Pet Shop Boys: Single (1996)  They call this a community  I like to think of it as home  Arriving at the airport  I am going it alone  Ordering a boarding pass  Travelling in business class  This is the name of the game  I'm single, bilingual  Single, bilingual  I come to the community  From U.K. p.l.c.  Arriving at my hotel  there are faxes greeting me  Staying in a junior suite  So there's room to meet and greet  and after work explain how I feel  'Perdoneme me llamo Neil'  I'm single, bilingual  Single, bilingual  In Brussels, Bonn or Barcelona  I'm in demand and quite at home there  'Adelante!' Through the door  'Un momento, por favor'  This is what I get paid for  'Muchas gracias, senor''Muchas gracias, senor'  I'm a player in the continental game  With unlimited expenses to reclaim  Information's easy  Tapping at my PC  That is the frame of the game  I'm single, bilingual  Single, bilingual  I'm single, bilingual  Single, bilingual  'Hay una discoteca por acqui?'

H 714 Bilingualism November 28, 2006 Kendra Winner

Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Reading and Class Objectives  Identify causes, definitions and types of bi/multilingualism.  Understand the historical and political context of bi/multilingualism internationally and in the U.S.  Understand the implications of bi/multilingualism for development, identity and educational practice

Agenda  Overview of Bilingual/Multilingualism Definitions of bi/multilingualism Causes of bi/multilingualism International historical & political contexts  Influence of Bi/multilingualism  Influences on Bi/multilingualism  Case Study Discussion

Show of hands  Multilingual  Bilingual  Taught ESL or bilingual students  Taught students who did not speak your first or only language

Bilingualism and Multilingualism  Bilingualism and multilingualism are more common internationally than monolingualism. Conservative estimates suggest one half of more than half of the world’s population is bilingual (Kandolf, 1997) Approximately 5,000 languages co-exist in fewer than 200 countries There is no such thing as a “monolingual” country:  Indigenous people  Immigration

What is Bilingualism?  Does the term include people who: Do not regularly use both languages? May not have spoken one of their languages for many years? Can understand perfectly well but not speak another language? Have learned to read another language but cannot speak or write it?

Types of bilingualism  Balanced bilingualism - the notion of having equal proficiency in two languages across a range of contexts. Balanced bilingualism  Dominant bilingualism - where one of the languages is used most often and is the one in which the speaker operates with the greatest proficiency.  Semilingualism - a controversial term used to describe people whose two languages are at a low level of development. Semilingualism  Prestigious bilingualism - typically but not exclusively referring to those who speak two high status languages.  Multilingualism - knowing and/or using three or more languages.

What’s your experience been?

When is a second (or third) language acquired?  Simultaneous bilingualism  Early sequential bilingualism – most common  Late sequential bilingualism (adolescence)

How is a second (or third) language acquired?  Additive bilingualism  Subtractive bilingualism  Compound bilingualism  Coordinate bilingualism

What causes bilingualism?  Political causes  Religion  Culture  Intermarriage  Education  Economy  Natural disasters  Immigration

Multilingual contexts  Turkano  Siane  Paraguay  India

Political/Historical Context  European Colonial efforts  Rise of Nationalism  Bilingualism within borders Presence of linguistic minorities  Immigration  Indigenous people  Gastarbeiter – guest workers Multilingual legacy

Fluidity & Language Competition  Language maintenance  Language shift  Emergence of new creoles and pidgins  Language loss  Language death

U.S. Bilingual Policy in short  Covered in readings …  Lack of policy  Regional decision making  Assimilation of non-English speakers  Monolingual myth …

International Language Policies  Canada – policy of “official bilingualism” giving equal status to English and French in federal government services, etc… while subsidizing the maintenance of other languages and cultures.  India – Hindi and English designated as official languages at the national level, while constitutionally recognizing 17 other regional languages. More than 400 languages with 10,000 speakers in India.  Australia – national language policy: 1) fosters English literacy for all, 2) conserves and develops skills in immigrant languages, 3)prevents the extinction of aboriginal tongues, 4) encourages EL to learn one of 10 target languages

Language Becomes War by Other Means  “the perfect instrument of empire,” advisor to Spain’s Queen Isabella Clayton Collins, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Why is it be desirable to maintain all languages currently spoken in the world?  Languages are not creatures.  Maintenance of many languages may cause ethnic conflicts (e.g., Africa).  “Dominant” languages, such as English, are also called “languages of liberation.  Language death is not necessarily linked to the death of a culture.

