angela c reese

7/30/2019 Angela c Reese

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Language learning, identityand bilingualism in education

Creating meaningful realities . . .

Angela Creese, University of Birmingham


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Two educational contexts: looking at

bilingualism in English schools

Mainstream: Primary and Secondaryschools

Complementary schools


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Romantic Bilingualism?

in which young people are turned into reified speakers of community languages,

[and] in the process their ethnicities are alsoreified. (Leung et al, 1997:553).

Roxy Harris (2006:34) has described howyoung people in his research of mainly SouthAsian descent are often bashful and rueful intheir acknowledgements of their own deficientexpertise in their community practices

Harris suggests we must take account of thechilds agency and a sense of theirmultidimensionality as linguistic, cultural andsocial beings (Harris, 2006:33).


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Bilingualism, L1, community language and

EAL (Leung, 2006)

Concurrent L1 and L2 development (e.g. UK-based bilingual persons from linguistic minoritycommunity)

Sequential L1 (e.g. Punjabi or Polish) L2(English) bilingual development

Type A: L1 (home language/s, in UK) L2 (English)e.g. bilingual persons using home/communitylanguage in early years until primary school(bilingual-EAL), e.g. UK born person with Urdu orCantonese as home languageType B: L1 (another language/s, elsewhere) L2

(English in UK) e.g. 14-year-old new arrival fromSomalia (EAL-bilingual)

The term Bilingual Pupil is very imprecise and should beused with caution.


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Who is the EAL learner?

The term 1.5 generation or 1.5G refersto people who immigrate to a newcountry before their early teens. Theyearn the label the "1.5 generation"

because they bring with themcharacteristics from their home countrybut continue their assimilation andsocialization in the new country. Theiridentity is thus a combination of new and

old culture and tradition. (Wikipedia, thefree encyclopedia)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.5_generation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.5_generationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.5_generationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.5_generationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.5_generationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.5_generationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration


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1.5 generation

Quotation:We who sat huddled in that E.S.L. class grew upto represent the so-called 1.5 generation. Many ofus came to America in our teens, already rooted

in Korean ways and language. We often clashedwith the first generation, whose minimalcommand of English traps them in a time-warpedimmigrant ghetto, but we identified even less withthe second generation, who, with their Asian-American angst and anchorman English, struck us

as even more foreign than the rest of America.(http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/citations/15_generation_1/)
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/citations/15_generation_1/http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/citations/15_generation_1/http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/citations/15_generation_1/http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/citations/15_generation_1/


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Forever foreign?

ESL identity which works toreify, idealize, stereotype andimagine students pasts over theirpresent circumstances, denyingstudents the possibilities of morecomplex, hybrid, and shifting

affiliations and identities in favourof an enduring, exoticizednostalgia. (Talmy, 2004:150).


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Complementary school

(Interview at MH with 4 teenage girls)

I Um, do you use Gujarati in your mainstream schools?

S No.

S Yeah.

S Sometimes.I Right

S Umm, no.

S Yeah.

S No, cos I go to a Catholic school.

I And they dont use Gujarati?

S No, because theyre mostly, um, Christian so they dont.

I Yeah. Do youS But, I got a few friends who are Hindu so we speak Gujarati sometimes.

I Oh right. Are you allowed

S That is so lame.

I Are you allowed to speak Gujarati in the class?

S Yeah.

S Yeah.

I Oh right, right. How many of you dont use Gujarati at all,S In school?

I in school. Your main school.

S Yeah, I dont.

I You dont.


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S No.I You dont? Why dont you?

S Its because Ive got white friends and Sikh friends so, they dont understand what Imtalking about.

I Oh right, [indistinguishable]

S Its lame.

S And it is disrespect.

S And its lame.S Talk Gujarati when English people are around.

I Ah right.

S They think were [indistinguishable Freshies?] and that so.

I Youre what? Freshies?S Yes, from India.

S Not born here.

S That is true though.

S Yeah they think that.

S Theyre talking about them or something.

S Thats a true fact. That does happen.


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FOBs and Freshies: stigmatizing new

arrivals a new form of linguicism

Fresh off the boat is a noxious labelsignifying a recently-arrived,monumentally uncool, non-English

speaking rube of mythical, and for some,hilarious proportions (Talmy, 2004).

The notion of freshie is a term ofderision having a similar but more

pejorative meaning to country bumpkin.(Creese et al 2005)


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Linguicism

Linguicism is akin to the other negativeisms: racism, classism, sexism ageism.

