DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 343 425 FL 020 154

AUTHOR Brisk, Maria Estella; And OthersTITLE The Many Voices of Bilingual Students in

Massachusetts.INSTITUTION Massachusetts State Dept. of EdUcation, Quincy.PUB DATE 91NOTE 55p.

PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Bilingual Students; Case Studies; Culture Conflict;

Elementary Secondary Education; English (SecondLanguage); *Immigrants; *Language of Instruction;Personal Narratives; *Student Adjustment; *StudentAttitudes; *Student Characteristics

IDENTIFIERS Massachusetts

ABSTRACTThe stories of 12 bilingual children in Massachusetts

public schools, aged 6-14 and born in 9 different countries, arepresented. The case studies were compiled through classroomobservation and interviews with the children, their teachers, andtheir parents, and were conducted both in the child's native languageand in English. The purpose was to understand bilingual childrenbetter. The case studies illustrate two major themes: (1) the valuethe children's families place on bilingualism; and (2) the importanceof using the native language in school to reduce the stress ofcross-cultural adjustment and enhance the school's ability tounderstand individual children. Two additional themes emerging arethe strong desire of all of the children to do well in school,regardless of socioeconomic background or parents' education, andtheir eagerness to make American friends. The cases are portraits ofindividual children, not school programs, but do reveal many ways inwhich school systems approach the challenge of educating non-nativeEnglish-speakers. Half of the children adjusted to school smoothly,and the other half had more difficulty. The study's recommendationsfor schools call for: reinforcing the value of bilingualism; carefulplanning for mainstreaming; innovative assessment; encouragement ofintercultural friendships; and establishment of a multiculturalschool environment. (MSE)

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EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCE NTE R (ERIC)

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AT .1.41 ,

IMASSACHUSETTS BOARD Or EDUCATION

Mr. James F. Crain, Gloucester, ChairpersonDr. Raquel Bauman, Holden, Vice Chairperson

Mr. John D. Cashman, MarbleheadMr. John J. Gould, Boston

Mr. William K. Irwin, Jr., WilmingtonDr. Anne S. Larkin, Bedford

Dr. Richard R. Rowe, BelmontMs. Theodora A. Sylvester, Springfield

Mrs. Frances M. Turner, South EgremontDr. Joan Wallace-Benjamin, BostonMr. Frederick A. Wang, Needham

Harold Reynolds, Jr., Commissioner of Education, Secretary to the Board of Education

Paul G. Marks, ex officio Board Member, Interim Chancellor, Board of Regents of Higher Education

The Division of School ProgramsElizabeth A. Twomey, Associate Commissioner

Carole Thomson, Executive Director

Written by

Maria Estela Brisk, Associate Professor, Bilingual Education, Boston University

Printed byThe Print House

Judy CasulliJody Day

In collaboration withEsther De JongGennadi Gorbatov

Wanda Muriel

Developed byBureau of Equity and Language Services (DEIS)

Gilman Hébert, DirectorDr. Virginia Vogel Zanger, Contributing Editor

StaffManuel Aguiar Lurline Murioz-BennettGretel Clark Ray NogueiraMargaret Davis Maryann O'BrienRose Diorio Jane ShermanMaureen Holliday, StaffAssistant Marylou Silva, Staff Assistant

James Keenan Barbara E. Sylv a, Educational Specialist ILarry Witty

!REIS FY11PUBLICATION SERIES

Technical and publishing arts servicesprovided by FLAR, Allston, MA

The Massachusetts Department of Educationinsures equal employmentleducational opportunities/affirmative action regard-

less of race. color, creed, national origin or sex, in compliance with Title IV and Title IX. or handicap, in compliance wi.h

Section 504.

