English-only Schools Research Articles

Language Ideologies and Language Loss in 19th-Century Victoria: The Translations of William Thomas

ABSTRACTThe small amount of scripture translation into Aboriginal languages that occurred in 19th-century Victoria, Australia, stands in sharp contrast with the enthusiasm for translation in the Pacific Islands during the same period. By focusing on the work of William Thomas, the most prolific of the amateur translators, this article investigates why so little translation was completed. Thomas’s 1858 recommendation for English-only schools, and his discouragement of Aboriginal languages, seems to contradict his initial enthusiasm for translation and his lifelong interest in Aboriginal languages. In particular, I explore the possible influence of three language ideologies on Thomas’s thinking: the Protestant belief in the translatability of scripture, the Herderian connection between language and a people, and the Lockean ideology that certain languages or ways of speaking are obstacles to progress. Ultimately, the devastating decline in the Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung population exerted the most influence on Thomas’s thinking, though it did not curtail his belief in their just claim to substantial and “sacred” reservations of land.

The Effects of Language Experience in Both Home and School Environments for Spanish-English Bilingual Children: A Preliminary Study

ABSTRACT The amount of language input bilingual children receive influences their language acquisition. This three-year quasi-longitudinal study determined the extent home language input influences measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among Spanish-English school-age bilingual children. The study also determined whether a relationship exists between school of attendance and measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among the same group of children. One Spanish-English dual-immersion school and one English-only school in Utah participated in the study. Participants were administered two formal measures of receptive and expressive English once a year for three consecutive years. Results indicate that regardless of their home language, all children demonstrated improvements in receptive and expressive English language skills after three years. Between year one and three, the increase in English receptive language measures were statistically significant among the children who primarily heard Spanish at home. Results revealed that all children made advancements in expressive and receptive vocabulary skills, regardless of their home language and the type of school they attended. Findings suggest that exposure to a language other than English at home is not a detriment to English language development. Additionally, bilingual education is as effective as English-only education in fostering children‘s vocabulary skills in English.

Linguistic Cartography: Exploring the Power and Potential of Mapping Language Resources Within Classroom Communities

ABSTRACT To inform the design of humanizing pedagogies that draw on the whole of learners’ linguistic resources, educators must come to know students as language users, and, more centrally, support students to become aware of the dynamism of their own linguistic repertoires. We highlight one instructional approach—“linguistic cartography”—for making these language resources visible. Linguistic cartography engages participants in mapping and reflecting on all of their language resources learned across a range of contexts and for diverse social purposes. We examine the use of linguistic cartography in one focal middle-grade classroom (23 students, ages 11–13) in a linguistically-restrictive English-only school district in the United States. Through analysis of fieldnotes and interviews conducted with the classroom teacher and with three focal students, we highlight the potential instructional affordances of linguistic cartography for questioning and speaking back to discourses that serve to pathologize plurilingualism in linguistically-restrictive school contexts.

Impacts of the COVID-19 disruption on the language and literacy development of monolingual and heritage bilingual children in the United States.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11145-022-10388-x.

Teachers as agents of transformative pedagogy: Critical reflexivity, activism and multilingual spaces through a continua of biliteracy lens

AbstractLanguage policies and school practices in Pakistan continually perpetuate gaps between the traditionally less versus the traditionally more privileged languages. About 95% of students receive their primary and post-primary education in languages other than their L1. Drawing on the continua of biliteracy framework (Hornberger. 2003.Continua of biliteracy: An ecological framework for educational policy, research, and practice in multilingual settings. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters), this paper uses teachers’ experiential insights from upscale English-medium schools to show how they employ their critical reflexivity to resist the English-only school policy, and assert their agency to transform pedagogies into meaningful, contextualized, and multilingual modes. Theoretically, such agency and policy-from-below signifies that teachers/actors can creatively negotiate institutional/organizational policies creating substantive ideological and implementational spaces for multiple languages/cultures. Such initiatives also demonstrate that power is not always fixed in the hands of the few; rather critically conscious individuals can generate power to their own advantage. Teachers’ agency can effectively dismantle linguistic discrimination and undo the English-centric monolingualism. The reported opening of spaces for meaningful multilingual and contextualized voices carries useful lessons for those actors who might find their work settings limiting their agency and power. The study concludes that however minor the degree of agency and resistance may be in a particular context, these initiatives have the potential to transform normative perspectives about English and native/indigenous languages.

