Amanda K. Kibler

Integrating Language, Literacy, and Academic Development: Alternatives to Traditional English as a Second Language and Remedial English for Language Minority Students in Community Colleges.

This article argues for the importance of integrating a focus on language, literacy, and academic development for United States-educated language minority (US-LM) students, sometimes called Generation 1.5. It describes four initiatives at community colleges in California that aim to do so. US-LM students have completed some K–12 schooling in the United States, but their English is considered by community college faculty, staff, or assessment measures to be inadequate for college-level instruction. Although enacting effective language and literacy support for Generation 1.5 has centered on debates about whether these students belong in English as a Second Language (ESL) or remedial English courses, how they can best be identified and tested, or whether they should be taught in separate classes, we argue that more fundamental shifts are needed. Instead of conceiving of students’ language and literacy development solely in terms of progress through ESL or remedial English sequences, educators designing support for US-LM students must also consider larger contexts of students’ academic progress, promoting students’ development of language and literacy for success in academic and professional settings as well as progress toward completing credits required for associate degrees, certificates, and transfer to four-year institutions.

Peer Interaction and Learning in Multilingual Settings From a Sociocultural Perspective: Theoretical Insights

ABSTRACT Reflecting on contributions to this special issue along with my own research, I suggest ways in which sociocultural understandings of peer interactions in multilingual contexts are and should be evolving to encompass the increasingly complex settings that research has come to document. I argue that in order to realize the potential of research in this area of study, it is important that we clearly define how “peers” are conceptualized in our research and carefully explore the implications of multilingual peers’ similarities and differences for learning and development. Further, the dynamic nature of multilingual expertise and peer roles/positioning, and their relation to both micro- and macro-level phenomena, are necessary starting points for any exploration of peer interaction. Finally, we must seek to understand the diverse ways in which peers scaffold each other’s learning through a range of instructional and naturally occurring activities that include but are not limited to those found in traditional classroom settings.

“Yo te estoy ayudando; estoy aprendiendo también/I am helping you; I am learning too:” A bilingual family’s community of practice during home literacy events

This case study examines one Honduran immigrant family’s community of practice during home literacy events. Data include field notes and audio and video recordings from six weeks of in-home observations. Coding and discourse analysis are used to analyse talk-in-interaction in order to understand how the family engages in literacy events. Family discourse reveals patterns of speech according to the language of narrative texts, shared strategy use between mother and child, and the influence of an older sibling. Through the exploration of these patterns, this study documents the multidirectional influence of one family’s community of practice where family members are able to leverage their linguistic and/or literate strengths to construct meaning mutually during literacy events. This study provides evidence for the benefits of encouraging bilingual families to include various family members in literacy events as well as to interact with texts in all of the languages spoken in the home. Further implications for practice and avenues for future research are discussed.

Questions they ask: considering teacher-inquiry questions posed by pre-service English teachers

Our study of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) inquiry projects includes two levels of practitioner-research: on one level, we examine the research questions PSTs pose about their classrooms; and on the second, the study is an action-research investigation of our own practice in teaching PSTs both pedagogical and inquiry practices. We study PSTs’ inquiry questions specifically in an attempt to understand their concerns about teaching and to improve the ways we instruct PSTs. The project considers three research questions: how do English PSTs pose their concerns about students in inquiry questions addressed to students during field-placement experiences; how do they express these concerns in questions posed about students; and what can we learn from the ways PSTs embed conceptualizations of students in questions? Findings reveal a possible mismatch, with PSTs asking students directly about personal interests but often formulating research questions about academic challenges. Such disparity suggests PSTs might be reluctant to broach difficult subjects with students – a reluctance that might deter PSTs from openly discussing challenges with students or from enlisting students as collaborators in inquiry. Additionally, PSTs expressed that their prior knowledge of students constituted ‘researcher bias.’ These findings indicate to us as action-researchers and teacher educators that we need to make changes in how we help PSTs involve students as collaborators in inquiry and that we need to help them understand that teacher-inquiry does not require an unrealistic ideal of researcher neutrality but instead requires teachers to examine their knowledge and to investigate questions systematically.