Pub. # 16898 approved by State Purchasing Agent Ric Murphy. June 1991

THE

MANY VOICESOF

BILINGUAL STUDENTSIN

MASSACHUSETTS

BY

Maria Este la Brisk, Ph.DAssociate Professor, Bilingual Education

IN COLLABORATION WITH

Judy Casulli, Jody Day, Esther De Jong,Gennadi Gorbatov, and Wanda Muriel

Boston University, 1991

DEVELOPED BY

Bureau of Equity and Language ServicesGilman Hebert, Director

Dr. Virginia Vogel Zanger, Contributing Editor

Massachusetts Department of Education13F5 Hancock Street, Quincy, MA 02169

(617) 770-7545

This volume is dedicated to all thebilingual children in Massachusetts who, asillustrated in this monograph, are anexample of determination and cotwage.

CONTEITICS

ABSTRACT 4

FOREWORD 5

INTRODUCTION 7

CASE STUDIES 8

SECTION I: Educational Experiences ofBilingual Students in Massachusetts 9Transitional Vlingual Educafion (TBE) 9

Mai (Mary 9Mario 13

Integrated Bilingual Education 18Carlos 18Nilda 21

Two-Way Bilingual Program 24Miguel & Pedro 24

TBE Support for Mainstreamed Students 30The Russian Bilingual Program. Sergei 30The Japanese Program. Masa 33

Shimpei 37The Vietnamese Progranr Phong 41The Chinese Program. Lili 44

English as a Second Language Program (ESL) 47Omar 47

SECTION II: Let the Students Teach Us 50Recommendations 53

3f;

ABSTRACT

This study presents the stories oftwelve bilingual children in Massachusettspublic schools. Ranging in age from six tofourteen, they were born in Puerto Rico,Guatemala, El Salvador, Taiwan, the So-viet Union, Japan, Vietnam, Kuwait, andBoston. The case studies were compiledthrough classroom observations and inter-views with the children, their teachers, andtheir parents, conducted in the native lan-guage and in English. The purpose of thestudy is to better understand those chil-dren in our schools who are blessed withmore than one language.

The case studies presented here illu-minate two mqjor themes. One is the valuethe children's families place on bilingual-ism. The second is the importance of usingthe native language in school to reduce thestress of cross-cultural adjustment and toenhance the school's ability to understandindividual students. Another theme thatemerges is the strong desire of all the stu-dents to do well in school, regardless ofsocio-economic background or parents'education. Their eagerness to makeAmerican friends, a goal not easilyachieved, is yet another common theme.

Toe cases are portraits of individualchildren, not programs Yet the case stud-ies also reveal the many ways in whichschool systems adapt to the challenge ofeducating students whose first language isnot English, Mai, Mario, Carlos, Nilda,Miguel, and Pedro were enrolled in pro-grams which included substantial nativelanguage instruction as well as the teach-ing of English and teaching in English.Phong, Sergei, Masa, Shimpei, Lili, andOmar were mainstreamed, with support

4

provided by pull-out programs offeringTransitional Bilingual Education and ESLor ESL only. For the most part, the first sixchildren moved smoothly into schooling.The struggles of the last six to overcomestrong fears and frustrations were far moreevident. In iividual personality traits alsoplayed a role in the ways in which the chil-dren confronted schooling.

This study offers a picture of bilingualeducation as seen through the eyes oftwelve children. The reality is rather com-plex. The cases offer substantial evidencethat districts are concerned with the edu-aition of these children. However, an analy-sis of the experiences of these twelve stu-dents also suggests specific ways to improveexisting programs In the concluding sec-tion, the recommendations for schools in-clude:

ef Reinforcing the value of bilingualism

'W Careful planning for mainstreaming stu-dents

Innovative approaches to assessmentpractices, such as student portfolios, inrecognition of the complexity of secondlanguage literacy

Impkmentation of practices to encoura7efriendships between native Englishspeaking students and those from otherlanguage backgrounds

Moving toward the development of aschool culture in which English-speak-ing and bilingual students see them-selves as part of a bilingual, multi-cul-tural schooling experience.

