Young Bilingual Students Research Articles

Young bilingual students' use of metacognitive strategies to overcome comprehension difficulties when reading in the foreign language

AbstractThis study investigates the use of metacognitive strategies by young emergent multilingual students in a translanguaging pedagogy scenario. From a multilingual perspective, we understand metacognition as a broader concept that refers to the learning or thinking processes that encapsulate metalinguistic and crosslinguistic awareness. We focus on the performance phase of the reading process where students deploy strategies and monitor the progress and quality of the activity. The participants were 48 bilingual fifth graders in a multilingual school in the Basque Autonomous Community in the north of Spain; 39.5% of the students had Basque as their first language, while 60.5% had Spanish, similar to the sociolinguistic context of the school, and all were learning English as a foreign language. Data for this study were collected in the English class while the students were set in pairs to complete a reading comprehension task. Their performance was audio‐recorded, and language‐related episodes were analysed to explore the strategic behaviour of the students. This analysis identified episodes where students talked about either their language production or language use. The findings show that although pedagogical translanguaging focuses mainly on raising crosslinguistic awareness, it can also develop a broader metalinguistic awareness and facilitate metacognitive reflection. The study highlights the link between enhancing metalinguistic awareness and the development of multilingual students' metacognitive knowledge for effective self‐regulated strategic behaviour when reading in a foreign language.

Bilingual teachers and young children co-constructing affect and play in translanguaging read-alouds

PurposeAffect is central to the process of teaching and learning. The recent affective turn in literacy education has further underscored its critical potential as an act of resistance against dehumanizing forces that impact students’ schooling and life experiences (Dutro, 2019; Leander and Ehret, 2019). This article, taking up the notion of affect as relational and performed forces that emerge from the in-betweenness among people, objects and material and discursive contexts, examines how two US Latinx teachers and their young bilingual students co-constructed affect and play in translanguaging read-alouds with a bilingual text that centered their culturally rooted ways of knowing and being.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on data from a larger practitioner research study that aimed at developing teacher candidates’ culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy instruction, the authors took a discourse analytic approach to examine how the two teachers created curricular opportunities for affect and play in designing the translanguaging read-alouds and how bilingual children and their teachers playfully engaged with the bilingual text during the read-alouds.FindingsThe analysis indicated that the teachers’ intentional selection of the Spanish–English bilingual picturebook Niño Wrestles the World created opportunities for the children to leverage their full linguistic repertoire and funds of knowledge to engage with the text. During the read-alouds, the children and the teachers co-constructed affect and playfulness through embodied performance and translanguaging.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the research and practice of literacy instruction of bilingual children by illustrating how affect figures into the process of literacy instruction and how translanguaging read-alouds can afford bilingual children opportunities to playfully engage with the text that centers their cultural epistemologies.

The Writing Process of Bilingual Students with Focus on Revisions and Spelling Errors in Their Final Texts

Research on writing that focuses on what writers do when they compose shows that processes such as planning, transfer to writing and editing are recursive and affect the writing process of first and second language writers differently. To our knowledge, what has yet to be explored in research is the writing process of young bilingual students. The present study focused on the revisions and spelling errors made by 9-year-old bilingual students during a writing activity in their L2. Details about the writing process (e.g., revisions) were taken from statistics registered in the keystroke logging program ScriptLog and were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results from the quantitative analysis show that the mean proportion of the students’ revisions is relatively low compared to results in previous research. The qualitative analysis showed both surface and meaning changes; the latter were found at both the micro- and macrostructural levels. Bilingual students exhibit a creative writing process in which several meaning changes occur in a language (in this case Swedish) that they are particularly competent in. The spelling error analysis indicated that the bilingual students make the same type of spelling errors as monolingual students in their initial stages of learning to write.

The contributions of oral language to English reading outcomes among young bilingual students in the United States

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The current study examined the language-reading relationship for bilingual students in two grade levels (grades 1 and 3) and for two reading outcomes (decoding and comprehension) to understand the contribution of oral language in English reading. The study also explored the potential mediating role of oral language between language use, reading frequency, and reading outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: The study included 60 bilingual students from bilingual households that speak a language other than, or in addition to, English. All participants completed a battery of language and reading assessments and a background survey. Data and analysis: Three separate confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to derive an Oral Language factor (from oral language assessments), a Language Use factor, and a Reading Frequency factor (from survey items). A multivariate regression was conducted to investigate whether the language-reading relationship differed by grade and reading outcome. A multivariate mediation analysis was also conducted to examine whether the Oral Language factor mediates the effect of Language Use and Reading Frequency on reading outcomes. Findings/conclusions: Oral language proficiency significantly predicted both decoding and comprehension for both grades. Oral language also mediated the relationship between reading frequency and reading outcomes. Originality: This study investigates the contributions of oral language in young bilingual students’ English reading outcomes, which is an under-explored topic. Significance/implications: The results demonstrated the importance of oral language proficiency in bilingual students’ reading outcomes. Oral language plays a robust role in not only reading comprehension but also decoding. The study also clarified that the effects of reading frequency on reading outcomes are indirect and mediated via oral language. Improving bilingual students’ oral language proficiency coupled with promoting their reading frequency can help promote their reading outcomes.

