.

“No Question Asked”(pg.70)

“No Question Asked” is poem written by Armand Garnet Ruffo. In this poem, we can see how somebody starts losing their language spontaneously without noticing. He also mentions in his poem the difficulties that people experience daily when they start to speak a different language. I believe that it is challenging to start mastering a language and once you reach your goal, you realize that you have neglected your native language. It seems like you are denying your chance to speak your own primary language. I have noticed that it is very common, especially in young students who are trying to learn their language, for people to forget their own identity. Sometimes they feel that they do not know whether they belong to this country or their own country. I think that they feel disconnected to their own identity and they would prefer to be silent about it.

Assignment #2: Article Future of Education is Two Languages

 In the article “Future of Education is two language” by Fabrice Jaumont, the author talks about how over the last two decades, the idea of becoming bilingual is changing from students being monolingual to being bilingual. These changes are creating new programs to be adapted in education. The author explains how there are families who really like the idea of having this program in their zone schools. However, this idea is not a new one; in fact, this has been an argument for many years, since the beginning of the early 1700’s. In this article, the author refers to three different objectives that have to do with preserving their cultural heritage, a better way to communicate with people and to promote a respectful way to communicate. Perhaps being bilingual means different things for many people, but to all, the idea of becoming bilingual is becoming a growing necessity in this century. The whole idea is to implement bilingual education in the school system from preschool to college, and with the help of parents, in order to benefit our society. We need to take advantage of the benefits of dual language because that will help us as pathway to communicate with people around the world. The author in his article suggests that students will benefit more from bilingualism if they receive the education in public schools and have their parents’ support. I believe that there has to be a way to take the potential contributions of immigrants into account when we create programs in our schools. I have the opportunity to be in a bilingual classroom and it is amazing how this young generation is learning several subjects in two languages. I am aware that there are some schools that provide this type of program but I believe that we need to take it seriously to find a way to make bilingual programs work successfully in more schools, especially in New York City, where you can find as many as 800 different languages spoken ( Information retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/queens-languages-map-2017-2).

Assignment #1:Text book: Imagine you are in a classroom 20 years in the future.

Imagine you are in a classroom 20 years in the future. In that futuristic classroom describe how language acquisition might take place. What kind of technology might be used? Will there be more or less emphasis on learning minority and majority languages? What motivations might the students have in the futuristic classroom? For what purposes are languages being learned? What forms of assessment are being used?

When imagining a futuristic classroom, I found it very challenging and hard to predict because I started college 20 years ago and I see how technology is growing in education. I remember at that time classrooms were set up different. There were classic blackboards, professors, notebooks with pens, pencils and erasers. Nowadays, we have online classes, computerized devices like tablets and even smartphones, and colleges are less crowded. I have seen how the use of technology is increasing and taking our jobs. I am concerned because I feel that eventually, what we see in technology as a great tool, maybe 20 years from now it will not be as great a tool for our new generations. I think that in 20 years it might be more convenient doing it online as a learning tool because people will have the chance to communicate around the world with people on line to learn and practice a different language. You will also have more choices at your fingertips; not many schools teach Russian or Japanese, but you can easily find a website that teaches you basic vocabulary in five minutes. Where I work, teachers have been implementing a program that will help students to increase their reading comprehension skills. Students get feedback right away. The only problem that I see is students’ attention span deficiency while they are doing a topic on the computer. Maybe in the next 20 years, computers will be more advanced and people will be able to adapt the computer to fit a student’s specific needs for learning. Right now I see students getting easily distracted and sometimes they just want to finish fast and do not take it seriously, causing error in their evaluation. Hopefully in 20 years, a program might exist that will easily help students to increase their attention span and do better while they learn a new language. At that time, I think that people might be more motivated to learn a minority language because society has been changing and people around the world are looking for a place where they can find opportunities. Someday, those minority languages might become majority languages. I recently saw on the news how people from Guatemala are walking their way through to the United States. I think that students in 20 years might be motivated in spreading their culture and their knowledge in different countries. I think students might have the same motivation for learning but hopefully technology will not affect the support of a teacher to guide them in their classroom. I believe that a combination of technology and educators is necessary to help students learn skills to become better professionals. I believe that the purpose of language is to communicate. It allows us to make friends, to express our feeling, believes and desires. Sometimes we take it for granted that people just know what we are saying, and instead of modifying the way we communicate, we just do not realize that communication is a two-way street. We end up using language as a weapon creating enemies.

