Winning the Battle,Losing the War: Bilingual Teachers and Post-Proposition 227

The implementation of Proposition 227 has created chaos, uncertainty, and a hostile environment for bilingual education teachers. This study describes the experiences of 20 bilingual education teachers in Southern California. In in-depth interviews, teachers speak out about the challenges, frustrations, fears, and the increasing animosity they face on a daily basis, and how they resist and contest the language enforcer role in various ways. Out of the chaos that has been created by Proposition 227, these bilingual teachers have emerged as the language civil rights activists of the new millennium.     

Teaching English language learner students in US mainstream schools: intersections of language,pedagogy, and power

This study explored to what extent two groups of mainstream teachers in the Midwestern region of the USA with differing degrees of English language learner‐specific university preparation reportedly engaged in practices that incorporated the native languages of English language learner students in instruction. The study further examined specific strategies reported by mainstream teachers in promoting native language use in instruction as well as challenges identified in implementing this practice. The study used a mixed‐method design that included analyses of survey data from a quantitative study (n = 227) and qualitative analyses of teacher discourse from course documents and open‐ended survey questions. Findings indicated that while both groups of teachers reportedly engaged in practices that promoted native language use in instruction to some extent, teachers with at least three courses of English language learner‐specific university preparation appeared to engage in these practices to a much greater extent than those without such preparation. This paper explores the implications of results from this study for teacher education programmes in the USA with the responsibility of preparing teachers effectively to serve growing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse student populations.     

Language,Educational Television and Young Children

Ninety‐one percent of 227 surveyed teachers of children up to seven years of age (including 101 teachers who monitored educational television series for the Project), in 17 local education authorities in England and Wales, claimed to use educational television broadcasts to assist them with children's language development. However, apart from the nursery teachers, they appeared to put emphasis on language skill acquisition rather than language development, reinforcing the language policy of the schools. Two thirds of the teachers stated that they were catering for children individually when using educational television, although class viewing was the normal practice. The usual method was to watch a programme continuously from beginning to end (even when a video recorder was used) and then to discuss it with the children and to give written work on letter formation, sentence formation, initial sounds, etc., often by filling in worksheets. The teachers were encouraged in this practice by the television series, as these promoted the learning of language and reading skills rather than language development. There was no evidence to suggest that general interest series were used to any extent to enhance language development, in spite of overwhelming agreement by the teachers that television stories, songs and poems were valuable in this respect. A change of attitude by teachers towards language and educational television is desirable, involving the examination of current practices, the analysis of the material presented by broadcasters and the relating of developmental factors to the medium     

The Interrelationship of Beliefs,Context, and Learning: The Case of a Teacher Reacting to Language Policy

In this article, I trace the complex ways that literacy and language policy are translated into classroom practice through the examination of a single telling case.1 I demonstrate that the role teachers play in the process can best be understood by considering a variety of factors which have been advanced in policy research to explain variations in policy implementation. These include the nature of the local school context, the beliefs and experience of the teacher, and ways in which the teacher might learn from the new policy context. I underscore these claims with empirical data related to a teacher's role in the enactment of Proposition 227-the California initiative designed to end bilingual education. The article presents select findings from a 11/2-year-long ethnographic study of a California district that allowed individual schools to develop their own Proposition 227 implementation plans. Through detailed examinations of the classroom literacy practice of a former bilingual teacher, this article illustrates how the individual qualities of a teacher played a significant role in the enactment of literacy practice.     

Maintaining the status quo—A response to Fred Wilson and John Wilson

This article concludes theInterchange debate on the author's own “A Possible ‘Orality’ for Science?” (Interchange, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 227–244). The author contrasts two movements in science education: Science for Scientists and Science for All. The author maintains that we need to review the language of science to the end of producing a more palatable school science curriculum for all of our pupils.     

Synergetic effects of phonological awareness,vocabulary, and word reading on bilingual children’s reading comprehension: A three-year study

Using comparable measures of first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English, this three-year longitudinal study examined the synergetic effects of phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading on reading comprehension development among 227 Hong Kong Chinese-English bilinguals from Grades 2-4. Structural equation growth modeling revealed that all three factors were significantly linked to one another and to initial reading comprehension for each language. Across languages, L1 Chinese vocabulary was directly linked to initial L2 English reading comprehension, while L1 Chinese phonological awareness was indirectly linked to initial L2 English reading comprehension via L2 English vocabulary and word reading. These findings underscore the synergetic effects of early phonological and lexical skills in determining early reading comprehension ability in both L1 and L2.     

