CONTROVERSIES WITH THEORIES OF SECOND LANGAUGE ACQUISITON
Controversies with Theories of Second Language Acquisition and Bilingual
Education Programs
Student’s name
Boricua College
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English Language Learners are often transferred from bilingual to
monolingual English classrooms upon the immediate development of fluent
English communicative skills. ELL’s are also transferred from bilingual
educational programs because the institution they attend only offers bilingual
educational programs up to a certain grade level. On the other hand, some ELL’s
are illegally exited from language programs because they fail to meet established
exit criteria, as all states have guidelines specifying the criteria an ELL student
has to meet in order to exit a bilingual educational program. Whatever the reason
for ‘premature’ exiting of the ELL, there have been insurmountably negative
implications for the ELL, as these students continuously fall behind grade level
norms in their academic development. I will examine several myths held by many
educators and psychologists regarding bilingual education and second language
acquisition and there implications, the different types of bilingual educational
programs and argue the benefits and implications, and address common
linguistic characteristics frequently observed in second language learners.
The issues before hand were that of which, teachers and psychologist
occasionally assumed students who had attained fluency in English had
overcome all difficulties with English. The misunderstanding of the nature in
which language proficiency is acquired among students, has been the cause of
bilingual failure. It has resulted in educator’s prematurely exiting ELL’s from
Bilingual Educational programs as well as the mainstreaming of ELL’s into
regular Education. As a consequence, students perform poorly on English
assessments. Moreover, these misconceptions aid biased psychological
assessments of bilingual students. Now let us examine several other
misunderstandings or ‘myths regarding the nature of second language
acquisition that have had negative implications for bilinguals.
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Like much contemporary research on second language acquisition, I will
argue that there are many myths circulating among educators and school
psychologists concerning bilingual education and ‘the best’ theories of how
children acquire a second language. Traditional modes of instruction where the
teacher spends most of the class time lecturing were once thought to be most
advantageous. However, theories have revolutionized from that of traditional
notions in an attempt to disprove these theories labeling them as “myths”. One
myth is second language learners learn through authoritative and prescriptive
lecturing, rote learning, and massive preparation for state examinations.
A teacher can repeat a part of the lesson until she is blue in the face, the
student will probably memorize a term, or a sentence, however, if asked ‘What
does it mean?’ chances are they will not know. This is because they have no
comprehension of what they are repeating, they are simply ‘mimicking’ or
‘parroting‘. Therefore learning through mere exposure and repetition is not the
optimal way to learn a second language. ELL’s learn language content when
applied with meaningful content, as in Krashen’s theory of meaningful input and
comprehensible input providing visuals, sounds, and meaningful context, Blind
Refereed Article (2007).
A second myth, is all second language learners acquire academic content
at about the same rate. However, the reality is the development of academic
language skills is unique to every student. Just because the ELL student has
acquired conversational skills, it does not automatically mean they have acquired
academic proficiency in the language. As in Cummins BICS and CALP theory, it
will take the ELL five to ten years for them to become proficient as monolingual
speakers with regards to academics. The length of time it takes the ELL to
acquire academic proficiency in the L2 depends on several factors such as their
educational foundation in the native language, familiarity with English sentence
structures, amount of time they study, their motivation to succeed, social location,
socioeconomic status and gender.
There was also speculation about whether or not educators needed to
adapt materials suitable for ELL’s. The text books were thought to be suitable for
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ELL’s as they are standardized and used nationwide. However, traditional
methods of teaching where educators lecture straight through the text,
highlighting key terms and assessing students at the end of the lesson, is not
sufficient enough, Blind Refereed Article. (2007). Educators should make an
effort to modify content for English language learners. Students are assessed by
the same standardized test as their native English classmates; this is not
acceptable. Educators need new published materials that address instructional
needs of second language learners. Research has shown that in a careful design
immersion program students can in fact acquire high levels of language
proficiency while learning content in another language, Blind Refereed Article.
(2007), as in the case with Dual language programs, which values both L1 and
L2.
On that note, let us look at the variety of bilingual programs serviced to
bilinguals presently in the United States. There are several different types of
Bilingual Education programs. Every educational institution has piloted a different
program depending on the principal’s preference, or depending on the needs of
the bilingual population. The different types of available bilingual education
programs are Transitional Bilingual Education, Two-Way or Dual Language
Immersion, Late-Exit or Developmental Bilingual Education, and recent studies
have presented a Speech Community Model of Bilingual Education.
Transitional Bilingual Education involves education in a student’s native
language, for less than or up to three years. Transitional programs are aimed at
helping the student transition to the mainstream as efficient as possible. Two way
or Dual Language Immersion Programs are aimed to help native and non-native
English speakers become bilingual and biliterate. Normally, in this type of
program, half of the students will be native speakers of a minority language and
half will be native speakers of English. Late-Exit or Developmental Bilingual
Education involves education in the students native language for an extensive
period, accompanied by education in English. A Speech Community Model of
Bilingual Program aims to nurture a specific ethno linguistic community. It
involves a macroacquisitional mode of instruction where it treats second
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language acquisition as a social process involving the entire community. This
model focuses on the speech community not just the individual, social identities
and power relations. This model aims to eliminate competition (mainstream
programs) or another language (dual programs) and allows individuals to learn
with others who are also struggling to learn English.