What does history teach us? 1) Dedication to the spirit of individual rights and freedoms or to will or moral principle is associated with acceptance of bilingualism. 2) Peak immigration can be associated with decline in acceptance of bilingualism M immigrants entered the US during the 1990s , 1 million immigrants entering US per year.* 3) Involvement in strife increases feelings of nationalism: War Terrorism

Influences of: 1) Bi/multilingualism 2) L1 on L2

You tell me ….think about:  Identity  Language  Cognition  Literacy/Educational Attainment  Readings … Crawford, Lai & Byram, Pease- Alvarez, Yoon  Your other courses …

 Most researchers believe fluent bilingualism somehow interacts positively with cognitive development; however, the exact nature of this interaction is still more a matter of hypothesis than certainty. Metalinguistic capacities – the ability to think about language as an object Metacognitive capacities – the ability to think about thinking Transfer – phonological, lexical (cognates)

Proficiency in L1:  Facilitates English acquisition  Leads to higher academic achievement  Results in greater cognitive flexibility, including ability to deal with abstract concepts  Instills a stronger sense of ethnic identity and connection to cultural group  Leads to greater and more positive self-esteem

Influences on …  Heritage language maintenance  Acquisition of second language  Participation in bilingual education

Parental Attitudes  Vary by community: De la Garza, DeSipio, Garcia, Garcia and Falcon (1992) found strong support for bilingual education among Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban parents. Baratz-Snowden, J., Rock, D., Pollack, J., & Wilder, G. (1988) found that the majority of Asian parents felt that teaching in a non-English language interferes with learning English while the majority of Latino parents did not.

Parental Attitudes  Vary by community: Majority of Vietnamese parents preferred children be enrolled in classrooms where Vietnamese was part of the curriculum regardless of English proficiency. Parents believed that:  bilingual education allows children to keep up in subject matter while acquiring English  developing literacy in Vietnamese would facilitate their English acquisition  learning subject matter first in the primary language would make the subject matter more understandable in English  bilingualism had practical, career, and cognitive related advantages, and  it was necessary to maintain language and culture. Vietnamese parent attitudes toward bilingual education Bilingual Research Journal, Spring 1999 by Young, Russell L, Tran, MyLuong T Bilingual Research JournalSpring 1999Young, Russell LTran, MyLuong T

Teacher Attitudes  Lee & Oxelson (2006) 69 teachers (14 males, 55 females) surveyed: 10 teachers interviewed in-depth  31 ESL credentialed (13 of these also had Bilingual Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development credentials)  38 had received no special training related to ESL or bilingual instruction

 Teachers who have had BCLAD and/or ESL training were significantly different from their colleagues who have not had such training: Strongly agreed that maintenance and proficiency in heritage language positively affect linguistic minority student’s academic efforts More favorable attitudes about schools’ need to play an active role in encouraging and supporting the maintenance of heritage language Implemented more practices in the classroom that affirm students’ home culture and language

 “I guess this sort of goes back to this philosophical question of ‘What is the purpose of education?’ If the school says that they’re there for the purpose of education and education is supposed to bring out the best in people … knowledge should bring out the best in people. I believe, firmly, [in] maintaining one’s wholeness, maintaining one’s culture and a large part of maintaining one’s culture is maintaining language, that’s apart of bringing out the best in people. So for me the connection is there. If schools believe that, then schools certainly have a role.”

 Both groups agreed that heritage language maintenance will lead to many personal benefits such as a strong sense of ethnic identity and strong family values; differed in perspectives on practicality and feasibility of promoting additive bilingualism: Non-BCLAD/ESL believed that the primary role of schools is to teach English More time and exposure to English lead to faster and better English language acquisition.

 “ I really want toe kids to keep their native language, so that they can hand it down to their children, I think that’s awesome, but I also come from an awfully realistic point of view that they are living in the United States and I’m concerned that they need to speak English, and they need to be able to speak it fluently, they need to be able to write it appropriately.”

 Significant differences in practices and attitudes were also found between teachers who reported having fluency in a language other than English and those that did not: Significantly more likely to implement practices that encourage and affirm students home language/culture in the classroom Felt more strongly that schools should take an active role in supporting language maintenance

Teacher actions  Recognize the importance of heritage language proficiency  Be aware of your own personal stance and believes toward students’ languages and their maintenance  Express an interest in heritage language  Treat the heritage language as a resource  Provide opportunities to share language and culture  Visit homes to learn about language and culture  Publicly praise students who know other languages  Explicitly encourage the maintenance of home languages

Limitations of the study  Are the findings confounded by the tendency of individuals who possess positive attitudes toward bilingualism and heritage languages to enter into the field of bilingual or ESL education?

Bilingual Case Study Discussions  Case 1: Educational Outcomes and language proficiency  Case 2: Language Policy and additive bilingualism  Case 3: Language loss and culture