Dual Language Bilingual Education Research Articles

Racist and Raciolinguistic Teacher Ideologies: When Bilingual Education is “Inherently Culturally Relevant” for Latinxs

Many schools attempt to address the needs of “English-language learners,” who usually are Spanish-dominant Latinxs, by offering dual-language (DL) bilingual education. While undertaking a larger ethnographic study of one such secondary-level dual-language program, I examined how dual-language teachers understood the program as equitable for Latinxs. I found that teachers believed DL met Latinxs’ needs by providing Spanish-language/biliteracy schooling, which deemphasized the need for explicitly enhancing youths’ critical consciousness. This teacher ideology of assuming DL is “inherently culturally relevant” led to significant issues. For example, teachers believed DL would improve Latinxs’ academic achievement, but when teachers perceived Latinx achievement was not on par with White dual-language students’ outcomes, teachers made sense of Latinxs’ underperformance in DL through racist explanations and did not interrogate the program’s cultural relevance. Specifically, teachers pointed to the program not providing Latinxs the needed Spanish input even though the Latinx students self-identified as bilingual and were the “Spanish-dominant” students, and teachers pointed to Latinxs’ cultural and familial deficits. I argue teachers overlooked critical-racial consciousness as an important component of an equitable education. Implications include for teachers to cultivate their critical-racial consciousness, interrogate raciolinguistic ideologies, and define an equitable DL as centering critical-racial consciousness.

Chinese dual-language bilingual education teachers’ pedagogical and languaging practices in American immersion schools

ABSTRACT Based on video recordings of five pre-k to grade 4 Chinese dual-language bilingual education (DLBE) teachers’ classroom instruction, this article examines the Chinese DLBE teachers’ target and first language use and pedagogical moves during their processes of learning to teach in immersion schools in the US. Conversational analyses of classroom interactions show that the teachers’ subscribed to target language (TL) only instruction with minimum translanguaging and that teacher-fronted talk in the TL dominated their teaching with low student language output. Although their attention to curriculum-related content varied depending on lesson focus and student TL proficiency, a significant amount of teacher languaging practices was for classroom management. The findings have important implications for Chinese DLBE teachers’ preparation and professional development.

Translanguaging Views and Practices of Indiana Dual-Language Bilingual Education Teachers

Translanguaging Views and Practices of Indiana Dual-Language Bilingual Education Teachers

Language proficiency and competence: upper elementary students in a Dual-Language Bilingual Education program

ABSTRACT Building on research that has demonstrated the benefits of Dual-Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) programmes on students’ bilingual, academic, and cross-cultural development (Lindholm-Leary and Hernández 2011), this study examines the links between dual language proficiency and competence in elementary students enrolled in a Cantonese DLBE programme in the U.S. Specifically, we examined the relations between (a) children’s bilingual (English and Cantonese) language proficiency in four dimensions (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) and (b) their competence in academic, peer relationships, activities involvement, and classroom behaviour domains with a group of 60 fourth and fifth graders enrolled in a Cantonese–English DLBE programme. Multiple regression results show that both Cantonese speaking and writing proficiency had significant main effects on academic competence. These effects remained significant even after controlling for students’ English speaking/writing proficiency. Moreover, both Cantonese and English writing proficiency were positively related to students’ classroom competence. Additionally, higher English reading proficiency was positively associated with peer competence. Results highlight the different beneficial roles of Cantonese and English proficiency on positive self, peer acceptance, and prosocial behaviour. The current study generates new insights into the role of bilingual proficiency and has implications for DLBE programme curriculum and policy. 本文探讨了在美国就读英粤语双向式双语课程的小学生的双语熟练程度及其能力发展之间的关系。 我们研究了60名就读该课程的四及五年级儿童的 (a)英语和粤语语言能力 (阅读、写作、听力和口语) 和他们的 (b) 学术、同伴交往、活动参与课堂自我管理能力之间的关系。结果表明, 粤语口语和写作能力对学业能力具有显著的影响。粤语和英语写作能力与学生的课堂能力呈正相关。此外, 较高的英语阅读能力与同伴交往能力呈正相关。本研究反映了粤语和英语能力对积极的自我观念、同伴接纳和利社会行为的有益作用, 并为双向式双语课程和政策的发展提供了参考。

