Multilingualism and Equity

Beyond the Effectiveness Paradigm:Exploring Inspirational Pedagogy for

Bilingual Students

Jim CumminsThe University of Toronto

 “Making Multilingualism Meaningful”

conference,

London Metropolitan University

 

Multilingualism as the Stairway to Heaven

Overview

Gabriel Budach question: What kinds of pedagogy are implied by the multilingual realities of schools and classrooms?

We have increasing evidence that bi/multilingualism represents an advantage for the individual, for families, and for societies, and yet we systematically ignore this potential in the kind of instruction we implement.

Driven by an OECD-inspired “effectiveness discourse”, we implement “lowest common denominator” transmission-oriented pedagogies within “English-only” zone classroom spaces. Not only does this pedagogical orientation fail to acknowledge multilingualism as an individual and societal resource, it constricts students’ identity options and operates to reinforce coercive relations of power.

The presentation will try to articulate some essential features of an empirically-based “inspirational pedagogy” for multilingual students. Inspirational pedagogy extends classroom instruction beyond transmission and social constructivist orientations into a transformative pedagogical orientation and creates classroom spaces where power is being generated between teachers and students.

Fundamental Principle

If you want immigrant and minority group students to emerge from schooling after 12 years as intelligent, imaginative, and linguistically talented, then treat them as intelligent, imaginative, and linguistically talented from the first day they arrive in school.

Rationale:This implies rejecting the fatalism associated with attribution of students’ underachievement to “SES” or “linguistic mismatch”. Instead, policy and practice should focus on the ways in which student identities are constructed (or constricted) in the curriculum and in the interactions and relationships going on in school. Extensive researach highlights the central role of these factors in students’ success or failure.

Conditions for Promoting Literacy Engagement among EAL Students

Literacy Attainment

↑Literacy Engagement

↑

Scaffold Meaning (input and

output)

Affirm identity

Extend language

↔ ↔↔Activate prior knowledge/Build background knowledge

Literacy Engagement

What Is It?

Amount and range of reading and writing; Use of effective strategies for deep understanding of text; Positive affect and identity investment in reading and writing;

Drawing on both the 1998 NAEP data from the United States and the results of the PISA study of reading achievement among 15-year olds in international contexts, Guthrie (2004, p. 5) notes that students

“…whose family background was characterized by low income and low education, but who were highly engaged readers, substantially outscored students who came from backgrounds with higher education and higher income, but who themselves were less engaged readers. Based on a massive sample, this finding suggests the stunning conclusion that engaged reading can overcome traditional barriers to reading achievement, including gender, parental education, and income.”

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC EXPERTISE

Teacher – Student Interactions

MaximumCognitiveEngagement

MaximumIdentityInvestment

Focus on Language

Awareness of language forms and uses

Critical analysis of language forms and uses

Focus on Meaning

Making input comprehensible

Developing critical literacy

Focus on Use

Using language to:

Generate new knowledge

Create literature and art

Act on social realities

The Bilingual Advantage Marian & Kaushanskaya (Psychonomic bulletin and Review, August 2009)

English-Mandarin and English-Spanish bilinguals who had learned both languages prior to schooling were compared to monolingual English speakers in how well they mastered words in an invented language that bore no resemblance to English, Spanish, or Mandarin. The bilingual participants “mastered nearly twice the number of words as the monolinguals” (ScienceDaily, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090519172157.htm)

Ellen Bialystok and colleagues (2006) in Toronto:Examined age of onset of dementia (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease) in a population of elderly people in seniors homes in Toronto;

For bilinguals/multilinguals the age of onset of dementia was 4 years later than for monolinguals;

Conclusion: Using 2+ languages is good for your brain

Nested Pedagogical Orientations

Nested Pedagogical Orientations

Transmission-oriented pedagogy is represented in the inner circle with the narrowest focus. The goal is to transmit information and skills articulated in the curriculum directly to students.

