加拿大浸入式双语教育和香港EMI双语教育的比较

加拿大和香港的双语教育都有着悠久的历史.加拿大法语浸入式双语教育和香港EMI双语教育表面上有很大的相似度,然而,从本质上来看,两地的语言环境、双语师资、双语教育的类型以及第一语言和第二语言的相似度之间都有很大的差异.这些差异导致了两地双语教育的效果也大相径庭.通过对两地双语教育的分析比较,对我国大陆开展的双语教学是有借鉴作用的.     

Accessing Imagined Communities Through Multilingualism and Immersion Education

In this article I apply constructs of language as economic and symbolic capital, transnationalism, investment, and imagined community to an analysis of interviews with immigrant parents living in Vancouver, Canada. These parents promote multilingualism by maintaining their family language and enrolling their children in French Immersion programmes. I argue that they view multilingualism as capital and invest in language education as a means of securing their children's access to various imagined language communities. Referring both to a transnational perspective and a national context of official bilingualism, they imagine that French Immersion education will enable their children to participate in a Canadian French-English bilingual community while maintaining the family language will ensure affiliation with their heritage language communities in Canada and abroad. In addition, they imagine that multilingualism will equip their children with valuable language resources that help transcend national borders. This discussion highlights the overlap and distinctions of theoretical constructs and raises questions about the objectives of language education and immersion programmes in an increasingly mobile and multilingual society.     

少数民族双语教学中存在的问题及其对策——以东乡族为个案

作为有语言无文字民族的东乡族基础教育中的双语教学存在着教学用语不便、作为第二语言的汉语过渡困难、教学效率低下、双语师资缺乏等问题 ,其原因在于缺乏对此类双语教学的研究 ,缺乏对学生学习汉语的有效指导等。必须对此类无文字民族辅助性双语教学中汉语学习的必要性、时间、途径、方式方法以及民族语的作用等问题进行深刻的理论思考和研究 ,探讨出尽快掌握汉语 ,以提高其双语教学水平及基础教育质量的策略和模式。     

高校“浸润式”英汉双语教学模式探究

"浸润式"英汉双语教学是指在"以人为本"的教育思想指导下,教育者努力创设互动性、参与式的教学氛围,让学生"浸泡"在英汉双语环境里,潜移默化地提高学生英语应用能力的一种教学模式。通过双语教学资源的网络化、双语师资专业的复合化、双语教学方式的互动化以及双语课程建设的系列化等途径,使高校"浸润式"英汉双语教学模式能够得到顺利实施和构建。     

Instructional models for the acquisition of English as bridges into school science: effects on the science achievement of U.S. Hispanic English language learners

Science educators have suggested that, for minority and low-income students, gaps between home and school science cultures necessitate ‘border crossing’ for successful learning in science. Our analysis used National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000 and 2005 data to assess the impact of U.S. state-level policy regarding instructional models for language acquisition for the learning of science. Specifically, we assessed whether policy favouring structured English immersion led to better student outcomes than bilingual education among Hispanic English language learners in 4th and 8th grades in the U.S. We found significantly higher science achievement among 4th grade Hispanic ELLs in states with stronger bilingual emphasis in their policy, suggesting that policy support for bilingual education could provide a better bridge to span the cultural gap between home and school science, at least for younger students.     

新疆高校双语教学模式探究

美式结构浸入模式与加式法语浸入模式是国外双语教育中两种比较成功的模式。我国高校的、双语教学与关加浸入模式相比,尽管形式目的相同,但在实施阶段、教育（学）的对象、教育的本质目的、教育的结果等方面存在不同。因此,在借鉴美加浸入模式时,应当结合高校实际,设计适合我国高校特点的双语教学模式。     

Family resources and mid‐life level of education: a longitudinal study of the mediating influence of childhood parental involvement

This paper draws on the concept of parental involvement, popular among educators and policy‐makers, in investigating differences in level of attained education by family background. The question is if parental involvement in children's schooling at age 14 acts as a mediator between family resources and mid‐life level of attained education. Using structural equation modeling we analyze longitudinal survey and register data of a Swedish metropolitan cohort born in 1953 (n = 3300). Several of the commonly used indicators of involvement are investigated, distinguishing between parents' involvement beliefs, such as educational aspirations and agreement with school curriculum, and involvement practices, such as reading children's schoolbooks and helping with homework. We find that parents' educational aspirations are an important mediator between family resources and attained level of education, while other involvement forms are related to academic performance only. We also find that parental involvement is greater in families with more resources, which leads us to warn against developments turning more responsibility for children's schooling over to parents. Unless sensitive to the diverse family contexts this might increase the importance of family resources for children's educational outcomes.     

Parental entrepreneurship in public education: a social force or a policy problem?

