Navigating a Bilingual/biliterate Childhood: a Longitudinal Study of Three Second-generation Young Learners in the U.S.

Navigating a Bilingual/biliterate Childhood: a Longitudinal Study of Three Second-generation Young Learners in the U.S.
Author: Yeon Sun Ro
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

This qualitative ethnographic inquiry examines the longitudinal journey of three Asian-American young learners in becoming bilingual/biliterate. With a view of language and literacy acquisition and development as naturally interactive and culturally embedded processes of socialization, I longitudinally investigated three siblings0́9 bilingual and biliteracy acquisition and development in their natural daily setting for six years. I also explored the focal children0́9s situated and reformulated linguistic and cultural identities as second-generation Korean-Americans in the United States. This case study of three children growing up in one immigrant family attempts to capture the multi-layered and interwoven socio-cultural and educational experiences of early bilingual and biliteracy development. Three research questions were examined: 1. What were the language and literacy practices of these three second-generation children in the United States? What kinds of language and literacy events occurred in this family? What factors influenced the literacy practices of these young children in their daily lives? 2. What were the goals and beliefs of the focal participants, parents, educators, and community members about early bilingual/ biliteracy development? What processes did they implement to achieve their goals in daily practice? What were their difficulties and obstacles in achieving these goals? 3. How did the participants construct and negotiate their identities when learning the primary language of the society they lived in while maintaining their heritage language? Vygotsky0́9s (1978, 1986) social-constructivist theory explaining early learning and development as a socially collaborative procedure, and Wenger0́9s (1998) theory of communities of practice were used as the basis on which to investigate bilingual and biliteracy practices within and across diverse communities, including the home, school, church, playground, heritage language school, and neighborhood. These socio-cultural theoretical frameworks fit the nature of my inquiry because of their focus on socio-cultural influences and reflective discourses in early bilingual and biliteracy development as well as identity formation of early bilingual/biliterate learners within and across different social settings. Based on these theoretical frameworks, extensive qualitative data from multiple sources was collected in the following forms: in-depth interviews, participant observation, document review, and informal/narrative assessment that measured focal students0́9 bilingual and biliteracy development in two different socio-cultural contexts. In order to analyze various situational discourses; social and educational activities; and written artifacts and documents, I coded both oral and written data and looked for emerging themes. In each chapter, major characteristics and issues are explored, such as similarities and differences among all participants within one family context and across each individual characteristic in the course of acquiring and developing another language and literacy as second-generation immigrant children. The findings were generated from comparative, cross-case, and holistic analysis of multiple sources of descriptive and qualitative data (Yin, 1989). This study makes the daily practices of young second-generation bilingual/biliterate/ bicultural young learners visible as I look into their socio-cultural influences over the course of six years. Forming bicultural and bilingual/bliterate identites via daily heritage linguistic and cultural experiences, as well as maintaining linguistic and socio-cultural motivations, are vital. High-quality dual immersion programs including heritage language/cultural schools should be available to every young diverse learner. Continuous longitudinal research on those programs along with family literacy research for specific language and ethnic groups should be systemized for early multi-lingual/literate and multi-cultural education in the United States.

Handbook of Early Language Education

Handbook of Early Language Education
Author: Mila Schwartz
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 939
Release: 2022-03-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3030916626

This is the first international and interdisciplinary handbook to offer a comprehensive and an in-depth overview of findings from contemporary research, theory, and practice in early childhood language education in various parts of the world and with different populations. The contributions by leading scholars and practitioners are structured to give a survey of the topic, highlight its importance, and provide a critical stance. The book covers preschool ages, and looks at children belonging to diverse ethno-linguistic groups and experiencing different histories and pathways of their socio-linguistic and socio-cultural development and early education. The languages under the scope of this handbook are identified by the contributors as immigrant languages, indigenous, endangered, heritage, regional, minority, majority, and marginalized, as well as foreign and second languages, all of which are discussed in relation to early language education as the key concept of the handbook. In this volume, “early language education” will refer to any kind of setting, both formal and informal (e.g. nursery, kindergarten, early childhood education centers, complementary early schooling etc.) in which language learning within a context of children's sociolinguistic diversity takes place before elementary school.