Social constructivist pedagogy, occupying the middle pedagogical space, incorporates the curriculum focus of transmitting information and skills but broadens it to include the development among students of higher-order thinking abilities based on teachers and students co-constructing knowledge and understanding.

Finally, transformative approaches to pedagogy broaden the focus still further by emphasizing the relevance not only of transmitting the curriculum and constructing knowledge but also of enabling students to gain insight into how knowledge intersects with social realities and power relations. The goal is to promote critical literacy among students

The Effectiveness Paradigm

The effectiveness paradigm focuses on transmitting curriculum content and ensuring that students meet universal, one-size-fits-all standards which are assess by standardized or state-developed tests;

The OECD PISA studies provide international comparisons of how well different countries are doing both for the general population and 1st and 2nd generation immigrants;

Typically, the recommended or mandated instructional approaches stay within a transmission orientation with occasional forays into social constructivism.

Monolingual (English-only zone) instructional approaches are assumed. Neither bilingual education nor bilingual instructional strategies within English-medium contexts are viewed as legitimate or feasible options.

PISA Data on First and Second Generation Migrant Student Achievement

Christensen & Segeritz, 2008, p. 16

From Research to Problematic Interpretation:Pathologizing the Home Language

PISA (Stanat & Christensen, 2006): In both mathematics and reading, first and second generation immigrant students who spoke their L1 at home were significantly behind their peers who spoke the school language at home. This suggested to the authors that insufficient opportunities to learn the school language may be a causal factor in students’ underachievement. “These large differences in performance suggest that students have insufficient opportunities to learn the language of instruction” (Christensen & Stanat, 2007, p. 3).

Esser (2006) went further and argued on the basis of PISA data that “the use of the native language in the family context has a (clearly) negative effect” (p. 64). He also argued that retention of the home language by immigrant children will reduce both motivation and success in learning the host country language (2006, p. 34).

Emerging Policy Framework for Educating Immigrant Children Based on OECD Data

A. Migration Policy Institute + Bertelsmann Stiftung

The Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration (2007)

B.Deborah Nusche: What Works in Migrant Education? A Review of Evidence and Policy Options.

OECD Education Working Papers #22 (2009)

From Problematic Interpretation to Pathologizing Migrant Students’ L1

The Transatlantic Task Force on Immigration and Integration (2007) articulated the policy implications of the PISA data and other research syntheses as follows:

The reports recommend that lawmakers focus on policies that bring children of immigrants into the education system by the age of three, immerse them in the language of their host countries, provide language support through both primary and secondary school within a clear framework, and afford more flexibility to move between academic and vocational education. (http://www.migrationinformation.org/transatlantic/)

The unspoken logic here is that total immersion of immigrant students at a very early age in the host country language will ensure cultural and linguistic assimilation and get rid of the “problem” of children’s home language.

No mention is made of bilingual education as a credible or legitimate option.

Critique: Home Use of a Language Other than the School Language is

Not a Cause of Underachievement

No relationship was found between home language use and achievement in the two countries where immigrant students were most successful (Australia and Canada);

Furthermore, the relationship disappeared for a large majority (10 out of 14) of OECD-member countries when socioeconomic status and other background variables were controlled (Stanat & Christensen, 2006, Table 3.5, pp. 200-202).

The disappearance of the relationship in a large majority of countries suggests that language spoken at home does not exert any independent effect on achievement but is rather a proxy for variables such as socioeconomic status and length of residence in the host country.

