SANTILLANA USA - CAL Practitioner Brief

- 4 While the separation of program languages provides numerous benefits to students in dual language classrooms, strict and inflexible adher- ence to the practice has come under some crit- icism. Research indicates that emergent bilingual learners experience positive effects when provid- ed opportunities to compare and contrast their two languages (Dressler, Carlo, Snow, August, & White, 2011; Jiménez, García, & Pearson, 1996; Nagy, García, Durgunoglu, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993). Cross-linguistic comparison promotes the transfer of skills and contributes to the develop- ment of metalinguistic awareness, defined as the ability to identify, analyze, and manipulate linguis- tic forms (Koda & Zehler, 2008). In programs that uphold a strict separation of languages, however, opportunities to engage in cross-linguistic com- parison are limited. Therefore, practitioners have developed sys- tems for providing students strategic opportunities to engage in cross-linguistic comparison to pro- mote metalinguistic awareness. Most notable among these approaches are the practices of student-initiated bridging and the teacher-planned “Bridge” (Beeman & Urow, 2012). Teachers who adopt these approaches continue to deliver content instruction in a clearly designated language for the bulk of a unit, but they also build in targeted bridg- ing activities that encourage students to connect the content across the two program languages, compare and contrast linguistic features, and apply content recently learned in one language through engagement in enrichment activities in the other language. In this way, students are encouraged to access and leverage all their linguistic resources, re- gardless of the identified language of the lesson, and to explore and celebrate the special gifts they possess as emergent bilinguals. The insertion of structured opportunities for connecting the two program languages marks an important enhance- ment to the traditional practice of strict separation of languages. How are the professional development needs of dual language educators similar to and different from those of other teachers? In dual language classrooms, educators are respon- sible for teaching rigorous academic content in two languages to a diverse population of students. Fur- thermore, they need to engage emergent bilingual children in critical thinking and problem-solving approaches and practices that are not appropriate for early Spanish literacy development. Awareness of how teaching reading in Spanish is different from teaching reading in English is needed so that educa- tors can adequately assess the quality of commercial products. The same holds true for teachers using other partner languages. In conclusion, program success is depen- dent on the degree to which students receive high- quality instruction based on standards-based cur- ricula in the partner language as well as in English, with no watering down of the curriculum when it is delivered in the partner language. Ideally, curric- ulum in dual language programs follows thematic units and incorporates linguistically and culturally appropriate resources that develop both language and content knowledge as well as cross-cultural competence. What does the current research on dual language education say about the strict separation of languages? A long-held tenet of dual language education has been the strict separation of program languages (Howard, Sugarman, Christian, Lindholm-Leary, & Rogers, 2007). A policy of strict language sep- aration carves out space for language and literacy development in the partner language, provides am- ple opportunity to engage in extended discourse in that language, and serves to elevate the status of the partner language. The practice also encourages teachers to stick to the partner language and utilize sheltering strategies rather than translation to make input comprehensible, thus facilitating adoption of the important role of the teacher as language model. In dual language classrooms, students are more likely to use English during partner language instructional time than vice versa (Howard, Sugar- man, & Christian, 2003). To reinforce use of the partner language, teachers often employ a special signal or routine (e.g., put on a scarf or hat, lead a song, flip a sign) as a helpful reminder to young learners to use the partner language. Other strate- gies that encourage student use of the partner lan- guage include recasting (restating student respons- es in the target language), providing a word bank or sentence stems, choral rehearsal of desired vocab- ulary and grammatical structures, teaching children to assist peers by functioning as language models, and encouragement and positive reinforcement (Sugarman, 2012).