Older Sibling Support of Younger Siblings’ Socio-Emotional Development A Multiple-Case Study of Second-Generation Mexican and Honduran Children’s Initiative and Co-Construction

Siblings play a critical role in the socialization experiences of their younger siblings. Societal values, standards, and customs are transmitted and created through the process of modeling and the construction of shared meaning. It follows, therefore, that the process of socialization may be culturally dependent. Using multiple case studies of five sibling dyads, we aim to examine the process of initiation and co-construction of second-generation Spanish-speaking children while engaged in free play activities. Examination of fieldnotes, videotapes, and transcriptions suggests that younger siblings initiated more interactions than their older siblings. However, older sibling initiations were more likely to lead to co-construction. Moreover, when younger sibling initiations were successful, this process of co-construction appears to be contingent on the support provided by their more skilled older siblings. We suggest that by serving as models, older siblings are fulfilling their familial responsibility and preparing their younger siblings for school-based social interactions.

An Examination of Language Practices During Mother-Child Play Activities Among Mexican Immigrant Families

We examined the language practices of five mother-child dyads during a structured play activity, particularly in relation to maternal question use. The study includes second-generation, 4-year-old children of Mexican immigrants who demonstrate either high vocabulary levels in English and Spanish or low levels of vocabulary in both languages. Examination of field notes, videotapes, and transcriptions yielded differences in maternal use of perceptual and conceptual questions between children with high and low vocabulary. Children with higher English/Spanish vocabulary profiles experience greater variety in the form of perceptual questions that produce abstract child responses, are more likely to experience clarification or explanation questions, and have greater opportunity to lead during extended exchanges.

Childcare, language-use, and vocabulary of second-generation Latino immigrant children growing up in a new immigrant enclave in the United States

ABSTRACT We utilize a within-group framework to understand the association between childcare type and the language-use and vocabulary of second-generation Latino immigrant children. The sample was drawn from a study of a suburban/rural immigrant community to study the role of home experiences on the early language and literacy of young Latino preschoolers (N = 77). We found that Latino families were more likely to use parental care (67%) than other types of childcare. We also found that children in parental care are more likely to spoken to in English by household member, and children in parental care had lower English and Spanish vocabulary scores on average than children attending other types of childcare setting. We highlight factors that situate the results within the experiences that families face as they navigate an early education context with limited community and institutional supports for children’s Spanish language development within formal and informal care settings.

Oral English language proficiency and reading mastery: The role of home language and school supports

ABSTRACT The analysis of 21,409 participants of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort focused on home and school factors sought to understand the level of reading mastery that children experienced throughout elementary school and Grade 8 by relating home language use, timing of oral English language proficiency, and the provision of school-based English language learner services to reading mastery. Results confirm that non-English language use at home is associated with a decreased reading mastery at higher levels of proficiency in Grades 1 and 3, and is reduced to nonsignificance in Grades 5 and 8 with the inclusion of teacher and school factors. Also, the negative association between timing of oral English language proficiency and reading mastery is partially explained by teacher and school factors, particularly childrens receipt of English language learner services. The findings provide support for policies that provide language services for language minority children and families during the transition to school and through the elementary school years.

‘More than being in a class’: adolescents’ ethnolinguistic insights in a two-way dual-language program

Much of the debate regarding outcomes of various types of dual-language programs has focused on linguistic and academic results, and with good reason: improving the educational outcomes of language minorities and supporting societal multilingualism are vital goals. More rarely explored, however, are these programs’ ethnolinguistic outcomes: the ways in which they provide students with insights into themselves, language, language learning processes and others. This study uses interview and audio data to examine ways in which adolescents reported learning about themselves, language and its learning and others through participation in an extracurricular high school program for Spanish-dominant English language learners (ELLs) and English-dominant Spanish language learners (SLLs). Findings suggest the program provided opportunities for adolescents’ recognition and ratification of peer ethnolinguistic identities, understanding of language-in-use as an ethnolinguistic phenomenon, awareness of language learning through language-in-use and appreciation of students’ own and others’ ethnolinguistic resources. Patterns of learning were largely consonant with students’ sociolinguistic positioning in schools as language minority or majority speakers. Implications for research and educational practice are discussed.