Moving away from the 4-hour block: Arizona’s distinctive path to reversing its restrictive language policies

ABSTRACT In spring 2019, without controversy or fanfare and without violating the voter mandate of Proposition 203, emergent bilinguals in Arizona were once again granted unrestricted access to dual language bilingual education after nearly 20 years. The policy change was accomplished through a seemingly small piece of legislation that reduced the daily Structured English Immersion requirement from four hours to two hours. In this study, we analyze the Senate and House education committee hearings in which this legislation was unanimously approved before being signed into law by the governor. Using critical discourse analysis and through a theoretical lens of interest convergence, we examine the strategic moves utilized by speakers and legislators to build consensus for this remarkable, yet overlooked, legislation. We found that, in contrast to policy reforms in California and Massachusetts, which used a “multilingualism-for-all” strategy, the speakers and legislators in Arizona focused on English learners. Yet, they worked to show that a change benefitting English learners would also benefit parents, schools, teachers, districts, and even the state of Arizona. Our findings suggest that advocacy for bilingual education that is informed by contextual awareness and translated into the local discourse can produce success, even in conservative contexts such as Arizona.

Editorial introduction: a historical overview of the expanding critique(s) of the gentrification of dual language bilingual education

Editorial introduction: a historical overview of the expanding critique(s) of the gentrification of dual language bilingual education

Young readers in a Mandarin Chinese dual-language bilingual education programme

ABSTRACT This study investigated the oral reading strategy use of 51 first-grade readers in a Chinese Dual-Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) programme. It attempted to answer the following research questions: (1) What reading strategies do first-grade Mandarin Chinese DLBE learners employ to decode Chinese text during oral reading? (2) Do the first-grade readers of different oral reading levels employ different strategies? Reading observations and prompts to the participants during and after reading were employed to capture the participants’ strategy use. This study found that the participants most frequently used text editing strategies during oral reading. In addition, there were differences among readers of different reading levels. Efficient readers were better able to use a variety of strategies to facilitate reading, while less efficient readers often asked for help and blindly guessed the meanings and pronunciations of characters in the reading.

“Make Sure You See This”: Counternarratives of Multilingual Black Girls’ Language and Literacy Practices

Critical scholarship in bilingualism and bilingual education has documented multiple ways that the rich language and literacy practices of Black children participating in bilingual education programs are often erased in favor of dominant narratives about the literacy practices of their White Mainstream English–speaking peers. Utilizing Black girl literacies, raciolinguistics, and translanguaging as theoretical orientations, and counternarratives as an analytical tool, this article presents a cross-case analysis of two ethnographic case studies that explored how multilingual Black American girls enrolled in an elementary dual-language bilingual education program employed their literacies to navigate their social worlds by challenging raciolinguistic ideologies and hegemonic systems of oppression in their daily lives. It also presents the nuanced nature of multilingual Black girls’ literacies and the various roles that they serve, which are often ignored in multilingual spaces. The need to learn from multilingual Black girls’ counternarratives is emphasized by engaging in a deeper sociopolitical understanding of the complex issues that Black girls face on a regular basis, which are often extended in bilingual spaces. Specifically, we call for educators to create critical translanguaging spaces that honor multidimensional counternarratives and intimately connect with the unique epistemologies and literacies that Black girls in bilingual programs bring to the table.

From compliance to resistance: administrator perspectives on implementing structured English immersion and dual language bilingual education programs

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study explored the perspectives of school administrators on implementing structured English immersion (SEI) and dual-language bilingual education (DLBE) programs serving emergent bilingual learners at one urban Arizona elementary school. Using a sociocultural policy perspective, I analyzed findings from a series of interviews examining the ways the participating administrators navigated and implemented restrictive language policies, while simultaneously providing pathways to DLBE opportunities for emergent bilingual learners. I found there was ongoing tension between compliance and resistance to state-mandated policies. In addition, there were differences in how the administrators positioned emergent bilingual learners as a good or bad fit for the DLBE program at the focal school site. The results and discussion underscore both the continued challenges of SEI policy in Arizona and the role of educational leaders in fostering spaces for biliteracy development.