I

FOREWORD

This study is the result of a collabora-tion agreement between myself andGilman Hébert, Director of the Bureau ofEquity and Language Services, begun in1990. Last year, I invited students enrolledin my course "Issues in Bilingualism" tolook with me at outstanding bilingualteachers and their role in the education ofchildren who speak languages other thanEnglish. This work was published by theBureau as The Many Voices of EducationFor Bilingual Students in Massachusetts.This year, we decided to look at the childrenthemselves. With the collaboration of Di-rectors ofBilingual Education, my studentswere put in contact with teachers, who inturn selected individual children. The stu-dents observed and interviewed the chil-dren. They also interviewed their teachers,parents and program directors. Most of thestudents were either native speakers or flu-ent in the language of the children beingobserved; if not, they worked in teamswhich included someone who was. A selec-tion of the case studies is included in thismonograph. They represent a variety oflanguages, programs, ages and extent of

5

time in school in Massachusetts.

The production of this study requiredthe work of many people: the childrenthemselves, teachers, parents and admin-istrators who generously gave of their timeto my students; all the students in thecourse in "Issues in Bilingualism," in par-ticular, Judy Casulli, Ann Rines, Jody Day,Wanda Muriel, Esther De Jong, AlejandraAjuria, Jie Gao, Gennadi Gorbatov, DebraBeckwith, Eiko Torii, Joy Turpie, MaryMatthews and Rachel McCormack, whosecase studies were finally included; JudyCasulli, Jody Day, Wanda Muriel, EstherDe Jong and Gennadi Gorbatov collabo-rated with me in the production of the finalmanuscript; Jie Gao, Julie Wrobel andEileen Lakey helped with typing the manu-script; and Dr. Virginia Vogel Zangerhelped in the editing and final productionof the manuscript.

To protect the privacy of the children,all names used for children, parents andteachers are not the real ones. For the samereason, we decided not to name schooLs orschool districts.

Maria Estela Brisk, June 1991

INTRODUCTION

Students from over 75 different lin-guistic and cultural backgrounds enterpublic schools in Massachusetts every year.Some school systems adapt in many waysto the challenge of educating these stu-dents. This study presents the stories oftwelve bilingual children ages 6 to 14 fromfrom a variety of countries in the world:Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, El Sal-vador, Taiwan, the Soviet Union, Japan,Vietnam and Kuwait. Eleven of them areenrolled in or have attended Bilingual Edu-cation programs. One of the students hasonly English as a Second Language (ESL)support.

The purpose of this study is to under-

tion, cultural values, and knowledge of En-glish prior to arrival, are among the manyfactors affecting their school performance.In addition, each type of program providesdifferent experiences. Some programsmake the transition to the American schoolmuch smoother than others.

This monograph contains two sec-tions. In the first section the students' sto-ries are presented. These are organized ac-cording to the type of program attended:self-contained Transtional Bilingual Edu-cation (TBE), Integrated Bilingual Educa-tion, Two-Way Bilingual Education andTBE Support for mainstreamed students.All of these programs include ESL instruc-

The purpose of thisstudy is tounderstand

bilingual students.

stand bilingual students. By presenting avariety ofindividuals of different ages, lan-guage and cultural backgrounds, we hopeto make educators aware that they are stu-dents like any others, with personalitiesand needs that any children would have. Inaddition, they face a stressful situationbrought about by being torn away fromtheir country and all that is familiar tothem, and also by being separated fromtheir families in some cases. Some fare bet-ter than others. Personality, level of educa-

7

tion. The last child study deals with a boywho went to a district that could only offerESL support because of the variety of lan-guages and low number of students fromany one language group in the school dis-trict. The second section discusses the im-portant issues and educational implicationsthat emerge from these stories. Some spe-cific recommendations are outlined, basedon the features that seemed to work n thedifferent types of programs.