The benefits of a Transitional program [in essence] is that it ‘makes
certain’ students who are learning English do not lag behind in content areas i.e.,
math, science, and social studies‘. The implications with transitional programs is
that it mainstreams students into English only classrooms too early. According to
Cummings, students at this level of language acquisition, lack a functional level
of academic proficiency. It is too preoccupied with ‘transitioning students as
quickly as possible; that is educators loose the essence of which language
proficiency is acquired’. Furthermore, the linguistic goal of such programs is
English acquisition only, which works counter to the principles of Bilingual
Education.
The benefits of Dual Language programs is that it helps students learn
English as well as aid in the long term academic performance of ELL’s in school,
Blind Refereed Article. (2007). In this type of language program students are
more likely to achieve a functional level of cognitive academic language
proficiency. Another benefit of this program is, since English language learners
are submerged in a class with half the population being native English speakers;
they are not segregated from their peers. However, the implications with this
program is that it is difficult to teach the same academic content to students with
two distinct levels of language proficiency ( I suggest differentiated learning).
The benefits of a Late-Exit or Developmental Bilingual Education
(Maintenance Programs) is that it develops literacy in the child's native language
first, and transfers these skills to the second language. Native language
instruction is reduced as student gains proficiency in English. However, the
implication with this program is that students are not maintained long enough in
Maintenance programs to achieve a level of cognitive academic language
proficiency, since they are pulled out and mainstreamed after three years.
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The benefits of a Speech Community Model of Bilingual Program is that
the students learn best with others who struggle the same. It eliminates the
monolingual competitor, offers instruction in Spanish (uses Spanish to connect
deeply) combined with bilingual speaking teachers as models, and offers
regents exams in Spanish. However, the implications of a Speech Community
Model of Bilingual Program is that it segregates students from other ethnic
cultures, limits English speaking opportunities, national test scores are below
average, lack of interaction with the majority groups, and a lack of English
exposure, O. Garcia, & L. Bartlett. (2007), since the students are immersed with
other students who all speak the same language of a particular ethnic
community, i.e., Dominicans in Washington Heights.
With such controversy among theories of second language acquisition and
bilingual educational programs, how then, can educators and school based
practitioners assess bilinguals and choose programs that are suitable for
bilinguals? Perhaps educators and school based practitioners need to be
extensively grounded in theoretical backgrounds of second language acquisition,
keeping up to date with the latest research, and understand that there are
common linguistic characteristics often observed in second language learners,
that is to say that they must be aware of students level of communicative
competence, before assessing ELL’s as deficient, ‘lagging behind’, or worse LD
(Learning disabled) consequentially making irrational decisions such as
premature exit or removal from bilingual programs.
Let us take a look at the common linguistic characteristics frequently
observed among bilinguals. McKibbin (2002) states that there are normal
processes of second language acquisition that need to be recognized as normal
behaviors for students who are not yet proficient in English. Some of these
processes include interference, inter language, silent period, code switching and
language loss, McKibbin (2002) .
Interference refers to a process in which a communicative behavior from
the first language L1, is carried over into the second language, L2. A student is
more likely to demonstrate interference when using English in a formal setting,
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Mckibben (2002). Thus when second language learners produce errors in
English, it is important to consider the possibility that these errors result from
language interference or from the students limited experience in English,
McKibbin (2002). Inter language occurs when a second language learner is
attempting to learn English, he or she develops a new language system that
incorporates part of his or her native language and part of the newly learned
English, Mckibben (2002). The second language learner test hypothesis about
how a language works and forms a personal set of rules for using the language.
The language system will change as the LEP student becomes proficient in
English, Mckibben (2002). Learners experience a silent period when they are
initially exposed to a second language. The length of time varies from three to six
months, depending on the age of the student. During this time the second
language learners oral communication is very limited, Mckibben (2002). Code
switching occurs when an LEP child switches from one language to another
language when conversing, usually between sentences, An example might be,
Mira mama, (look mom) a cat! Language loss is the weakening of an individuals
first language because of a concentrated focus on the development of an L2
(English). Therefore second language learners who do not receive native
language instruction in school can possibly experience language loss, Mckibben
(2002).
Concluding that within an educational domain where there is much
controversy among theories of second language acquisition and bilingual
educational programs, it is most imperative for educators and school based
practitioners to adequately and thoroughly assess bilinguals before making haste
irrational decisions that could possibly and undeniably have insurmountable
implications for the bilingual. I suggest educators and school based practitioners
should be extensively grounded in theoretical backgrounds of second language
acquisition by keeping up to date with the latest research.
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References
Blind Refereed Article. (2007). Teaching Academic Content to Second Language
Learners. Fourteenth International Conference on Learning.
O. Garcia, & L. Bartlett. (2007). A Speech Community Model of Bilingual
Education: Educating Latino Newcomers in the USA. The International Journal of
Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Vol. 10, No. 1
Roseberry-McKibbin, C. (2002). Serving Multicultural Students with Special
Language Needs: Practical Strategies for Assessment and Intervention (2 nd ed.).
Oceanside, CA: Academic Communication Associates.