Misinterpretation of the Interdependence Hypothesis

Christensen & Stanat version (repeated verbatim by Nusche, 2009)“Traditionally, the ‘interdependence hypothesis’ dominated research on the effectiveness of language support. This hypothesis suggests that students will only be able to become proficient in a second language if they already have a good command of their first language. Although few people today maintain the strict version of this hypothesis, the assumption that first-language proficiency is a crucial prerequisite for second-language acquisition is still widespread. Moreover, the empirical support for this assumption is weak.” (2007, pp. 3-4)

Cummins version:“To the extent that instruction in Lx is effective in promoting proficiency in Lx, transfer of this proficiency to Ly will occur provided there is adequate exposure to Ly (either in school or environment) and adequate motivation to learn Ly.” (1981, p. 29)

Critique: Bilingual Education Has Demonstrated Its Legitimacy

as a Policy Option for Promoting Academic Success for Minority Group Students

“In summary, there is no indication that bilingual instruction impedes academic achievement in either the native language or English, whether for language-minority students, students receiving heritage language instruction, or those enrolled in French immersion programs.

Where differences were observed, on average they favored the students in a bilingual program. The meta-analytic results clearly suggest a positive effect for bilingual instruction that is moderate in size.”

(Francis, Lesaux, and August 2006, p. 397)

Critique: Bilingual Education Has Demonstrated Its Legitimacy

as a Policy Option for Promoting Academic Success for Minority Group Students

F. Genesee, K. Lindholm-Leary, W. Saunders, & D. Christian (Eds). Educating English Language Learners. (pp. 176-222). New York: Cambridge University Press.

“[T]here is strong convergent evidence that the educational success of ELLs [English language learners] is positively related to sustained instruction through the student’s first language. ... most long-term studies report that the longer the students stayed in the program, the more positive were the outcomes”. (Lindholm-Leary & Borsato, 2006, p. 201)

National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth (2006)

Findings on Transfer and Linguistic Interdependence (Dressler & Kamil)

In summary, all these studies provide evidence for the cross-language transfer of reading comprehension ability in bilinguals. This relationship holds (a) across typologically different languages ...; (b) for children in elementary, middle, and high school; (c) for learners of English as a foreign language and English as a second language; (d) over time; (e) from both first to second language and second to first language; (p. 222)

What is “Inspirational Pedagogy”

At its most intuitive level, it is the kind of instruction that you would like your own children to receive K-12;

It will involve school and literacy experiences that students are likely to remember throughout their lifetimes.

More specifically, inspirational pedagogy is characterized by: Classroom interactions that generate high levels of academic

engagement; Cognitive challenge supplemented by appropriate support to

enable students to succeed; Identity affirmation; Instruction that goes beyond just transmission of curriculum; Using language to (a) generate knowledge, (b) create literature

and art, and (c) act on social realities.

The Collaborative Creation of Power in One Classroom

Lisa Leoni: Year 1 – Grade 7/8 mainstream class; Year 2 – Grades 4-6 ESL;

Large Muslim student population from Pakistan;

Lisa explored implementation of bilingual instructional strategies as a way of enabling literacy engagement from a very early stage of students’ learning of English. In a “normal” classroom, it would be several years before newcomer students could engage in extended creative writing (in English).

Identity Negotiation in the Classroom

Lisa Leoni

The way I see it everything has to relate to the identity of the students; children have to see themselves in every aspect of their work at school.

My overarching goal as a teacher is to uncover all that is unknown to me about my students–linguistically and culturally, and especially to understand the community they are part of (their parents, their friends, their faith) and the list goes on. So when a student enters my class, I want to discover all that I can about that student as a learner and as a person.

For example, when Tomer entered my class last year, a lot of the work he produced was in Hebrew. Why? Because that is where his knowledge was encoded and I wanted to make sure that Tomer was an active member and participant in my class. It was also a way for me to gain insight into his level of literacy and oral language development.

Tomer’s Identity Text

Tomer’s Words and Tomer’s Theory

I think using your first language is so helpful because when you don’t understand something after you’ve just come here it is like beginning as a baby. You don’t know English and you need to learn it all from the beginning; but if you already have it in another language then it is easier, you can translate it, and you can do it in your language too, then it is easier to understand the second language.

The first time I couldn’t understand what she [Lisa] was saying except the word Hebrew, but I think it’s very smart that she said for us to do it in our language because we can’t just sit on our hands doing nothing.