The expropriation of dual language bilingual education: deconstructing neoliberalism, whitestreaming, and English-hegemony

ABSTRACT A growing body of research has demonstrated that neoliberal discourses have negatively impacted dual language bilingual education (DLBE) for students designated as English learners. This study uses the concept of expropriation to refer to the co-opting and dispossessing of educational resources, opportunities, and rights from language-minoritized communities, and a shift to the reframing and reuse of these resources by white English-privileged populations for their benefit. Using Utah’s DLBE model (fiftyfication, exclusion of one-teacher model, exclusion of one-way developmental bilingual education, and strict language separation policy) as a foundational expropriation reference, we evaluated which states followed this model, how they implemented it, what discourses were used, and who the beneficiaries were. Employing critical discourse analysis, we examined DLBE policy documents gathered from states’ websites across the U.S. and found that Delaware, Georgia, and Wyoming emulated Utah’s model. Findings showed discursive gentrification propelled by English-hegemonic and neoliberal forces, which benefited white English-privileged students. We posit further analyses should consider the intersection of other policies in the context of expropriation conditions.

Picturing dual language and gentrification: an analysis of visual media and their connection to language policy

Dual language (DL) programs propose to be vehicles of social justice and transformation by valuing an additional language other than the dominant one in a society and thereby contesting language hierarchies and the subordination of those who speak/use a non-dominant language (Flores, Flores, Educational Policy 30:13–38, 2016; Menken and García, Menken, K., & García, O. (2021). Constructing translanguaging school policies and practices. In: CUNY-New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals (Eds.) Translanguaging and transformative teaching for emergent bilingual students. Project. Routledge, New York.). However, Palmer (Henderson, K. I., & Palmer, D. K. (2020). Dual Language Bilingual Education: Teacher Cases and Perspectives on Large-scale Implementation. Multilingual Matters.: 11) warned that DL programs risk becoming “enrichment foreign-language immersion to middle- and upper-class White children” and hence “lost opportunit[ies] for transformation.” This “gentrification” of DL efforts is enabled by racial, economic, and linguistic hierarchies of power (Valdez, Freire, and Delavan, Valdez et al., The Urban Review 48:601–627, 2016). Our analysis of five images from a corpus of 34 online news articles considers how photographic depictions of DL programs can manifest gentrification in non-linguistic ways that nonetheless reinforce moves away from DL for social transformation and toward DL as hegemonic. This paper clarifies how multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) and Habermasian notions of the public sphere critically complement how public spaces (in this case schools) get imbued with “specific values that mediate inhabitants’ interpretations of themselves and their relation to others in a space” (Hult, Hult, Tollefson and Pérez-Milans (eds), The Oxford handbook of language policy and planning, Oxford University Press, 2018: 338). Findings reveal nuanced ways in which world language populations are protagonized visually and related ways that heritage/maintenance populations are either erased or marginalized. This helps explain the key assertion—that visual images can reinforce DL program gentrification—but also augments the theoretical toolkit available to study how progressive intentions of DL can become co-opted.

“Two schools within a school”: Elitism, divisiveness, and intra-racial gentrification in a dual language strand

ABSTRACT With most elementary dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs being implemented as strands within schools, tensions related to inequities, unequal distribution of resources, and academic quality and demographic differences often arise. Based on a longitudinal ethnographic study and two interview phases with DLBE and mainstream teachers, this study analyzes teachers’ perceptions and discourses regarding tensions related to the Spanish-English two-way bilingual education program at their urban elementary school. Findings from a thematic analysis approach pointed to teachers’ discourses of elitism and divisiveness in relation to the DLBE strand based on racial tensions and school inequities, including what we call intra-racial DLBE gentrification. These findings are based on how educators experienced tensions regarding this bilingual program related to (a) the composition of the student body in terms of perceived quality and quantity, (b) cognitive and academic benefits, (c) resources provided by a university partnership, and (d) parental involvement. Implications for administrators and teacher preparation programs toward equity and school integration with DLBE strands are discussed.

“We live in the age of choice”: school administrators, school choice policies, and the shaping of dual language bilingual education

In the past 20 years, both school choice policies and dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs have proliferated across the US. This project examines the intersection of the two trends, examining how school choice policies have shaped DLBE at the district, school, and program level, through the eyes of 22 public school administrators in Arizona, California, and Texas. Prior work has shown how general neoliberal logic has shaped parents' desire for DLBE as well as how DLBE is marketed and who attends, but we argue here that school choice—itself a product of neoliberal logic—is a unique and powerful force shaping DLBE. We found that it spurred both the creation of new DLBE education programs (i.e., to help districts compete) and influenced existing programs (e.g., made principals hesitant to collaborate with those whom they see as competitors). We address the potential of these shifts to undermine goals of equity for Latinx and Spanish-speaking students. Yet, we also address the potential for administrators to co-opt the language and logic of school choice as a means to create programs that might ultimately serve the ends of social justice.