Week 6

Chapter 5: The Early/Late Development of Bilingualism

This chapter explains the different ways that a person becomes bilingual at the very early stages of development. Depending on how many languages are spoken at home, children are capable of learning and differentiating between different languages from their formation in the womb. From the time they are born, bilingual children are able to differentiate between their mother and father language. Baker and Wright discuss the different routes that exist during the process of becoming bilingual. They suggest that in order to “acquire successfully two languages from birth, babies need to be able to differentiate between the two languages”(pg.88). During this process of learning a second language, it was found that infants are able to differentiate between the two languages as early as four to five months. The simultaneous acquisition of bilingualism and multilingualism is determined by the way the child develops a different language. Some parents choose to teach their child one language at home and then, when they go to school, learn the primary language used in the school community. There are many factors that address the way a child is learning a second or more languages simultaneously. It can be cultural, language competency, peer interaction, personality development and educational circumstances.

Baker and Wright also mention the phenomenon of trilingualism /multilingualism. They found out that there are countries, such as Sweden, where people are fluent in Swedish, English and German. Also, trilingual education is common in South Asia. It was found that in these countries where people speak three languages, it is common to see that they speak two different languages at home and one different educational language in school. There are findings that show that bilinguals have advantages from learning a third language. According to Baker and Wright, “The cognitive advantages of bilingualism such as a wider linguistic repertoire, enhanced learning strategies, cognitive flexibility and metalinguistic awareness”(pg.97). All these finding show that being bilingual gives you the advantage of learning a third language more easily. Having a third language makes multilinguals be more confident, and also makes them be more aware of different cultures and countries to expand their knowledge in globalization.

Baker and Wright define Codeswitching and Codemixing depending on where the switches of the language occur. According to Baker and Wright, codeswitching refers to any switches between languages that occur within or across sentences during the same conversation. Codeswitching and translanguaging are used frequently in a Bilingual classroom. Baker and Wright suggest that “codeswitching and translanguaging are not two discrete terms and have overlaps”(pg.99). During my observation in a Bilingual Social Studies class, I could observe how the bilingual teacher was conducting classes in both English and Mandarin Chinese using codeswitching and translanguaging simultaneously. As soon as the teacher changed languages, the students paid more attention and were more responsive, but gradually, their attention waned, so the teacher would change languages again. At the end of class, we talked about it and she told me that it is something she is doing especially whenever she sees students facing elsewhere; she realized that most of the time students have difficulty understanding. She said using this technique is a way of getting their attention, reinforcing the subject, clarifying material, explaining particular points and easing tension. All these techniques help students feel more comfortable and learn in a language of their preference. I believe that the use of bilingualism is essential in school because there are many students whose first language is not English but they have the capability to learn in both languages, especially in multicultural New York.

Baker, C. and Wright, W.E.(2017). Foundation of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Pennsylvania,PA: Multilingual Matter

Research Presentation

"The Balance Theory" and "Key Points Review "

"The Balance Theory"

In Chapter 8, Baker and Wright (2011), talk about how language develops in a bilingual individual’s mind. The different theories mentioned in this chapter lead us to different implications that teachers face when they are evaluating bilingual students. All those theories are necessary to find ways to implement new curricula and different assessments to evaluate bilinguals.

In the balance theory, Baker and Wright represent bilingualism as two different balloons that are in constant balance. They stated that “as proficiency in one language increases on one side of the scale, the proficiency of the language on the other side of the scale decreases”(pg.157). This shows that a person can only be dominant in one language. They refer to Cummins (1981) findings and compare with the Separate Underlying Proficiency (SUP) model of bilingualism, where the two languages are completely separate and there is no ability to transfer the language.  Baker and Wright found evidence that supports the theory that the development of language and cognition are not separate. What is learned in one language is easily transferred to a different language. Cummins also proposed the Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) model of bilingualism (pg. 158). Cummins represents the two languages as two separate icebergs but beneath the surface, these icebergs both emerge in the central operating system. Baker and Wright suggest that “Languages influence both the content and process of thinking”(pg. 159). We can see that bilinguals, including multilingualism, have the ability to use both languages controlled by the central operating system. The capacity that bilinguals have to hold information in both languages makes them increase their understanding, views and ideas. This is one advantage that is found in being bilingual, but we have to consider at what level the person functions so that they can succeed in school.

Key Points Review in Chapter 8 

The key points in chapter eight lay out a detailed summary of different issues that bilingual education students face in school. There are different theories that explain ways that bilingual students develop languages while they are processing communication skills in two different languages. In the balance theory, the balance that exists in the brain is incorrect because language can not be drawn as two different storage systems in the brain. It concludes that an average time span for a person to learn a language is about two to five years, depending on the individual or group where they develop their language. There are many factors that may define the process of language proficiency. In the threshold theory, the authors explain to what degree we have to take into consideration the learning level of bilingual’s two languages. The authors suggest that” language needs to be developed to a high level before high levels of cognition can be activated”(pg. 160). All those previous theories have their flaws, but I think that they are necessary to develop a better way to understand and evaluate bilingualism, especially in schools where a diverse community exists.

