Bilingualism in Education

Amanda Kellenberger

PSY 212

March 21, 2007

Research Paper

The numbers have it; the U.S. Census Bureau state there are 42.7 million Hispanics that are currently living in and attending school in American society. That’s 14% of the total U.S. population. About 15 million of these are not yet fluent in English. While it is an ongoing issue whether or not the American society should be accommodating to these people’s needs, the fact remains that there are 9.5 million children in this country that have a legal right to an education but experience difficulties in reaching their full potential due to the fact they can not understand what they are being taught. (Hispanic Americans by the Numbers) This issue extends beyond the Hispanic culture and into other ones such as German, Chinese, Polish, et cetera as well.

Due to this growing need for a bilingual education, many different programs and classes have sprung up. Most of these classes have a dual language system. Classes are taught partially in the native language and partially in the second language. Then as students progress in school and in their knowledge of the second language, the amount of time spent teaching in the native language decreases until the student is ready to attend regular classes. (Garcia 47) This is particularly beneficial for the Spanish language because there are so many of them it makes having separate classes worthwhile.

There are times though that the student is a minority of the minority and it does not make sense to have a separate class just for that one student. For example, if the student spoke Finnish and was the only Finnish-speaking student at that school it would be practical to put him/her in a separate class. In those situations the student may be pulled out of class for remedial learning. This is not very common however as it has been shown that “remedial classes and pull out programs […] slow down learning.” (Ovando and Collier 72)

The classroom I chose to observe was a sixth grade class with all native Spanish speakers. It was in a dual language program but the students were at a point where they were able to understand almost the entire lesson in English. After gleaning some information from several different sources as well as my observations, I have come up with several different items that are key to teaching in a bilingual classroom effectively.

In their book, Carlos Ovando and Virginia Collier stressed the importance of teamwork and group learning. This type of learning would be most effective in a class where there are different levels of language ability. Ovando and Collier write that group learning creates interdependence – everyone working together for a common goal, individual accountability, face-to-face interactions, social skills, and team reflection. (68) The most obvious benefit for the bilingual situation would be the face-to-face verbal interactions. Here students get an opportunity to hear language spoken that is on their level as well as practice speaking the language themselves.

Ovando and Collier also suggest that teachers use discretion when creating the groups. There are times when it is good to “mix it up” and put students together with all different ability levels, creating a Vygotskian atmosphere. There are other times though when the teacher must consider each student’s learning potential and comfort with the language. (69) As stated before, mixed groups can promote the hearing of language spoken by those who know it well, but it can also create a very intimidating experience for those who know very little of the language. Therefore, there are times when putting students together of like ability can give them a chance to tread the waters together, slipping up together, and correcting themselves together.

During my observations, at least once a day the students would break up into reading groups (note: the books were all in English). For the most part, students were grouped by their reading ability – although this seemed to reflect their knowledge of English. The students overall seemed very comfortable with this arrangement. They would help each other when one would stumble over a word or two and the ones being corrected didn’t seem to mind it at all. It seemed to be a very productive situation that these students were placed in; not only could they hear their peer’s language in English, but they had the opportunity to help each other learn. Also, along the same lines of group work, the students would occasionally be asked to turn to their desk mate (they were paired up) and discuss something that was being taught in class. This also provided opportunity for the students to practice their English in a less threatening situation.

In addition to group learning, Ovando and Collier emphasize the importance of active learning. Before continuing, I would like to point out that all of the suggestions given in these books are applicable both to the regular classroom as well as the bilingual classroom, but it is especially crucial to advocating language in the bilingual classrooms. Passive learning is common in the classrooms. Teachers do all of the talking – explaining and instructing the students on what they need to know. When the teacher does eventually call for student participation, it is more often than not an echo of what the teacher just said. (Ovando and Collier 64)

Active learning on the other hand “accelerates language minority students’ academic growth, leading to eventual high academic performance comparable or exceeding that of native English-speakers.” (Thomas and Collier 1997, as stated in Ovando and Collier 65) Active learning involves students and engages them with hands-on activities, critical thinking, and problem solving that promote a deeper learning. (Ovando and Collier 65) Doing in-class experiments and having them get up and move around keeps the lesson from being too mundane. Bored students do not pay attention in class and therefore are not paying attention to key language being spoken. Also, asking students questions that require them to use their own language and not language that parrots the teacher will not only help them academically, but linguistically as well.

In the class I observed in, the teacher did a wonderful job of incorporating this idea. The very first activity in the morning was called “oral language”. During oral language, the teacher would use different games and activities to get students to practice their English. These activities would include: filling in analogies (hot fudge is to ice cream as icing is to ?), playing Twenty Questions (a game in which students had a limit of twenty questions they could ask to guess a certain object), Hangman (a game where students had to guess a certain word or phrase), and others. The activities were not only fun (for me, the observer, and the students), but also really made the students think logically and use language that they would have to come up with on their own.