Writing in young bilingual children: Review of research

The importance of writing to academic achievement has been well-documented. Substantial research has investigated writing among monolingual speakers, but less research has examined writing in bilingual students, particularly in early childhood. Understanding young bilingual children’s writing development and identifying instructional pedagogies that support their growth as writers, is imperative. To guide pedagogy and research, we conducted a review of the research on writing in young bilingual children. A search of databases for studies published between 2000 and 2017 yielded 35 peer-reviewed articles that met inclusion criteria. Results of a content analysis demonstrated that young bilingual children develop knowledge and understandings of print and a range of composing strategies that support bilingual and biliterate writing. Pedagogies most supportive of young bilingual students’ growth as writers were meaning-based, provided explicit instruction on concepts about print that were contextualized within authentic activities, and created curricular space for multimodal forms of literacy. Genre-based writing instruction, technology-mediated composing, and ESL-enhanced content area literacy instruction also were found to be supportive. The evidence indicated that instruction in the native language as well as dual language instruction supported biliteracy.

“Pink is a Girl's Color”: A Case Study of Bilingual Kindergarteners' Discussions about Gender Roles

This article discusses the results of an empirical study that examined young bilingual students' discussions of picture books dealing with gender themes in a Spanish/English bilingual classroom. The study focused on the reading of five picture books by sixteen 5-year-old Mexican-origin children at a small charter school. The data were collected by video/audio recordings, interviews, and children's artifacts over a period of five months. The findings suggest that discussions about gender roles using two languages have potential to help kindergarten bilingual children think critically about gender roles and avoid gender stereotypes. This study aims to offer critical approaches to early childhood and bilingual education, providing insights into how teachers can create supportive literacy environments in which bilingual children can develop a critical awareness of gender and gender roles from an early age.

Who’s Holding El Marcador? Peer Linguistic Mediation Gone Awry in a Dual Language Classroom

Within dual language education programs, well-structured peer interactions can facilitate the learning of language and curricular content simultaneously. Research has found that even very young bilingual students can engage in peer linguistic mediation to help less proficient classmates participate in small group work. In this article, I analyze two academic discussions among emergent bilingual first graders in a Spanish-medium dual language classroom. This analysis demonstrates that, contrary to previous research, the language used by students did not facilitate learning. Rather, it foreclosed the possibility of effective communication across languages. Findings suggest that peer linguistic mediation is influenced by multiple factors and cannot be taken for granted. Questions are raised about the ways in which emergent bilingual students are grouped and the skills they need to successfully mediate their peers’ learning. Implications from these findings go beyond dual language education to apply to mainstream classrooms with minority language speakers in them.

Demystifying Language Mixing: Spanglish in School

This article poses the question of how educators can put into practice the valorization of the vernacular and its use as a pedagogical resource. It provides a critical sociolinguistic orientation toward the use of Spanglish in schools. It gives a short descriptive overview of the linguistic features of Spanglish and responds to some of the misguided notions about language mixing. The article then looks at the use of Spanglish among young bilingual students doing an in-school reading activity and considers the ways that students' use of English, Spanish, and Spanglish might inform how educators see language use in the classroom. Finally, it considers the ramifications of embracing Spanglish as a social language, one that reflects and projects Latin@ borderland identity.

Examining Bilingual Children's Gender Ideologies through Critical Discourse Analysis

This article presents a case study of young bilingual students' discussionsof literature in a second-grade Spanish/English bilingual classroom in the US. Sociocultural, critical, and Chicana feminist perspectives informed an analysis of the ways the children worked at understanding, marking, and resisting gender boundaries. This critical discourse analysis helped reveal students' emergent gender ideologies and their awareness of gender inequities as they discussed the picture book Oliver Button Is a Sissy. Contrary to common assumptions that question young language minority children's ability to engage in critical discussions, the children's talk revealed sophisticated understandings of various gender issues in contemporary US society. The results of the study show how young bilingual children are developing and negotiating sometimes contradictory gender ideologies, and how the literacy events in primary classrooms can create a context where that negotiation can take place, while also supporting the development of children's academic and social identities.

Art and Literacy with Bilingual Children

In this article, the researcher incorporated art as a central venue for response to literature for young bilingual students (1st through 3rdgraders) in an urban school setting in a Latino community. Both art experiences (painting, molding clay, sketching) and discussion on the art in picture books facilitated interesting responses from children recently transitioned into English language classrooms. The children’s oral responses were categorized and special attention was given to the integration of cultural connections, links to family funds of knowledge, and critical discussions inspired by art generated in literature circles.

Exploring the Use of Animation Software with Young Bilingual Students Learning Science

This study investigates those practices associated with the design, creation, and revision of animated models that tell a science story. It reveals information about how animation software assists young bilingual children in science learning. The article argues that bilingual children benefit from the ability of animation software to displace and reassemble spatial and temporal relations in science (with the effect of shaping language). Evidence that animation software displaces and reassembles knowledge in science is exposed by 1) having accessibility to different worlds, 2) the capacity to manipulate science concepts, and 3) connecting structure and sequence to function. The study suggests that this type of visual displacement and reassembling is a starting point for the development of science discourse in English among bilingual children.