9

CASE S1UDIES1

Transitional Mai/MaryBilingual MarioEducation (TBE)

Aft,

Vietnamese

Spanish

Integrated

TBE

Two-WayBilingual

TBESupport forMainstreamed

Students

ESL Only

Carlos

Nilda

Pedro

Miguel

Sergei

Masa

Shimpei

Phong

Lili

Omar

Spanish

Spanish

English/Spanish

Erglish/Spanish

Russian

Japanese

Japanese

Vietnamese

Mandarin

Arabic

8lu

5 (10)

2 (7)

5 (II)5 (11)

4 (9)

6 (11)

1 (6)

2 (7)

8 (14)

6 (12)

3 (9)

1 (6)

3 (8)

K (5)

5 (10)

3 (9)

N/A

N/A

1 (6)

1 (6)

5 (10)

5 (II)2 (8)

1 (6)

SECTION IEducational Experiences of

Bilingual Students in Massachusetts

Transitional Bilingual Education (ISE)

A self-contained TBE program is onethat provides all the instruction, includingEnglish as a Second Language, to studentsin the program. When students move to adistrict offering TEE, their language abil-ity is evaluated and a decision is made as towhether the student is eligible for TBE. Evenwhen eligible for TBE, parents have the op-tion to put the students in the mainstreamEnglish program. Usually the ME pro-gram is staffed with bilingual teachers andaides and ESL teachers. The students re-ceive content area instruction in the nativelanguage while they are introduced to En-glish. More and more English is added totheir curriculum as the students acquire thelanguage. Students in the TBE program

participate in the mainstream for classeswith specialists, such as art, music and gym,and for other general school activities. Oncethe students are proficient in English theyare mainstreamed. This mainstreamingcan be gradual or sudden. The decision tomainstream is based on testing and specificguidelines established by each school dis-trict.

Both Mai (or Mary) and Mario, thechildren in the case studies that follow, at-tended TBE programs. Mai, however,moved after the second year to another statethat only oflired some ESL support for bi-lingual students.

(thlanJ) ++++++44+4,444+:4+++++++++In July 1988, eight year old Mai

Nguyen and her mother arrived in Massa-chusetts from Vietnam to be reunited withher father, a businessman, who had immi-grated to the United States in 1981 and hadalready become an American citizen. Allother members of the Nguyen's extendedfamily remain in Vietnam

Following Mr. Nguyen's escape fromVietnam, Mrs. Nguyen and their daughterMai lived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerlySaigon) from 1981 to their departure in1988. Mrs. Nguyen worked occasionally,and when Mai turned six, she began publicschool. She attended three years of gradeschool in Vietnam. No formal school recordsaccompanied her to the United States. Mai

recalls the subjects as being about the sameas in American schools: reading, writing,math. She remembers spelling correctly asbeing important. She was a very good stu-dent and a class leader, which meant thatshe assisted the teacher in classroom re-sponsibilities.

Upon arrival in Massachusetts, shewas enrolled in the Transitional BilingualProgram for Vietnamese students in grade3. Mrs. Huong, the bilingual teacher, char-acterized Mai's Vietnamese language skillsas the best she has encountered in tenyears of teaching in the TBE program. Forthe first few months of the school year, Maireceived all her academic instruction inVietnamese; she also received some ESL in

91

atai. (11ary) ++++++++++++++++++++++++

basic communication skills, and beganworking on written English, using a processapproach. For the remainder of 1988-1989,Mai continued to receive most of her aca-demic subjects in Vietnamese but madeunusually rapid progress with oral English.Mrs. Hunt, the ESL teacher, noted thatMai's pronunciation was also extremelyclear. Teachers have stated that she soonwas regarded as the "class brain."

The Nguyen family speak Vietnameseexclusively at home although English lan-guage proficiency is a valued family goal.Shortly after Mai was enrolled in school,Mr. Nguyen scheduled a conference withthe bilingual and ESL teachers to inquirewhy Mai was not receiving more instruc-tion in English. Additionally, he wanted theschool and his daughter to use Mary in-stead of her Vietnamese name, Mai. Theteachers stated that she initially resistedthis change.

creative writing pieces, often working witha student partner. Mrs. Hunt characterizedher writing as an area in which herprogress was less rapid. Mrs. Hunt statedthat she seemed "to hold back... to do aminimum." In June, 1990, Mai scored inthe Fluent English Proficient range of theIDEA Oral Language Proficiency Test I(form B) and in the limited English profi-ciency level 2 range on the TBE Program'sWriting Skills Rating Scale (Grades 4-8 ).