Incoherent English Immersion and California Proposition 227

Although during the 1997–98 academic school year, only 25% of the English Language Learners (ELLs) in elementary schools throughout California were receiving some form of bilingual education, the ramifications of the passage of Proposition 227 in June of 1998 were multiple for the teachers, interns, and children involved. The legislative language of Proposition 227 was sufficiently vague and thus created other problems. The proposition was challenged in the California state court system as soon as the ballots were counted. This constitutional challenge further clouded an already murky situation. Districts were receiving little if any clarification from the California State Department of Education in regard to the time lines for implementation of the new law. The law, itself, spoke to specific changes and curriculum, but there was no money to create the new curricular approach, time to in-service teachers in the new methodology to be utilized, or a framework and time line for implementation of the mandated changes.Because of the wording that attempted to hold teachers and administrators personally liable to civil suit for noncompliance, many districts interpreted the new law as conservatively as possible to avoid such litigation. In other districts changes were made site by site as a response of the particular administrator. This type of erratic policy implementation across large district was very demoralizing for most bilingual teachers. It also confused the parent communities. It made no sense to the average person that if a child was at School A s/he could be receiving primary language instruction while a child at School B only a mile away and in the same school district could not even ask the teacher questions in his/her home language without being told, Only speak English at school.     

Is science itself the cause of ineffective science teaching?

In her article “A Possible ‘Orality’ for Science?” (Interchange, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 227–244), Rampal argues that science can be made more relevant to students if its language is reformed and replaced by one that contains elements drawn from oral cultures. There is some point to this policy proposal, but it fails to note that the dispassionate and impersonal prose of science has its own function in the on-going practice of science. The real task for the teacher should not be reforming the language of science but rather using oral culture to lead students in the excitement of scientific theories and the joys of scientific research, bringing them in the end to a mastery of the prose style that the scientific community has found serves well its goal of increasing our knowledge of laws of nature.     

The (Mis) Preparation of Teachers in the Proposition 227 Era: Humanizing Teacher Roles and Their Practice

Basic to the struggle for educational equity and academic achievement is the role of the teacher. Central to how a teacher's role is enacted is the preparation a teacher receives, largely defined by teacher certification standards and impacted by legislation such as Proposition 227. In California, where one of four students enrolling in school is an English language learner, and 90% of the teachers are monolingual English speakers, the preparation prospective teachers receive becomes glaringly critical. This article examines how the anti-immigrant legislation affects teacher (mis)preparation by forcing teachers to regress to passive roles emphasizing standards-driven, technical, one-size-fits-all approaches in addressing the complex educational needs of English language learners. A bilingual teacher educator shares her attempts to humanize the teacher's role by engaging her students in critical examinations of schooling and their role as teachers.     

One decade of environmental education research in Brazil: trajectories and trends in three national scientific conferences (ANPEd,ANPPAS and EPEA)

Abstract

This article discusses the scientific research work on environmental education presented during the last decade in three Brazilian conferences: the meetings of the National Association of Graduate Research on Education (Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Educação, ANPEd), the National Association of Graduate Research on Environment and Society (Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ambiente e Sociedade, ANPPAS), and the Environmental Education Research Meetings (Encontros de Pesquisa em Educação Ambiental, EPEA). It analyzes the authors, institutions, and regions whence the studies came from, as well as their main research subjects. Our findings indicate the prevalence of women in all academic degree segments; of PhD holders and candidates; of professors in public higher education institutions located in the Brazilian Southwest and South regions; and of environmental education in formal teaching as the main subject in all three conferences. Based on these results, we discuss how this body of research relates to the development of Brazilian academic and educational policies, and indicate some of the challenges involved in building a research tradition in this field, in close dialogue with the arduous political and pedagogical path of environmental education in Brazilian schools.     

The impact of school management practices on educational performance: Evidence from public schools in São Paulo

This study examines the causal impacts of a school management program on educational outcomes in São Paulo/Brazil, estimated with the use of a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. I conclude that specific management practices such as performance monitoring, targets setting and incentive schemes have significant positive impacts on 8th-graders' math scores, especially on low performance students. I was unable to obtain similar results for language. I further investigated whether these results were associated with student or staff selection and infrastructure investments or whether they were actually driven by changes to pedagogical and managerial practices. My findings suggest that the latter explanation is more plausible.     

Metaphor,Simile, Analogy and the Brain

Abstract

Fox argues that the poetic function of language fulfils the human need to symbolise. Metaphor, simile and analogy provide examples of the ways in which symbolic language can be used creatively. The neural representations of these processes therefore provide a means to determine the neurological basis of creative language. Neuro-imaging has demonstrated that while metaphor, simile and analogy activate some areas of the brain in common, they also each activate different areas. This suggests that creative language has had sufficient evolutionary importance to be processed within more than one neural system. Additionally, the neuro-imaging data suggest that symbolic language activates areas beyond the language centres and therefore is encoded using sensorimotor representations. Here we will discuss the neural representations of metaphor, simile and analogy, and will reflect on the neural systems which have evolved to support symbolic language and how this understanding might be used to help develop skill in creative language.     