Translanguaging design in a third grade Chinese Language Arts class

Abstract Traditionally strict language separation policies in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs reflect parallel monolingualism and have been criticized as failing to recognize the sociolinguistic realities of bilingual students (García, Ofelia & Angel M. Y. Lin. 2017. Translanguaging in bilingual education. In Ofelia García, Angel M. Y. Lin & Stephen May (eds.), Bilingual and multilingual education, 117–130. Cham: Springer International Publishing). To recognize the dynamic nature of bilingualism and leverage bilingual learners’ full semiotic and linguistic repertoire as a resource, this study looks at how to strategically and purposefully develop flexible and multilingual educational spaces in a third grade Chinese Language Arts (CLA) class in a Mandarin-English DLBE program in the New England area, U.S. Drawing upon Sánchez, María Teresa (Maite), Ofelia García & Cristian Solorza. 2018. Reframing language allocation policy in dual language bilingual education. Bilingual Research Journal 41(1). 37–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2017.1405098, translanguaging allocation policy framework, the researcher and the teacher co-designed and implemented translanguaging documentation, translanguaging rings, and translanguaging transformation spaces in the CLA class throughout the school year of 2018–19. Taking the form of participatory design research (Bang, Megan & Shirin Vossoughi. 2016. Participatory design research and educational justice: Studying learning and relations within social change making. Cognition and Instruction 34(3). 173–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2016.1181879), this collaborative inquiry demonstrates that translanguaging pedagogies could promote student engagement, contribute to their academic learning, and build home-school connections. It aims to provide authentic, sustainable knowledge for both researchers and practitioners to better serve bilingual learners in DLBE programs.

Grassroots resistance and activism to one-size-fits-all and separate-but-equal policies by 90:10 dual language schools en comunidades latinas

ABSTRACT Bilingual education—chiefly the subcategory of dual language bilingual education—has been undergoing a pattern where the interests of language-minoritized communities have in several contexts been pushed out of the way. One aspect of this gentrification process has been the fiftyfication of dual language bilingual education policy, where privilege is placed on a 50:50 balance of language allocation between English and the partner language. Using thematic narrative analysis, we looked at the only two dual language bilingual education schools in the U.S. state of Utah with a 90:10 language allocation. Findings show that (a) the two charter schools were pressured in multiple ways to conform to the state’s fiftyfication policy, and (b) the schools and their Latina/o communities resisted the policy and associated pressures on behalf of their students through forms of grassroots language activism and bottom-up resistance. Although these actions ultimately resulted in the official revision of the state’s DLBE policy to be inclusive of multiple language allocation models, the schools had to continue their activism to benefit from the policy change as the state then moved to a separate-but-equal policy approach that continued the privileging of the 50:50 model. Implications for scholars and policymakers are discussed.

Translanguaging practices of students in science and math classes in a Chinese/English dual language bilingual program

Abstract This article is focused on the discussion of three 4th grade students’ translanguaging practices in math and science classes in a Mandarin/English one-way dual language immersion program. In the U.S., the number of dual language immersion programs is increasing. While research strongly supports the benefits of bilingual programs, implementation challenges caused by a “dual” perception seem to remain unsolved. This article presents data excerpts collected and analyzed for a multi-case study to describe and discuss students’ translanguaging practices and their benefits in content learning contexts. Findings reveal that bilingual students are engaged in highly flexible and dynamic language use for meaningful learning, which contradicts the monolingual ideology permeating dual language programs. In addition, findings from this study contribute to the understanding of Chinese/English bilingual students’ translanguaging practice in their learning, which adds to the research on students’ linguistic practice in dual-language bilingual education.