In addition to group learning and active learning, research has been done that shows a strong concentration on the phonemes of a language can also aid in the learning of a second language. (Bialystok, McBride-Chang, and Luk, 580) Phonemes are one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language. (WordNet) For example, being able to determine the difference between “pit” and “bit”. After conducting a series of tests on monolingual and bilingual students, the researchers discovered that there is a strong relationship to understanding phonemes and language acquisition. If phonemes are understood in the student’s primary language, then it will be much easier for them to learn and distinguish words in a second language. Therefore, in a classroom in which students are still being primarily taught in their first language, it would be beneficial to concentrate on the phonemes of that language so that as they become more immersed in the second language, acquisition will not be so difficult.

Since I was observing in a sixth grade classroom, the students at this point were fairly familiar with English and the majority of the class was taught in English. Due to that, I did not observe anything that promoted knowledge of phonemes. In addition, the teaching of phonemes is mostly done in the younger grades, when students are just learning how to read, so again, phonemes were not really relevant in the class I observed.

Throughout my research, I noticed a commonality between all of my sources. Almost every single one of them stressed the importance of keeping the students’ culture integrated with the lesson and talking about things that are relevant to the student. A school wide system incorporation of native language and culture are necessary for a good curriculum. (August and Hakuta 1997, as stated in Garcia 44) In Ovando and Collier, they write that a critical pedagogy is introducing units with meaning that incorporate facts and experiences the students are already familiar and can contribute what they know. (66 and 74) Angela Carrasquillo and Vivian Rodriguez agree that it is important for students to be able to share and discuss their different experiences. (99) To go one step further, being able to discuss their culture experiences will not only enlighten the native speakers in the their class, but also help bond the bilingual speakers together as well.

While this idea of integrating the students’ culture was not blatantly obvious in the class I observed in, it was there. The teacher really tried to come at the students from a wide-spread approach; teaching them things about other cultures such as reading a book about the Jewish culture in their time of persecution. But he also tried to incorporate things that were more relevant to the students. The class read another book about a boy from Puerto Rico and the book talked about the lifestyle that he experienced. Those in the class that were Puerto Rican were able to relate very well to the story and most likely remembered more about it than those who were not.

Another strategy that Colin Baker writes in his book is obtaining feedback from the students. He writes that it is important to know at all times where the students are at and how much they understand. Teachers need to be sensitive to the non-verbal cues students can give such as questioning looks and looks of frustration. (362) Once a teacher can accurately diagnose where a student is at linguistically and where further clarification is needed, then he/she can provide that additional guidance before the student even asks. Baker also writes that teachers should encourage their students to ask questions and request more clarification when they don’t understand something. (362)

For as advanced as the class I observed in was, there were times when the students were not comprehending what the teacher was saying. Very rarely did a student raise his/her and ask the teacher for a better explanation, but very frequently the teacher would read the students’ expressions and translate what he had just said into Spanish so they could better grasp what he was saying. In addition, he would also try and re-explain it in English so that the students would know the key terminology in English.

Along with the strategies discussed thus far, Eugene Garcia lists several more to keep in mind when teaching bilingual students. He writes that it is important to develop a mature literacy in the students’ native language before jumping into language transition. Also, it is tempting to give the students “lighter” work under the assumption that it will be more challenging because of the language barrier. Garcia argues however that it is important to keep the material grade-level appropriate. (45) They are not in school to just learn a new language, but to learn other academic skills as well. Involving the parents is also key to success - this may require having notes written in the bilingual students’ native language and outside of school meetings. (46)

During my observations I noticed a few things in regards to the points Garcia makes. The majority of the class was spent speaking in English and for the part of the day that I was there (I only attended in the mornings) there was no promotion of understanding written Spanish. The students would converse in Spanish amongst themselves, but no formal instruction took place. I was not able to tell if all of the students’ work was grade-appropriate or not. I do know that in their reading groups, some were given easier books to read than others – sometimes because the student was not a fluent reader in either language, and sometimes because the student was still struggling with English. The teacher did however, do an excellent job of involving the parents. He regularly sent notes home that were in Spanish and quite frequently asked them to be involved in different field trips and activities.

Overall, I feel that this teacher did a wonderful job of incorporating these key aspects into his classroom. As I stated before, group learning, active learning, phoneme acquisition, and integration of past experiences are important for teaching in any classroom, but they take on a more critical perspective when dealing with the bilingual classroom. Learning in school can be difficult enough for some students, let alone trying to learn it all in a language they are not familiar with. Being sensitive to this fact and helping them in every way possible will help guarantee their success in overcoming these barriers. To echo Jim Cummins, “be an advocate, and not a problem spotter!” (Ovando and Collier 74)

Works Cited

Baker, Colin. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism: Third Edition. Multilingual Matters Ltd., Clevedon: 2001.

Bialystok, Ellen, Catherine McBride-Chang, Gigi Luk. “Bilingualism, Language Profiency, and Learning to Read in Two Writing Systems”. Journal of Education Psychology. Volume 97.4 (2005): 580-90. EbscoHost. ERIC. Elgin Community College Library, February 10, 2007. <www.ebscohost.com>.