Mai continued to speak Vietnameseto her classmates and to Mrs. Huong. Shespoke English to Mrs. Hunt and otherspeakers of English only. On the play-ground, she played with other Vietnamesechildren, as do most students in the TBEProgram.

Both teachers characterized Mai asbeing exceptional. Her urban, educationalbackground distinguished her from others

Mrs. Huong, the bilingual teacher,characterized Mai's Vietnamese languageskills as the best she has encountered in

ten years of teaching

During her second year in the pro-gram (1989-1990), Mai began to receive herlanguage arts instruction in English. Dur-ing the school year, Mai progressed in En-glish reading from level 6 (grade 1) throughlevel 9 (grade 3) achieving between 91%and 99% on the end of book testing. Mai'sphonetic skills often enabled her to decodetext beyond her comprehension. Mai con-tinued with the process approach in writ-ing. Working on a computer, Mai generated

10

in the class from rural villages, who oftenhad not attended school prior to their ar-rival in the United States. Also, Mai hadspent no time in a refugee camp. Her lit-eracy level in her mother tongue and the lit-eracy level of her home set her apart fromothers in the class, many of whom comefrom home environments where writtenlanguage is absent. Mai also received pa-rental assistance (from her father) on home-work assignments.

1 2

LAVAL 01.art0 ++++++++++++++++++++++++

The teachers noted that some of Mai'spersonality traits also differentiated herfrom other Vietnamese girls. Mrs. Huongfelt that these differenms were in part re-lated to her urban, educated backgroundand her individual family culture. Mrs.Huong and Mrs. Hunt speculated that theextended period (seven years) in which Maiwas separated from her father may havecontributed to her independence andoutspokeness. Both teachers characterizedher as "aggressive" and "competitive" com-pared to the other Vietnamese girls. Mrs.Hunt stated that Mai "wanted to shine,wanted to be liked, wanted to be in thespotlight." During the spring of Mai's sec-ond year in the program, the class put on aplay in English for the school. Mai playedthe lead role and enjoyed the experiencevery much.

After two years in Massachusetts thefamily moved to an area in New Hamp-shire where there were no speakers ofViet-namese or bilingual programs. Mr. Nguyenfeels that Mai is losing a lot of her skills inthe Vietnamese language. Mai and hermother felt more comfortable in Massachu-setts where there were Asian grocerystores, Vietnamese restaurants, andfrieilds with common background and lan-guage. In a letter to her bilingual and ESLteachers soon after she entered her NewHampshire school, Mai wrote: "I am theonly one here that looks like I am theonly one with black hair and black eyes."

Had Mai remained in the Massachu-setts school system for the next school year,Mrs. Hunt planned to mainstream her intoa grade 4 regular education classroom on apart-time basis in the mornings with con-tinued attendance in the bilingual class-room in the afternoons. Depending uponher performance, Mrs. Hunt would haveincreased her attendance in the regular

111 3

education program and may even have con-sidered moving her to a grade 5 program,which would have been more appropriateto her chronological age and educationalbackground.

Currently, Mai is a student in a gradefive regular education classroom in NewHampshire. All of her instruction is in En-glish. She is the only Vietnamese studentin her school. The only other students in theschool who speak or hear another languageat home are three Greek-American stu-dents. These students do not receive anyESL support.

