HERITAGE LANGUAGE
SPEAKERS
AND
PUBLIC SCHOOLING
Emily Curtis
University of Washington
PhD, Linguistics
EdD Candidate
Poster for the National
Heritage Language Research
Council 7 th Annual Institute
University of Illinois, Chicago
June 2013
My Perspectives
• Raised in Theoretical Linguistics (PhD, 2003)
• Now Doctoral Candidate in Education (Curriculum & Instruction,
Teacher Ed)
• What do teachers need to know about language/linguistics?
• What can Linguistics contribute in Education?
• Continuing research on metalinguistic knowledge
• What? Who? Whence/How? Why/what for?
• Teaching Teacher courses in Linguistics
• This Presentation:
• What can Education contribute to HLMaintenance, HLSpeakers’
bilingual development?
Emily Curtis
2
Some Questions
• What are public schools doing for
Heritage language speakers?
• What does teacher education need to do?
• What is the status of education research
on topics related to HL and bilingualism?
Olga Kagan: HLStudies needs to have an impact on
Education
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3
Briefly,
• Student-age Heritage language speakers are rarely recognized
as such in the “mainstream” education literature*
• However, Ed. Research and Teacher Ed. has been concerned
with “Cultural and Linguistic Diversity” for around 50 years
 Socio-linguistic supports for HL
• The “needs” of CLD students most recently being addressed
are (finally) approximating some “needs” of HL speakers,
namely scaffolding advanced/academic English literacy
 Grammatical/metalinguistic supports for HL
bilingualism-biliteracy
• Some preliminary findings on what teachers know and what
they take from a targeted linguistics course
*with some caveats
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History of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in
Education
• US public schools segregated until 1954 Brown v. Board of
Education
• Assimilationist,1 Monolingual English, Prescriptive Grammar
• Integration starting 1960s, and Civil Rights Movement
 Multicultural Education
• focus on racial/ethnic minorities, pluralism
• social justice: close “achievement gap” / repay “education debt” 2
• Banks, Cochran-Smith, Delpit, Gay: “cultural responsiveness”
• Teacher Ed: “funds of knowledge”3 of CLD students and
overturning a “deficit perspective” on differences--ESL v. bilingual
• BUT schools ceased teaching English grammar in mid-grades4
1 Villegas, 2009;
2 Ladson-Billings,
2006;
3
Moll et al., 1992;
4
Wong-Fillmore & Snow, 2002
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History of CLD in Education
• Some attention to language
• dialects other than Standard (Heath 1982)
• teaching the standard or “literary discourse” (Delpit, 1995)
• Lucas, Villegas: (socio)-linguistic responsiveness 1 in Teacher Ed.
• National studies:
• Carnegie Foundation’s (2007) Teachers for a New Era,
• National Academy of Education’s (2005) A good teacher in every classroom
• Bilingual education has had a difficult time
• “English-only” movements beginning in the 1980s; 17 states end bilingual
education2
• reauthorisation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in
2000 eliminated Title VII, the 1968 Bilingual Education Act (main funding for
bilingual education) 2
• cultural stigma3
1 Lucas,
Villegas and Freedson-Gonzales, 2008, Lucas and Villegas, 2010, 2011
2 Varghese, 2004 3 Hakuta, 2011
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History of CLD in Education
• 1994: mainstream teachers have not known how to provide ESL supports2
• 2005: teachers feeling “woefully unprepared” 1 to work with ELL
• 2008: most teachers (83% White, 3 most monolingual) have no experiences
to encourage cultural and linguistic responsiveness (or knowledge) 4
• 2005: 46% of fourth-grader ELLs scored “below basic” in math and 73%
“below basic” in reading nationwide
• (compared to 11% and 25% respectively for White students)5
• inequalities in high school graduation rates, access to college-prep
courses, “unequal access to a broad and rich curriculum that educates
students to understand and to think critically, and in the disproportionate
assignment of students of color and English learners to special education
classes with limited educational opportunities” 6
1
2 Harklau, 1994;
Valdes, 2005; also Gandara, 2005; Levine 2006;
4Cochran-Smith and Fries, 2005; Clayton, Barnhardt, & Brisk, 2008;
6Zeichner, 2012; Artiles, Harry, Reschly & Chinn 2002; Hawkins, 2011
3
5
Grossman and Lieb, 2008;
Lucas and Grinberg, 2008;
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History of CLD in Education
• BUT, waves of immigration 1985• Increased numbers of “English Language Learners”
• formerly “Limited English Proficient” (LEP)
• sometimes now called “Emergent Bilinguals” – incl. HLS
• approx. 20% of public school students home lg. LOTE (in 2006)1
• Increased diversity of languages
• though 80% nationally are Spanish-L1/HL2
• Over 460 languages spoken in homes of public school students
nationwide2 – includes HLS
• Over 100 in Seattle
1 Villegas and Lucas, 2011
2 Valdes and Castellon, 2011
