Theresa Y. Austin

Critical Approaches to World Language Education in the United States. An Introduction

In today’s rapidly changing sociopolitical world landscape, language education in the United States is in need of critical scrutiny. In schools and universities, often the rationale for teaching and learning languages other than English is framed in pragmatism (a focus on its usefulness for business, career, college admissions, and national security), a liberal arts mission (a cultivation of appreciation for civilizations’ accomplishments in such fields as art, music, literatures), and multiculturalism (promoting respect for cultural diversity and intercultural understanding). Because the language field has tended to receive less support than math, science, and reading, these rationales play a significant role in promoting language studies. However, upon closer examination, these rationales reveal contradictions, conflicts, and challenges. Traditionally the first two rationales conflict with each other and produce discontinuities in learning opportunities (see Kramsch, Howell, Warner, & Wellmon in this issue). The third rationale, which challenges ethnocentrism, monoculturalism, and English-only monolingualism, is perceived not to be compelling enough to obtain necessary financial support from businesses and lawmakers, despite the obvious potential to promote important global awareness among teachers and students (see Karaman & Tochon in this issue). Moreover, this third rationale tends

Challenges for Latino Educators Crossing Symbolic, Cultural, and Linguistic Boundaries: Coming to Voice in Teacher Preparation with Competing Voices

This article reports on a teacher education programs preparation of bilingual paraeducators during a period of conflicting educational reform of structured English immersion in Massachusetts. Drawing on nexus analysis of discourses (R. Scollon & S. W. Scollon, 2004), we discuss factors faced by Latino educators. These include competing discourses, historical institutional inequities, and boundaries circumscribing the interactions between university and communities. Through the use of a participants text as a re-semiotized means of representing the new potentials that bilingual paraeducators bring to the field of teacher education, “cultural bumps” emerge and directions for teacher education are presented.

What’s At Stake in a High-Stakes Math Test? Analysis of Multimodal Challenges for Emergent English Bilingual Learners

This chapter examines how instruction for standardized math examination proctors aid or impede them in guiding linguistic and culturally diverse students to perform their best in unfamiliar high-stakes exams. Drawing on critical multimodal analyses (Kress and van Leeuwen, Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). London: Routledge, 2006), this chapter makes visible the multimodal assumptions in these instructions and how institutionalized examination practices neglect culturally and linguistically diverse learners, jeopardize their access to higher education, and decrease their chances for becoming productive contributing members in their communities. A research agenda that sustains and nurtures English as additional language learners’ first language resources is suggested to direct attention to areas that could aid them in negotiating unfamiliar high-stakes multimodal texts.

Collaborative action research: Building authentic literate practices into a foreign language program

Two university professors collaborate to carry out an action research project on literacy in a world language program. This article reports on their negotiations to define literacy, how they adapt the use of texts to the cultural backgrounds and interests of their learners and integrate native speakers in a community that builds various understanding of texts through discussion. Our collaborative process provides one example of how action research can systematically inform teaching and learning to build authentic literacy practices in a second or foreign language program.