Performance of Low-Income Dual Language Learners Attending English-Only Schools on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition, Spanish.

The aim of this study was to examine the performance of a group of Spanish-speaking, dual language learners (DLLs) who were attending English-only schools and came from low-income and low-parental education backgrounds on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition, Spanish (CELF-4S; Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2006). Spanish-speaking DLLs (N = 656), ages 5;0 (years;months) to 7;11, were tested for language impairment (LI) using the core language score of the CELF-4S and the English Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test (Dawson, Stout, & Eyer, 2003). A subsample (n = 299) was additionally tested using a Spanish language sample analysis and a newly developed Spanish morphosyntactic measure, for identification of children with LI and to conduct a receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. Over 50% of the sample scored more than 1 SD below the mean on the core language score. In our subsample, the sensitivity of the CELF-4S was 94%, and specificity was 65%, using a cutoff score of 85 as suggested in the manual. Using an empirically derived cutoff score of 78, the sensitivity was 86%, and the specificity was 80%. Results suggest that the CELF-4S overidentifies low-income Spanish-English DLLs attending English-only schools as presenting with LI. For this sample, 1 in every 3 Latino children from low socioeconomic status was incorrectly identified with LI. Clinicians should be cautious when using the CELF-4S to evaluate low-income Spanish-English DLLs and ensure that they have converging evidence before making diagnostic decisions.

Raising Bilingual Children: A Qualitative Study of Parental Attitudes, Beliefs, and Intended Behaviors.

We examined parental preferences in raising Spanish/English bilingual children. We identified factors influencing their decisions, and the strategies used to promote bilingualism. Focus groups were conducted with Spanish-primary-language parents of children 3 to 7 years old. These groups were audiotaped and transcribed. Three reviewers independently analyzed transcripts for themes using margin-coding and grounded theory; disagreements were resolved by consensus. Thirteen Spanish-primary-language parents participated in two focus groups. The results show that parents wanted their children to be bilingual. Parents also stated that the benefits of bilingualism included better career opportunities, and preservation of culture and native language. Family members, schools, and prior parental experiences influenced the parents' decisions to raise bilingual children. Parents preferred English-only school classes and to teach Spanish at home. Strategies identified for raising bilingual children included reading bilingual books and having children speak only Spanish at home. Schools and pediatricians are used as resources.

Learning Climates for English Language Learners: A Case of Fourth-Grade Students in California

This study investigates “learning climates” among fourth-grade students in an English-only school district in California. A student's learning climate is defined here as (a) a learner's perceptions of his or her own abilities and behaviors, as well as (b) the learner's perceptions of others' beliefs about his or her abilities and behaviors (or “externalized perceptions,” as we have termed this throughout this paper). This study aims to understand how such learning climates may relate to students' reading performance among English language learners (ELLs) as well as native English-speaking (NE) students. A structured interview was conducted. Positive perceptions toward bilingualism were observed by both students who read English well and those who struggled with reading English. However, these two groups differed in their: (a) language-mixing behavior; (b) first-language literacy skills; (c) fathers' level of English proficiency; and (d) views of the influence of their first language on their English reading. Strong ELL readers tended to have more positive externalized perceptions of NE peers' attitudes toward their first languages and their language-mixing behavior. NE students' perceptions toward bilingualism were also revealed.

Indigenous Community-based Language Education in the USA

Nearly two million American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians reside in the USA, representing over 500 tribes and 175 distinct languages. The uniqueness of tribal communities notwithstanding, all indigenous peoples in the USA share a history as the targets of federal policies aimed at eradicating their languages and lifeways. The legacy of those policies has been Native language loss and sociocultural dislocation, even as indigenous students have experienced considerable failure in English-only schools. Here, we argue that indigenous language education must be historically situated and as such, viewed as both an affirmation of self-determination and an act of resistance to linguistic oppression. Drawing on published accounts and first-hand testimony, we present several cases that illustrate the role of indigenous language education programmes in strengthening indigenous languages and promoting indigenous language and education rights. We conclude with an analysis of the continuing problems these community-based initiatives face, their promise and limitations as agents of language renewal, and their role as catalysts for linguistic self-determination and educational reform.