Language Ideological Multiplicity and Tension within Dual Language Bilingual Education Teachers

ABSTRACT Dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs are critical sites for exploring language ideologies given the policy goals of student bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism. Drawing on a larger study of language ideological inquiry, this article used predominantly interview data to explore the articulated language ideological stances of teachers implementing a district-wide DLBE program in central Texas. The article builds from the assimilationist/pluralist distinction and contributes to an understanding of how language ideologies interact and are articulated at the individual level and reflect these broader societal discourses in multiple and contradictory ways. To disrupt the binary of ideological orientations I drew on the concept of a continuum to present and make sense of the educators’ ideological stances. Analysis revealed language ideologies articulated across three dimensions: language status, variation, and participation. Implications for DLBE policy and implementation are discussed including the need for ideological consistency and reflection at the program level.

Obscuring Equity in Dual Language Bilingual Education: A Longitudinal Study of Emergent Bilingual Achievement, Course Placements, and Grades

Dual language bilingual education (DLBE) is a unique form of bilingual education that has the potential to preserve and develop the heritage languages of emergent bilinguals, foster high levels of bilingualism, and address academic disparities, thereby changing emergent bilinguals’ educational conditions and learning outcomes. Yet, DLBE schools and programs are nested within a broader sociopolitical context which may attenuate the benefits of DLBE. To address the construction of DLBE as a panacea for equity, this study examines a cohort of emergent bilinguals’ academic achievement, middle school course placements, and course grades across 6 school years. The conceptual lens of equity traps is employed to demonstrate how equity is metaphorically trapped within the institutional constraints of schools, specifically master schedules that have courses that range from remedial to advanced. Findings demonstrate that emergent bilinguals in DLBE programs have higher achievement in English language arts (ELA) and math over emergent bilinguals in English as a second language programs. However, emergent bilinguals in DLBE programs also are shielded from advanced‐level electives, reducing future opportunities to learn math and science in high school, demonstrating a unique form of exclusionary tracking. The authors propose a structural matrix that stakeholders can use to examine the equity constraints of DLBE.

Equity for Students Learning English in Dual Language Bilingual Education: Persistent Challenges and Promising Practices

This special issue of TESOL Quarterly examines the equity challenges and promises of dual language bilingual education (DLBE) for students learning English as an additional language. As demographic change and transnational connections develop more awareness and desire for multilingualism, there has been an explosion of DLBE in schools throughout the world. Although research confirms the effectiveness of well‐implemented dual language programs, studies also find persistent and pervasive inequalities, which are explored in this issue. On the one hand, there is a global push toward English as a lingua franca that denies education in students’ native languages; on the other hand, there is not equal access or opportunity to English as a global language of power through English‐bilingual education. Ideologies and discourses of monolingualism and accountability for English learning continue to impact DLBE policy and practice as well as dehumanize language‐minoritized youth who are learning English. At the same time, research reported in this issue documents the pride, joy, and multilingual capacities of children and their families, as well as the possibilities for DLBE when we hold programs accountable for bilingual outcomes and avoid “equity traps.” In this introductory piece, the guest editors define key terms, provide a brief overview of equity challenges in DLBE, introduce each contribution, and conclude with important research and teaching needs moving forward.

Equity in Representing Literacy Growth in Dual Language Bilingual Education for Emerging Bilingual Students

The promise of access to key 21st‐century skills (i.e., bilingualism, biliteracy, and global awareness) has resulted in the rapid gain in popularity of dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs in the United States over the past two decades. Despite their integrative and additive nature, concerns have been raised about lack of equity in their implementation (Cervantes‐Soon, 2014; Palmer, 2010; Valdés, 1997, 2018). In this article, the authors argue that the fact that DLBE research almost exclusively focuses on English outcomes contributes to inequity. In order to represent the full achievements of emerging bilingual students, the authors designed a longitudinal study to examine the biliteracy growth rates of third‐grade students enrolled in all of the DLBE programs that had longitudinal achievement data in the two program languages in one state in the United States. The data were disaggregated by students who were currently, or had at one point been, classified as an English learner (ever ELs) and those who had never been classified as ELs including those with English as their home language (never ELs). Results of the three‐level linear growth model estimated on participants’ reading scale scores show that, although both groups made progress in reading achievement in both languages over time, never ELs exhibited faster growth rates in Spanish than ever ELs but their growth rates in English were similar. Considering outcomes in the two program languages not only provides a better understanding of emerging bilingual students’ full biliteracy potential, but underscores the value of their language background.