Christian Faltis

Code‐switching and bilingual schooling: An examination of Jacobson's new concurrent approach

This article describes the New Concurrent Approach to bilingual instruction. This approach systematically incorporates inter‐sentential code‐switching as a means for teaching content to limited English proficient children raised in a bilingual environment. The article examines how code‐switching present in bilingual communities has been incorporated and adapted for instruction, and how the adaptation contributes to the balanced distribution of the two codes in question. Reference is also made to major fears commonly associated with the use of code‐switching for instructional purposes, and presents evidence to show that these fears are largely unfounded.

Identifying Relevant Competencies for Secondary Teachers of English Learners

This study examined the English Learner (EL) teacher knowledge base from three perspectives: (a) competencies the current literature recommends that all teachers need know and use for teaching English learners in their content classes, (b) competencies the current literature recommends secondary teachers of English learners need to know and use for teaching English learners across the grades, and (c) views practicing secondary teachers of English learners hold about competencies they need to be successful with these students in academic subject-area classes. We identified the points of commonality between what is considered critical for all teachers and what secondary teachers need to know and be able to do, as well how they differ, and also what view practicing secondary teachers express about knowledge and practices the literature claims they need to be effective with English learners. This research identified the relevant competencies for secondary teachers of English learners, “to get a better sense of where we are starting from” (Lucas & Grinberg, 2008, p. 628) with respect to the kinds of knowledge and practices that preservice and in-service teachers are being asked to learn, question, implement, and reflect upon.

Learning English as an Additional Language in K-12 Schools

This special-topic issue of the TESOL Quarterly is dedicated to immigrant and native language minority learners worldwide who enter K-12 schools proficient in a language other than English and who bring with them linguistic, cultural, and social traditions that are often distinctly different from those assumed by the schools. Frequently English learners in English-speaking countries face a challenge and a prejudice that most English-speaking students rarely experience. Accordingly, our goal in this issue is to begin a new dialogue about ways language educators can collaborate with other school personnel to improve the educational experience of English learners worldwide. Exactly what changes schools need to make to accommodate linguistic and cultural diversity is an issue that involves linguicism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and the politics of language (see Bilingual Research Journal, 12 (1 & 2), 1992, and Skutnabb-Kangas, 1988, for discussions of these factors from U.S. and European viewpoints, respectively). We realize that a full and reasonable treatment of these matters is well

Case Study Methods in Researching Language and Education

Case study research stems from a special interest in individual cases (Stake, 1994). In the field of language and education, case study methods of research have produced some important discoveries about (1) how children and adolescents learn oral and written language; (2) how language teachers draw on perspectives and assumptions to inform their practices, and (3) how what happens outside the classrooms in school settings interacts with the ways that children and adolescents learn and use oral and written language inside of classrooms.

Critical issues in the use of sheltered content teaching in high school bilingual programs

Sheltered content teaching is perhaps the most influential instructional innovation in the field of U.S. bilingual education since the introduction of the New Current Approach to bilingual instruction in the late 1970s (see Faltis, 1989, and Jacobson, 1981, for descriptions of the NCA). One of the reasons sheltered content teaching is so special is that, unlike the majority of advances in bilingual education, which have focused on the elementary level, this one was developed almost exclusively for secondary education. As a result, for the first time since the introduction of bilingual education programs under Title VII of 1968, significant numbers of high school level English learners are being afforded access to and benefit from academic all-English content courses that are comparable to those of their native English-speaking peers. In fact, it may be that sheltered content teaching will become the preferred instructional model in secondary school for large numbers of speakers of languages other than English. Assuming the likelihood of this scenario, it is important to consider when and under what contexts sheltered content teaching is an appropriate means for educating English learners in secondary school. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to examine the history and current uses of sheltered content teaching with the following questions in mind: (a) What are the key theoretical underpinnings of sheltered content teaching? (b) In what ways do the theoretical principles facilitate the development of critical communicative competence? That is, in addition to learning subject matter content, are students given opportunities

Bilingual Education in the United States

When the original thirteen colonies gained their independence from England in 1776 and struggled to become the United States, one of the defining characteristics of the new nation and the lands that it would eventually exploit and conquer was multilingualism (Kloss, 1977). In addition to native American Indian languages groups, new groups of European immigrants streamed into the country to settle in the lands taken from the native American Indians. One of the first actions taken by the many immigrant settler groups was to set up schools which taught their children through their native language, with the goal of fluent bilingualism. These early attempts at bilingual education were tolerated throughout the 19th century, but came to an abrupt end following World War I. Using a language other than English was viewed as un-American behavior.