Parental involvement in public education is an expression of joint responsibility between parents and the state in which parents are expected to comply with current educational policy. Moreover, parents are often perceived as reactive, whereas the educational administration is seen as proactive, mainly by reducing barriers and establishing mechanisms for parental involvement. Referring to proactive involvement in which parents practice noncompliance while fighting the system, this study conceptualizes ‘parental entrepreneurship.’ The practical aspects of parental entrepreneurship are analyzed based on three well-known manifestations: homeschooling, the integration of children with special needs, and parental cooperatives within early childhood education and care. Parental entrepreneurship further exemplifies the blurry boundaries between parents and administration as regards children’s education and demonstrates that the entrepreneurial role parents may play in reforming formal public education. Parental entrepreneurship also illuminates the ongoing renegotiation of the foundations of the social contract between parents and the government, primarily in relation to professionalism, legitimacy, and authority.     

Strangers in the School: Facilitators and Barriers Regarding Refugee Parental Involvement

Parental involvement has been deemed one of today’s most important topics in educational spheres. Refugee parents face many challenges upon resettling in the US, impacting their engagement in the US educational system. This study explores Muslim refugee parents’ experiences with schools and the facilitators and barriers for their engagement. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 Muslim refugee parents from Syria and Iraq who resettled to the US. Facilitators of parental involvement included a welcoming and inclusive environment cultivated by educators who shared racial and ethnic similarities to refugee families. Barriers to their involvement included a lack of English language proficiency and discrimination and xenophobia instigated against their children, which caused parents to develop a level of distrust in the school staff. A major resource for educators, mental health specialists, and other stakeholders, this research augments understanding of the experiences of Muslim refugee parents and sheds light on the challenges, needs, and vulnerabilities of this understudied population.

     

French immersion: Bilingual education and unilingual administration

By virtue of their organization, growth, and continued success, French immersion programs represent more than a second-language learning methodology; they are and ought to be recognized as programs of bilingual education. This means that their effectiveness ought to be measured by generally accepted criteria of educational effectiveness. These include, among other things, the degree of staff integration in the school culture and the quality of leadership provided by the school principal. But the majority of schools offering bilingual education programs are administered by unilingual or by theoretically bilingual administrators; this can deprive the French component of much needed leadership and create situations in which the level of ambiguity is high and the possibility of integration into the school culture is low. An effort to gradually ensure that bilingual education benefits from bilingual administration would be a step in the direction of recognizing the maturity of French immersion.     

“My Child,My Choice”? Mandatory Curriculum,Sex, and the Conscience of Parents

In this essay Lauren Bialystok argues that the standard liberal defense of parental opt‐outs is inconsistent in the case of comprehensive sex education. Using the recent controversy over a new sex education curriculum in Ontario, Canada, as a case study, Bialystok examines the aims and effects of sex education and the self‐described conscience of opposing parents to reveal that children's interests may be harmed by deferring to parents' views on sexuality. The opt‐out strategy is a merely formal solution, which appears to be indifferent to both the strength of the justification for sex education and the content of the grounds on which parents oppose it. Being overly respectful of parental conscience in the case of sex education risks reproducing the illiberal paradigms that the curriculum is intended to erode, and thus subverts its own liberal intentions. Bialystok concludes by suggesting ways of honoring parents' right to involvement in their children's education while delivering a mandatory curriculum.     

Parental involvement in educational activities in Tanzania: understanding motivational factors

ABSTRACT

In Tanzania, the education system focuses on schools and teachers as key educators of children, while little attention is paid to the home environment. This study examines motivational factors that may influence parental involvement at home and at school, using Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement as a theoretical framework. Participants were 580 parents of Grade 2 children attending primary schools in three districts of Dar Es Salaam. Parents were invited at school to complete a questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that parents’ expectations for children’s school success predicted home involvement, next to parents’ perceived time and energy, child invitations and parents’ self-efficacy. School involvement was predicted by perceived time and energy, and school and child invitations. In a mediation model role construction had an indirect effect on school involvement through child and school invitations and perceived time and energy. Implications for educational policy are discussed.     

Tools for talking: the purposeful and inventive use of languages by bilingual children in primary classrooms

This article is based on a number of observations of bilingual children in an East London primary school, and some work carried out for a doctoral study. The article explores children’s views and perspectives on their use of first and second languages at home and at school. The kernel of the investigation is that language use is dependent on purpose. Bilingual children’s use of their first and second language depends on which language best serves a particular function. Often children who speak two or more languages on a regular basis combine these to create a new language. Schools therefore need to review their language policies and practices in relation to their pupil intake, taking into account the contribution of bilingual experience to children’s overall linguistic development. Teachers also need to understand parents’ views on their children’s language and literacy education. These issues are of vital importance if schools are to provide an inclusive curriculum.     