Twenty-first Century Learning by Doing

Twenty-first Century Learning by Doing
Author: Judith Meloy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2012-12-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 946209098X

Qualitative research has emerged from a twentieth century ‘paradigm war’ at the doctoral level to become a significant and real opportunity for undergraduate, masters’, and doctoral students at colleges and universities around the world. ESL researchers, first generation college students, and individuals identifying themselves as “quants” are discovering the capacity of their own thinking as they learn about and simultaneously undertake qualitative research for their theses. This book is the result of a general query; it is composed almost entirely of the thoughts, concerns, and wisdom of sixty-nine current and recently defended doctoral students across the process of learning about and choosing to do qualitative research for the dissertation. The correspondents’ thinking serves as a thoughtful companion to the process of learning by doing. This book is not a “how to” book. Rather it is a series of candid, thoughtful and insightful reflections re-presented in a variety of formats, e.g. whole letters, “interviews”, etc. This is also not a book to read from beginning to end; readers can begin anywhere – with a particular correspondent, who is introduced at the beginning, or with a particular topic, using the tables of content or subject indices. Finally, this book is not a textbook providing readers with “correct answers” and “the” way to do things, although much of what the correspondents have to offer will keep learners new to qualitative research from having to ‘reinvent the wheel.’ Twenty-first Century Learning by Doing evidences the vulnerability and power of both the human heart and intellect as each grapples with complexities and ambiguities that epitomize the work learning and doing qualitative research is.

Becoming Biliterate

Becoming Biliterate
Author: Bertha Perez
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2003-10-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135620849

This book describes the development process and dynamics of change in the course of implementing a two-way bilingual immersion education program in two school communities. The focus is on the language and literacy learning of elementary-school students and on how it is influenced by parents, teachers, and policymakers. Pérez provides rich, highly detailed descriptions, both quantitative and qualitative, of the change process at the two schools involved, including student language and achievement data for five years of program implementation that were used to test the basic two-way bilingual theory, the specific school interventions, and the particular classroom instructional practices. The contribution of Becoming Biliterate: A Study of Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Education is to provide a comprehensive description of contextual and instructional factors that might help or hinder the attainment of successful literacy and student outcomes in both languages. The study has broad theoretical, policy, and practical instructional relevance for the many other U.S. school districts with large student populations of non-native speakers of English. This volume is highly relevant for researchers, teacher educators, and graduate students in bilingual and ESL education, language policy, linguistics, and language education, and as a text for master's- and doctoral-level classes in these areas.

Longitudinal Interactional Histories

Longitudinal Interactional Histories
Author: Amanda K. Kibler
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2018-10-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3319988158

This book explores the lives of five Mexican immigrant-origin youths in the United States, documenting their language and literacy journeys over an eight-year period from adolescence to young adulthood. In these qualitative case studies, the author uses a “longitudinal interactional histories approach” (LIHA) to explore literacy events in which the young people participated over time, telling the stories behind texts they created in order to better understand opportunities for bilingual and biliterate development available inside and outside of formal schooling. The book begins with an overview and exploration of theories and research underpinning the project, with a focus on countering minoritizing discourses faced by many multilingual immigrant youth and prioritizing the “goodness” of their experiences. The study’s methodology, including LIHA, is presented, before individual case studies of all five youth are explored. The book closes with a synthesis of these cases and exploration of pedagogical, policy, and research implications. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of education, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, as well as teachers and policy-makers working with bilingual and biliterate immigrant youth.