Bilingualism and Cognition

Based on the reading, intelligence is either an innate or acquired ability that an individual needs in order to accomplish something desired that influences their ability to learn, reason and understand. There are many factors that influence the intelligence of individuals that make it inaccurate to find one specific way of measurement. Baker and Wright mention how “the construct of intelligence and the use of intelligence test are controversial” (pg.134).  “A challenge to the construct of a single intelligence quotient is H. Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory, which includes eight different types of intelligence”(pg.134). Baker and Wright (2011) state that the IQ test correlates to middle class, white, Western views of intelligence and is culturally limited. I believe that there are many others researchers who demonstrate that measuring intelligence involves numerous factors that might affect an individual IQ test. It is, therefore, questionable to measure intelligence with a simple test.   I found two sample questions at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-iq-questions.html  where I see how difficult this type of test can be for a person who speaks a different language. These are the following samples:

Sample 1- Find two words, one from each group, that are the closest in meaning:

Group A

talkative, job, ecstatic

Group B

angry, wind, loquacious

a. talkative and wind

b. job and angry

c. talkative and loquacious

d. ecstatic and angry

Answer: c. Talkative and Loquacious

Sample 2- Which of the following can be arranged into a 5-letter English word?

a. H R G S T

b. R I L S A 

c. T O O M T

d. W Q R G S

Answer: b. rails and c. motto

These kinds of questions are not accurate to use as a form of measurement among bilingual individuals because they use words that are not commonly used. For example, “loquacious” is not a commonly used word, but “talkative” or “chatty” are. As a bilingual, if I encounter a word I don’t know I would look for the root of the word to find its meaning, but this word is a word that implies research of the meaning. In the second sample, the same confusion arises just by looking at the amount of letters. It didn’t occur to me until much later that answers A and D could never be rearranged to spell a word in English because there are no vowels, and you need vowels and consonants together to create English words. I might come up with good answers, but we have to take into consideration the way other bilinguals perceive these types of questions.  To calculate the Intellectual Quotient in a bilingual person, I would be sensitive and consider many factors such as the level of bilingualism and the cognitive functioning as suggested in this chapter.

Chronology of Events, Court Decisions, and Legislation Affecting Language Minority Children in American Public Education. pg 87-"Tong Tied"

Text: "Tongue Tied"

Chronology of Events, Court Decisions, and Legislation Affecting Language Minority Children in American Public Education. pg 87-"Tong Tied"

I have been working in the school system and I always have heard that education assessment is not very fair for minority students. Most of the time, teachers see students who speak a different language as a problem because the students’ lack of understanding causes a teacher to do a poor evaluation, and sometimes that evaluation does not reflect the students’ abilities and capabilities to learn.. After reading “Tongue Tied” by Otto Santa Ana (2004), I realized that this problem is not a new one- it has existed for many years. Using the American system as an example, Santa Anna mentioned three major ethnic groups who suffered an unfair education for so many years. One of them is Native Americans, who started to see changes in the 1930’s. The second group who also faced many obstacles is African-Americans. Before the Civil War, for instance, it was illegal in the South to teach slaves how to read. In the mid-20th century, desegregation became a hotly debated issue. The last group that also faced obstacles in education is Latinos (Puerto Rico and Chicanos).

Critical Response 

Read and review three major groups of language minority students who continue to be negatively affected by U.S. public school policy. 

African American

Reflect and summaries on key years where growth was starting to take place. 

In the book “Tied Tongue”, Santa Ana mentioned three major groups of minority students who continue to be negatively affected by U.S. public school policy. He mentioned American Indians, African-Americans and Latinos. According to Santa Ana, American Indians, from the very beginning of America's schools, were forced to learn only English in school so that they would adopt the Anglo-American way and customs. Back then they thought the “savage” American Indians could be “civilized”; they had no culture of their own, according to the European and American settlers. For 250 years, Native Americans endured English-only teaching in American schools. African-Americans had a more difficult time because they were slaves, and at that time slaves could not be educated in many states. Even after the Civil War, when the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1868, many states had Jim Crow laws that denied African-Americans their rights to many things, including a fair education. Latinos also faced many obstacles; for instance, they could never become a teacher because of their Spanish accent. Even though many years have passed and many things have improved, the fight for a better education continues to be a problem; however, there are noticeable improvements. Santa Ana mentions how the “No Child Left Behind" Act of 2002 created legislation that, for the first time, gave priority to the brief teaching of English instead of long-term English instruction. I see it as the creation of a new class for students, who do not enjoy the extra school work.