Educational concerns of Arabic speaking migrants from Sudan and Iraq to Melbourne: Expectations on migrant parents in Australia

Families immigrating to Australia face many challenges integrating into the educational system, including language barriers and interrupted schooling. We have qualitatively evaluated the educational concerns of Arabic migrants from Sudan and Iraq to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, a city that receives a high percentage of Australia's immigrants. Using an interactive paradigm incorporating focus group discussions for thematic analysis, we concluded that the parents’ frame of reference for education was a more didactic style of learning. Parents viewed education as an essential part of the way forward for their children in Australia. However, it was stressful for them to try to cope with a new host nation's expectation of their involvement in their children's education while at the same time dealing with a language barrier. Professionals should look to empower parents with structural information about the key elements of the educational curriculum with minimal reliance on written technical language and match their expectations of parental involvement to the situation of the parents.     

New Discoveries From the Bilingual Brain and Mind Across the Life Span: Implications for Education

We discuss the fruits of educational neuroscience research from our laboratory and show how the typical maturational timing milestones in bilingual language acquisition provide educators with a tool for differentiating a bilingual child experiencing language and reading delay versus deviance. Further, early schooling in two languages simultaneously affords young bilingual children a reading advantage and may also ameliorate the negative effect of low socioeconomic status on literacy. Using powerful brain imaging technology, functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy, we provide a first-time look into the developing brains of bilingual as comapred to monolingual children. We show unequivocally that the age of first bilingual exposure is a vital predictor of bilingual language and reading mastery. Accounts that promote later dual language and reading instruction, or those that assert human brain development is unrelated to bilingual language mastery, are not supported by the present findings. We discuss the implications for education, teachers, and developmental brain sciences.     

How Moroccan mothers and fathers view child development and their role in their children's education

Despite the documented importance of parental engagement in early learning, little is known about how parents in the Middle East and North Africa understand child development. To inform the literature, a small-scale study involving four focus groups was conducted with parents of children aged six years and under living in Casablanca. The purpose of this study was to explore parents' understanding of and support for their children's early development. Results reveal that parents see a vital role for themselves in their children's upbringing as supporters and nurturers, but little role as teachers. Across different education and income levels, parents in this small-scale qualitative study believe that children's experiences in their first years of life do not affect their longer-term intellectual development or school success and see little value in early intellectual stimulation or formal preschool education. Our results suggest that parents need to understand their role as their child's first educators. Also, it is essential that parents are taught how to promote their children's early cognitive development without undermining their nurturing roles.     

加拿大“浸入式”双语教学对我国高等院校双语教学的启示

加拿大是世界上实施双语教学最早、效果最好、双语教育体制最完备的国家之一,也是世界上实行多元文化最早的国家。其"浸入式"英法双语教学模式取得了极大的成功,并推广至世界各地。目前我国高校广泛开展的双语教育具有随意性,缺乏计划性和连续性,我们应该在分析和借鉴加拿大双语教学模式的基础上,在双语师资、班型设置和立法保护方面对国内高校的双语教学加以完善。     

美国沉浸式教学及其对中国双语教学的启示

沉浸式是指用第二语言作为教学语言进行学科教学的一种双语教学模式。沉浸式教学始于加拿大,在美国取得了很大发展。近年来,中国各地纷纷掀起双语教学热潮。然而,我国的双语教学还刚起步,在师资、教材和教学方法等方面还存在不足。借鉴美国沉浸式教学方法,我国双语教学可以通过创设语言环境、制定教学常规、设计详尽的教学计划等措施,切实提高教学质量。     

汉语语境下的双语教学模式探讨

双语教学模式不仅能使学生掌握专门学科知识,也能有效提高学生的目的语语言能力。国际上较为流行的双语教学模式包括沉浸式、维持性和过渡型双语教学。全浸泡式教学模式更适合汉语语境下以英语为目的语的双语教学。在此模式下,也应积极利用汉语思维和母语的认知功能,以提高教学效果。     

Building and destroying students’ ‘academic identities’: the power of discourse in a two‐way immersion classroom

Two‐way immersion is a model for bilingual education designed to help language‐minority students develop additive bilingualism while at the same time offering language‐majority students a chance to learn a second language. There is a great deal of rhetoric around two‐way immersion that claims these programs aim to improve overall equity among diverse groups of learners. The article begins with a brief review of the available research on two‐way immersion education. Then, using Bakhtin’s concept of dialogue and Bourdieu’s and Gee’s ideas of discourse/Discourse, this article takes a close‐up look at the discourse patterns in one second‐grade two‐way immersion classroom in Northern California, with an eye to uncovering how the teacher deliberately attempts to expose students to ‘alternative’ discourses and to lead language‐minority students to construct positive identities as learners. The ultimate question the article attempts to address is whether and to what extent any classroom program can create lasting change in the larger society through exposing students to ‘alternatives’ to mainstream dominant discourses within the context of classroom norms and activities.