Words Were All We Had

Words Were All We Had
Author: Maria de la Ruz Reyes
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2015-04-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807770760

This engaging collection examines the personal narratives of a select group of well-respected educators who attained biliteracy when they were young students, and in the era before bilingual education. These autobiographical accounts celebrate and make visible a linguistic potential that has been largely ignored in schools—the inextricable and emotional ties that Latinos have to Spanish. The authors offer teachers important lessons about the individual potential of their Latino students. These stories of tenacity and resilience offer hope for a new generation of bilingual learners who are too often forced to choose between English and their native language.

Parental Language Learning Beliefs and Practices in Young Children's Second Language Acquisition and Bilingual Development

Parental Language Learning Beliefs and Practices in Young Children's Second Language Acquisition and Bilingual Development
Author: Lyn Scott
Publisher:
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

We know that young children acquire language through everyday interactions. But little is known empirically about the salience and influence of parents' beliefs and explicit strategies, relative to tacit language socialization, especially among parents who consider bilingual language development. This thesis digs deeply into three contrasting Mexican American households to observe the extent to which mothers articulate language goals and beliefs, and then act from them. Parents' beliefs about how languages are learned influence their young children's first and second language development by parents' management of family routines, daily activities, and language practices. Parents' language learning beliefs emerge from understandings they have of their past language experiences and their response to the current environment where their children are growing. Parents express their language learning beliefs in relationship to language practices that occur within the context of their family, community life, and their children's schools. The basic components of Language Policy Theory--beliefs, practices, and management--are useful when considering the importance of parents' influence over their children's first and second language learning, but language policy also must be theorized in the local contexts where children are growing and learning. Ecocultural Theory is useful in situating Language Policy Theory in the historical, cultural, and environmental context where bilingual parenting occurs in order to understand how parental language learning beliefs, coupled with family routines and daily activity choices, influence the language learning opportunities of young children. This thesis presents findings of case studies of three first-generation Mexican American mothers and their young children who participated in a twenty-four family ethnographic study of child-rearing practices in Mexican heritage families. From the twenty-four mothers in the initial study who were the primary care-givers for their pre-kindergarten age child, emic parental beliefs about language development, childhood bilingualism, and features of the local environment emerged. In response to the local context, the mothers consciously served as facilitators, teachers, or role models for their children's bilingual development through their explicit practices. In case studies, mothers expressed and exemplified variation in bilingual parenting intentions with one mother seeing herself as learning to be bilingual from her children, another mother learning to be bilingual with her children, and another mother explicitly teaching her children to be bilingual. Parental language learning beliefs, family language practices, and parents' management of children's daily activities have implications for children attaining the language learning goals which their parents have for them and also have implications for teachers of second language learners.

The Silent Experiences of Young Bilingual Learners

The Silent Experiences of Young Bilingual Learners
Author: Caroline Bligh
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2014-09-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9462097976

Many teachers are increasingly concerned with how to best support the learning of the rising numbers of bilingual learners in schools – particularly those children who are new to English and therefore cannot yet communicate with the teacher or their peers in their first language – during the silent period. This book offers an alternative insight to that which is most commonly available to teachers and researchers, as instead of examining language acquisition purely from a linguistic approach; it explores the learning that is occurring through a sociocultural lens and even more significantly, from the young child’s perspective – the worm’s eye view. Investigated through the experiences of young bilingual learners allows the reader to make sense of the making meaning that occurs when the child cannot make sense of his/her new ‘world’; nor communicate verbally in the language of instruction in the classroom. Remarkably, learning through the silent period is revealed as both complex and ‘messy’ as the bilingual child mediates his or her own learning through a synthesis of alternative learning pathways. The silent period is presented as a crucial time for learning; distributed through a synthesis of close observation, intense listening and most significantly copying the practices of others. Throughout the silent period the children are not only seen to be learning but also contributing to the classroom practices. The book not only initiates new understandings of second language learning, but also offers creative ideas on how to raise the achievement of children who are learning English as an additional language.