Critical Chinese as an Additional Language education in Australia: A journey to voices,courage and hope

This article addresses key topics of Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) education and classroom pedagogical practices. It reports on a 3-year ethnographic study within Australian schools to discuss dialogic pedagogical practices and students’ aspirations. Based on Freire’s conceptualisation of conscientização and banking education, the purpose of this article is therefore to unpack a journey to voices, courage and hope of a cohort of socially, linguistically and economically disadvantaged students in Western Sydney, one of the most culturally diverse regions in the country. Their experiences, responses, dreams and understanding of CAL education in multicultural Australia were thus captured. Our data shows that critical CAL education might point to some avenues for the educational equity agenda. By arguing that emancipatory and critical practices could enhance students to achieve consciousness and collective self-transformation, we aim to make a contribution to the literature on CAL and languages education, which all too often isolates from broader issues in educational theory. The article also adds to the limited research that engages with CAL classroom data. Our critical approach to CAL education illuminates the intersections between language and social inclusion. Considering the worldwide growing upheaval and scepticism around CAL education, we call for writing inclusive languages education and related pedagogical practices into the social inclusion agenda in Australia and internationally, for the teaching and learning of all additional languages.     

语言·语文·语文教育

叶圣陶先生所说的"语文就是语言",已经包容了"语言文字"、"语言文章"、"语言文学"、"语言文化"的含义。语文教育既包含口头语言的学习,又包含书面语言的学习;既包含语言形式的掌握,又包含语言内容的理解;既包含语言系统和规则的学习,又包含言语行为的训练和言语作品的学习。语文教育就是关于祖国语言的教育。汉语是中华民族的通用语,也是绝大多数中国人的母语。中国语文课程教材要体现汉语言教育、母语教育的特点;中国语文教学应按照汉语言教育、母语教育的规律来进行。     

Influence of Organizing Strategies,Time, and Grade Point Averages on Retention Performance

Abstract

The relationships among retention performance, organizing strategy preference, and grade point average were assessed in 227 college students. Highly significant correlation coefficients suggest that the type of organizing strategy used in memorizing exerts a strong influence on the recall of paired associates over both short and long periods of time. Moreover, they seem to indicate that organizing strategy preference has promise as a predictor of grade point average.     

A comparison of Dabrowski's overexcitabilities by gender for American and Korean high school gifted students

The differences between US (Ohio) gifted and talented high school students and South Korean gifted and talented high school students on the Overexcitabilities Questionnaire II (OEQ II) were investigated. The OEQ II was administered to 227 Ohio identified gifted and talented high school students (M = 88, F = 139) and to 341 high school students from four specialized high schools (one for science, one for foreign language, and two for the arts) in Seoul, Korea (M = 117; F = 224). Multiple analysis of variance by gender and country revealed that Korean males and females scored higher in psychomotor OE and that US males and females scored higher in imaginational OE. No differences were found in intellectual OE, emotional OE, or sensual OE.     

Relationship between Language,Culture and Thought

It has long been realized that language is of great importance to culture and that the impact of culture upon a given language is indispensible.One claim about the relationship between language and culture is that the structure of a particular language influences the habitual thought of its speakers.Today,the claim is referred to as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis,which is composed of two versions.The strong version,also known as linguistic determinism,states that language patterns determine speaker's thinking.The weak version,also known as linguistic relativity,implies that language do really influence thought but doesn't determine it completely.This paper tries to give a brief introduction to the hypothesis,illustrate some experiments used to test the theory and state some arguments against the strong version of the hypothesis.Although the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis doesn't offer the most reasonable explanation of the nature of the relationship between language,culture and thought,it is still influential in the development of linguistic science.     

Deafness, language skills, and rehearsal: a model for the development of a memory strategy

We review a series of studies that evaluate the role of developing language skills as a prerequisite to spontaneous rehearsal use in deaf populations. We propose a theoretical model that summarizes the contribution of language skills by highlighting the interrelations among age, language proficiency, and automatized language skills. In an initial test of the model, an index of deaf children's language experience was found to be an almost complete mediator of strategy use. Increasing language proficiency, therefore, was implicated as a critical variable in predicting children's spontaneous rehearsal use, minimizing any direct contribution from age per se. In a more direct assessment of the link between general language proficiency and rehearsal use, pragmatic language skills (as measured by the Language Proficiency Profile: LPP-I) were found to be a nearly complete mediator of rehearsal use, with the remaining contributions of age and language experience being nonsignificant. Language proficiency, therefore, was identified as a strong and necessary prerequisite for rehearsal to be used spontaneously as a memory strategy. The additional hypothesis that the automatization of these general language skills, measured by a rapid automatized naming task (RAN), contributes to spontaneous rehearsal was also evaluated. Automatized language emerged as a partial mediator of the language proficiency → rehearsal use relation but additional language-processing variables were implicated. We discuss these findings as they relate to issues around the nature of language proficiency and the identification of those automatized language skills involved in rehearsal.