Rejection of “Bottleneck Theory of English Language Acquisition” – the BTELA states that: English will be acquired more effectively when we (a) restrict the input to what learners can internalize through the narrow bottleneck that is their current level of proficiency in English and (b) limit their cognitive processes to what they can currently express through English.

Building on prior knowledge is a central aspect of learning – if students’ prior knowledge is encoded in L1, then L1 must become part of the instructional process;

Knowledge and skills transfer across languages – teachers should encourage and enable that transfer rather than restricting it;

Kanta’s Words and Kanta’s Theory

And how it helped me was when I came here in grade 4 the teachers didn’t know what I was capable of.

I was given a pack of crayons and a coloring book and told to get on coloring with it. And after I felt so bad about that--I’m capable of doing much more than just that. I have my own inner skills to show the world than just coloring and I felt that those skills of mine are important also. So when we started writing the book [The New Country], I could actually show the world that I am something instead of just coloring.

And that's how it helped me and it made me so proud of myself that I am actually capable of doing something, and here today [at the Ontario TESL conference] I am actually doing something. I’m not just a coloring person—I can show you that I am something.

Multiliteracies pedagogy constructs an image of the child as intelligent, imaginative, and linguistically talented; individual differences in these traits do not diminish the potential of each child to shine in specific ways.

Multiliteracies pedagogy acknowledges and builds on the cultural and linguistic capital (prior knowledge) of students and communities.

Multiliteracies pedagogy aims explicitly to promote cognitive engagement and identity investment on the part of students.

Conditions for Promoting Literacy Engagement among EAL Students

Literacy Attainment

↑Literacy Engagement

↑

Scaffold Meaning (input and

output)

Affirm identity

Extend language

↔ ↔↔Activate prior knowledge/Build background knowledge

PISA: Reading Engagement

Data on the reading attainment of 15-year olds in 27 countries showed that “the level of a student’s reading engagement is a better predictor of literacy performance than his or her socioeconomic background, indicating that cultivating a student’s interest in reading can help overcome home disadvantages” (OECD, 2004, p. 8).

The authors point out that “engagement in reading can be a consequence, as well as a cause, of higher reading skill, but the evidence suggests that these two factors are mutually reinforcing” (p. 8).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC EXPERTISE

Teacher – Student Interactions

MaximumCognitiveEngagement

MaximumIdentityInvestment

Focus on Language

Awareness of language forms and uses

Critical analysis of language forms and uses

Focus on Meaning

Making input comprehensible

Developing critical literacy

Focus on Use

Using language to:

Generate new knowledge

Create literature and art

Act on social realities

Culture Speaks(Russell Bishop & Mere Berryman, 2006)

“A large proportion of the teachers we interviewed took a position from which they explained Maori students’ lack of educational achievement in deficit terms [i.e., Maori students themselves and their homes]. This gave rise to low expectations of Maori students’ ability or a fatalistic attitude in the face of ‘the system’, creating a downward-spiralling, self-fulfilling prophecy of low Maori student achievement and failure.

In terms of agency, this is a helpless position to take, because it means that there is very little any individual teacher can do about the achievement of the Maori students in his or her classroom”. (p. 261)

“… Simply put, if the imagery held of Maori children (or indeed of any children) and the resulting interaction patterns stem from deficits and pathologies, then teachers’ principles and practices will reflect this, and the educational crisis for Maori students will be perpetuated”. (p. 263)

Culture Speaks(Russell Bishop & Mere Berryman, 2006)

Maori students, their families, and some educators adopted a different perspective, focusing on “relationships and interactions”.