Languages in school and society : policy and pedagogy

* This volume, a tribute to Robert Politzer by his colleagues and former students, consists of 30 papers that reflect the breadth of Politzers interests over a long and distinguished career. Topics are highly varied and include methodological issues in large-scale studies of linguistic homogeneity and heterogeneity; language planning in Quebec; L2 and bilingual pedagogy, research, and assessment; and contexts for language learning. The first section, consisting of four papers on very disparate topics, is the most far-ranging. Joseph Greenberg examines the parallel between classical grammarians and Moslem legal theorists. Joshua Fishman, Frank Solano, and Grant McConnell report on a methodological check of studies of the relationships between linguistic heterogeneity/homogeneity on one hand and gross national product and civil strife on the other. They find that the relationship is negligible and argue that crosspolity studies that examine only a small number of variables are often misleading. This section also includes Andre Martinets study of phonological change on the French-Italian border and Sandra Schecters historical account of language policy and planning in Quebec. The remaining sections deal with topics more directly related to the professional concerns of most TESOL Quarterly readers. Part 2 contains a rich variety of papers dealing with recent developments in L2 pedagogy. Wilga Rivers argues for the value of interactive activities in the L2 classroom, a theme that is also taken up by Robert DiPietro and Frederick Bosco, who present a view of the learner as an active participant in social and personal activities. The other chapters in this part include Celeste Kinginger and Sandra Savignons study of task variation and classroom discourse, Mary McGroartys review of effective L2 teaching practices, Ann Fathmans overview of developments in L2 teaching methods, and Patricia Porters review of approaches to communicative syllabus design. This section concludes with James Robinsons examination of the role of cross-cultural communication in the ESL classroom. The third section is dedicated to research in the L2 classroom. It

Extraordinary Pedagogies for Working Within School Settings Serving Nondominant Students

There are pedagogies used in schools that are extraordinary, in the sense that they intentionally go beyond the ordinary understandings and practices many children and youth experience as individuals in schools on a daily basis, to guide them toward the pursuit of social justice, agency as learners, and constructive action. However, audiences may not have read or learned about these pedagogies unless they appeared in journals as a separate item or a collection of articles in a themed volume. For the past several volumes, Review of Research in Education has focused on issues of equity, youth culture, and democracy. In this volume, we continue this pattern to center on extraordinary pedagogies in school settings serving nondominant students. Our intention is to share with you through these reviews some of the exceptional pedagogies that teachers and educators have developed in recent years to address the needs of nondominant students and families served by public schools and institutions of higher learning.

LEARNING TO TEACH CONTENT BILINGUALLY IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL BILINGUAL CLASSROOM

Abstract The purpose of this year long study was to work with two Spanish-English bilingual middle school teachers who primarily used translation to ensure language comprehension and (1) re-orient them to an alternative perspective on learning and (2) teach them a new way of interacting with students bilingually during content teaching. The study addressed the following research questions: 1) How were teachers’ views about bilingual teaching and how students learn demonstrated in their instruction? Did these views change after participating in workshops, discussions, and practices? 2) What reasons did teachers give for switching from one language to the other during content instruction? Did the reasons change after participating in workshops, discussions and practice? 3) What kinds of bilingual teaching strategies did teachers rely on during instruction? Did these strategies change after participating in workshops, discussions and practice? The two teachers primarily viewed teaching bilingually as providi...

A Commentary on Krasben's Input Hypothesis

Krashen, Stephen. 1981. Letter to the Editor. Language Learning 31:217-221. Krashen, Stephen. 1982. Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York: Pergamon. Long, Michael. 1983. Input and second language acquisition theory. Paper presented at the 10th University of Michigan Conference on Applied Linguistics, Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 28-30, 1983. Reynolds, Paul Davidson. 1971. A primer in theory construction. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.