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History of CLD in Education
• Changing demographics
• Cutting of ESL funding
More ELL (ESL) students in mainstream classrooms
+ widespread Social Justice & Multicultural Education
emphases in Teacher Education Programs (TEP)
• equity, equal access to rigorous curricula
=> emphasis on teacher knowledge of language,
linguistics, acquisition1
1Wong
Fillmore & Snow, 2002; Lucas & Grinberg, 2008; Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008; Valdes,
Bunch, Snow, & Lee, 2005
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Recent Focus on Language in CLD Education
Research and Teacher Education
• Cummins, 1979: BICS vs. CALP
(Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills vs. Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency)
• Schleppegrell, 2004: Language of Schooling
(register)
• Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008: SIOP method -- language
learning objectives, identifying language demands
• Bruner, Vygotsky, Cazden; Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007: Scaffolding
• Walqui & van Lier, 2010: Amplify (language), don’t simplify
• Schleppegrell & Colombi (eds.) : Advanced Literacy in L1 and L2
• Schleppegrell & colleagues: Systemic Functional Linguistics
(disciplinary language; academic language)
EXPLICIT FOCUS ON LINGUISTIC FORM AND FUNCTION (meaning)
For teachers (curriculum choices) and for students (learning activities)
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Basic “Conclusion”
Though focused on English side of bilingualism
potential benefits for HLMaintenance, HLSpeakers
1.
Culturally, Sociolinguistically
recognition of multiculturalism and bilingualism in US (and world),
“bilingual” v. “ELL”; support for L1 (important for L2) 1
 identity, motivation, pride/capability
2. Linguistically, grammatically
making language explicit
 attention to form, metalinguistic knowledge (incl. socio-ling.)
Maria Polinsky: not always bilingual advantage–why/when not? how to encourage?
1 Scarcella,
2002
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Focus on Academic Language Scaffolding for
CLD
Future Directions:
Interdisciplinary collaborations and cross-fertilization
in research:
•
•
•
•
Second language acquisition
Bilingualism research and bilingual education
Heritage languages
EdPsych, Teacher Education, and Policy
• Curricula also needed:
• Teacher education
• K-12 language/linguistic education
• What else do Public School Teachers need to
know/believe/do to support HLM and HLS?
Please leave a note
Emily Curtis
12
Study underway: Knowledge, dispositions and skills
of pre-service K-12 teachers in ELL Endorsement: ENTERING
Register & Code-switching (of registers!)
• HAVE: “academic language” understanding of home vs. school language contexts
• NEED: multiple registers/context effects; pragmatics
Sociolinguistics
• HAVE: code-switching registers & sociolects (AAVE), and funds of knowledge
cultural language use and participation structures differences
• NEED: naturalness of variation, inevitability of acquiring ambient variety (not
“choice” ); identity (covert prestige)
Morphology
• HAVE: Latin & Greek roots (academic vocabulary), cognates (Spanish)
• NEED: wider cross-linguistic/typological understanding; inflection/derivation; other
derivational patterns of English; other etymologies; disciplinary language
L2 / Heritage / Bilingualism
• HAVE: focus on English (ESL), external aids (scaffolding=visuals/graphics,
repetition, word wall), sociocultural/cooperative learning, support/use of L1
• NEED: theories, stages and factors in L2, different kinds of bilingualism,
comparative understanding (transfer/interference)
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Study underway: KSD of pre-service K-12 teachers in ELL
Endorsement: GAINED
• “Concept of phoneme”
• concept of transfer/influence of L1
• psychological reality of grammatical structure
• Language Sketch Assignment
• understanding complexity of language and task of L2
• differences in structure (e.g. morphological typology)
• Language Attitudes & Knowledge Autobiography Assignment
• (and other activities)
• prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar – can’t teach prescriptively, but
descriptively…
• Functional Analysis Readings
• Insight into specific disciplinary language (information structuring)
• Methods of engaging in language analysis/discussion (with students)
toward deeper understanding and “making language explicit”
Emily Curtis
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Focus on Academic Language Scaffolding for
CLD
Future Directions:
Interdisciplinary collaborations and cross-fertilization
in research:
•
•
•
•
Second language acquisition
Bilingualism research and bilingual education
Heritage languages
EdPsych, Teacher Education, and Policy
• Curricula also needed:
• Teacher education
• K-12 language/linguistic education
• What else do Public School Teachers need to
know/believe/do to support HLM and HLS?
Please leave a note
Emily Curtis
15