“Those who take this position are putting forward explanations based on the power differentials and imbalances between the various participants in the relationships and focusing on how they can and must be managed better”. (p. 263)

“These narratives identify the various elements that make up and establish effective learning relationships for Maori students. They

involve the teacher creating a culturally appropriate and responsive learning context, where young people can engage in learning by bringing their prior cultural knowledge and experiences to classroom interactions, which legitimate these, instead of ignoring or rejecting them”. (pp. 264-265)

What Inspirational Pedagogy Might Look Like in a Late Primary Classroom

Consider the teaching of Social Studies in the later grades of primary school: let us suppose that we have students from Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Somalia, China, Korea, and Romania together with native English-speaking students.

On a world map, indicate with pins of different colours the number of students born in different countries (or the countries in which students’ parents were born); do various maths calculations (e.g., percentages) on these figures;

Have students carry out language surveys of what languages they know, how well they know these languages, and to whom they speak each language. Again, use as a basis for work across the curriculum (e.g., maths). Similar surveys can be given by students to their parents and even implemented across the school.

Write up a class report on the proportions of students in the class who speak different languages or who were born in different countries, using both decimals and fractions as well as pie charts, frequency graphs, and other forms of data representation that can be generated by spreadsheet programs.

What Inspirational Pedagogy Might Look Like in a Late Primary Classroom

Invite students, working individually or in groups, with parental support, to prepare a presentation (e.g. on a poster or PowerPoint or some other electronic medium) highlighting aspects of the history and culture of their countries of origin;

Students engage with sister classes in carrying out a project entitled Voices of Our Elders, in which they interview older people in their communities (e.g., grandparents) focusing on 3 questions: (a) What was your childhood and schooling like? (b) Why and how did you come to the UK, and (c) What have you learned in your life that you would like young people today to know?

Use Google Earth to “zoom in” on students’ countries of origin or on the cities in which they or their parents were born;

Discuss the languages students speak and the different orthographies of these languages (comparing, for example, Chinese, Korean, Tamil, and Roman scripts);

Have students write and web-publish poetry in multiple languages, starting from whichever language is most comfortable for them. Students can collaborate with each other and with community volunteers in translating poetry.

What Image of the Child Are We Sketching in Our Instruction?

What Kinds of Individual and Collective Identities Are We Sketching for Ourselves as Educators?

Capable of becoming bilingual and biliterate?

Capable of higher-order thinking and intellectual accomplishments?

Capable of creative and imaginative thinking?

Capable of creating literature and art?

Capable of generating new knowledge?

Capable of thinking about and finding solutions to social issues?

A School-Based Choice Template for Planning Literacy Instruction

Instructional Options Current RealitiesWhere Are We?

Vision for the FutureWhere Do We Want

To Be?

Getting it DoneHow Do We Get

There?

Content How do we adapt curriculum materials to link with students’ prior knowledge and cultural background (e.g. purchase dual language books) and also to promote critical thinking about texts and issues (e.g. whose perspectives are represented in a text)?

Cognition How can we modify instruction to evoke higher levels of literacy engagement and critical thinking?

Tools How can we use tools such as computers, digital cameras, camcorders, web pages, etc?

Assessment How can we complement mandated standardized assessments in order to present to students, parents, and administrators a more valid account of student progress? (e.g. a role for portfolio assessment?)

Language/CultureWhat messages are we giving students and parents about home language and culture? How can we enable students to use their L1 as a powerful tool for learning? Can we increase students’ identity investment by means of bilingual instructional strategies (teaching for transfer)?

Parental InvolvementHow can we engage parents as co-educators in such a way that their linguistic and cultural expertise is harnessed as fuel for their children’s academic progress?

Web and Book Resources

www.multiliteracies.ca (Multiliteracies project – check Michael Cranny school)

http://thornwood.peelschools.org/Dual (Dual Language Showcase)

http://www.curriculum.org/secretariat/archive.html (webcast on Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Ontario)

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/manyroots/(Many Roots, Many Voices)

Literacy, Technology and Diversity: Teaching for Success in Changing Times (Jim Cummins, Kristin Brown, and Dennis Sayers; Allyn & Bacon, 2007) (http://www.allynbaconmerrill.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=020538935X&rl=1)