Linguicism can be defined as ideologies

and structures which are used tolegitimate, effectuate and reproduce anunequal division of power and resources(both material and non-material) between

groups which are defined on the basis oflanguage (on the basis of their mothertongues).(Skunabb-Kangas 1988: 13)


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Identities can be

imposed

assumed

negotiable

(Pavlenko and Blackledge 2003)


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Roles for EAL practitioners: from the

data

A language aware pedagogy

An understanding of classrooms ascultural and linguistic ecologies


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Things to ponder: how the two teachers

similar and different in the way they interact?

Number of questions

Type of questions

Pedagogy used Ownership of the teaching task


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Analysis

Number of questions (8, 19)

Type of questions (closed and open,display and referential)

Pedagogy of transmission versuspedagogy of facilitation (telling thecurriculum, negotiating thecurriculum?)

Ownership of the task (I want youto vs, what you need to do is)


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Questions: The ST asks eight

questions

1. You done that?

2. Yes?

3. It is hot in summer and cold in winter?4. In the rainforest, it is?

5. Is it cold?

6. It is hot all the time, isnt it?

7. The temperatures are they hot or arethey cold?

8. OK?


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The EALT asks nineteen

questions.

1. The rainforests do or dont have seasons as weknow them?

2. What is a season, season?

3. Temperatures are cool or hot all year round?4. Of course we are talking of Brazil now, yes?

5. You remember where Brazil is?

6. How much rain is there every year in England, inLondon?

7. 8, 80, this is?

8. How much rain is there in Brazil?

9. Do you know?

10. How do you find out how much there is?


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The EALTs questions.

11. And what must you do to the rainfall?

12. What do you think you have to do to see howmuch there is for the whole year?

13. And what month is that?

14. So if you want to find out how much rain thereis every month, what do you have to do?

15. What is the word that we say?

16. If you were to take 340, 360, what would you bedoing?

17. What is that number, I mean symbol?

18. It is not times, it is?

19. OK?


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Commands/imperatives (directive

function (ST)

Join the dots to give a line graph.

Join. Join with crosses

Look at this and think.

Write it on the paper


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This is a bar

A rectangle is what we call a bar

These are what we call a bar graph

Seasons are winter and summer

Seasons equals winter, spring, summer, autumn Weather, yes it goes up and down. So its a season.

Winter, summer, spring.

We have our winter holidays, summer holidays. InEngland. In Turkey, it is hot in summer and cold inwinter.

26 degrees centigrade is hot, isnt it?

We dont need sweaters and it is hot in January,February, March, April, May, June, every month.

Every month it is high.

So we can say there is not seasons.

The rainforests dont, do not, do not have seasons.

Transmission

of subject Knowledge (referential function

)


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Use of Modals

What you must do now

You need the book

Now, can you tell me

Now, what you have to do is.

And what must you do to therainfall?

So you must add those numbers. What do you think you have to do

to see how much there is for thewhole year


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Classrooms as micro-ecologies

The classroom is a complex and activeecosystem comprising multipleparticipants (teachers and pupils), theirbeliefs, teaching/learning styles andhistories, institutional rules andmemories, local community and nationalpolicy influences. Skilful EAL teachinghas to navigate around and through these

constantly shifting influences to providethe optimal teaching, learning andsupport opportunities for EAL pupils.


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Bilingual EAL teacher, secondary

school

Well, I am glad you asked me thisquestion because I have been teachingnow for nearly 6 years, but it is the firsttime in my life that I am enjoying it so

much. Because, I don't know whether itis right, but this is how I can explain. Ifeel I am needed. And I can see theimprovement with my students as well. . .. I have a pastoral class, so it is the whole

issue. I know even their life stories, Iknow so much about my students. Iunderstand them, and of course Englishcomes into it. (A3)


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Bilingual primary school classroom

teacher

Because as soon as I start speakingit [Urdu) the children will start usingtheir own languages and for themto understand that it is alright tospeak another in the classroom toexpress yourself, its all about

setting a role model. (Bilingualprimary school teacher)


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Shamila and Saima (Sylheti/Bengali/

English)

Angela Do you feel like in school both of yourlanguages get stronger or is it really only one languagethat is getting stronger?

Shamila I think both languages are getting strongerbecause IIIspeak English and sometime home

language in school for about six hours and then I speakall day in Bengali with my Mum and Dad andsometimes English with my big brother and its like halfand half

Angela So both kind of equal Saima Yeah

Angela Or is one more Saima I think both of them are like equal they both go

in together and they mix up and you just get this stir oflike a pot yeah where youve got English and Bengalitogether

angela c reese

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