Two to three times each week, Ms.Murphy,the ESL coordinator, works withMai in her classroom. They review weekly/daily assignments and discuss concepts inall academic areas that Mai or Mrs. Burns,the classroom teacher, feel need reinforce-ment or reteaching

When tested with the Language As-sessment Scale, Mai scored as limited En-glish proficient in reading and writingskills, as well as in listening and speakingskills. Grades on Mai's report card over twomarking periods range from satisfactory tooutstanding. Academic areas generally re-ceived grades of satisfactory. Mai's effort inthose subjects is noted as good or outstand-ing. Social development areas receivedgrades of satisfactory or good. Ms. Murphycharacterized Mai's English acquisitionsldlls as having reached a plateau: a com-mand of basic forms has been reached, butcomprehension beyond the literal level re-mains erratic depending upon vocabularyknowledge, awareness of figurative lan-guage, and appropriate background knowl-edge and concepts.

When asked where Mai fit in academi-cally in her classroom, Mrs. Burns reported

Ant (Aug)) ++++++++++++++++++++++++

that she "seems to be about average", "she'sdoing OK." On tests, Mrs. Burns has asense that Mai

... knows more than she shows. rm notalways sure if it's the way I asked thequestion...sometimes, she understands itwhen I rephrase it... or if she can't alwaysfind the words to tell me the infor-mation...it's hard for her to put it intowords." (Personal communication, Febru-ary,1991).

Mrs. Burns characterized her readingas on grade level except for some specificweaknesses in comprehension. Idioms andmeaningful phrases especially give Maitrouble.

the classroom.

According to one of her teachers, Maihas changed a lot since September:

It's been interesting to see her person-ality come out. She's not afraid to speak outnow... even to the boys...she's not shy. (Mrs.Murphy, personal communication, March,1991).

She often tells Mrs. Murphy that shewants to get "100%" and confided that shepromised her father that she would go toHarvard.

Lately, Mai has become reluctant to

Lately, Mai has becomereluctant to talk about her

backgrowid at school.

Mai reported that at first it was "sohard" to speak English, but that now (threeyears later) it is "easy to speak English allday long...." Mai stated that the hardestpart about school was "taking tests."

Ms. Murphy stated that earlier in theschool year Mai often said she was "stupid"or "ugly". Now, she hears statements likethese less frequently. Mai has started be-ing irMted and being allowed to participatein social functions with other girls outside

12

talk about her bacxground at school. For arecent writing assignment, she was encour-aged to write about her experiences andabout Vietnam, but she declined. Whenasked if she feels American or Vietnamese,she said, "don't know... I don't think aboutit." In New Hampshire, she speaks Viet-namese only at home, with her parents andher little sister. On weekends and for somespecial occasions, they travel back to Mas-sachusetts to visit friends or to shop.

1 4

Atarto ****************************Mario, a 7 year-old boy, came with his

mother to the United States from their na-tive Guatemala in 1988. They joinedMario's father in Massachusetts, where hehad arrived some months earlier to secureajob and a place to live.

In Guatemala, his father had a low-paying job in a shoe factory which providedlittle income for a family just starting out.They had no home of their own; they renteda small room most of the time but also spentshort periods oftime with relatives. Mario'smother recalls that many people lookeddown on them and treated them badly be-cause of their situation. When Mario was atoddler, the other children used to hit himand tease him. Even so, she says he was al-ways a very sociable, outgoing, open child.

According to Mario's mother, she andher husband decided to leave Guatemala"to have a better life, to be able to provideour children with better education." Shehad completed schooling through about theseventh grade and her husband had com-pleted little more. Mario's mother feels thatthings have gone quite well for them inMassachusetts. Her husband has had asteady job in a nail factory since his arrival.They are able to support their two childrenrather well (although Mario was an onlychild when they came to the U.S., he nowhas an 18 month-old sister). She anouncesproudly that they support themselves with-out the aid of welfare. While there are noplans in the immediate future to return toGuatemala, they think of perhaps doing soone day when their children are much olderand they are able to purchase a home there.

Mario began kindergarten less thantwo months after the family arrived in theU.S. . His mother recalls Mario as havingadjusted to his school environment veryquickly. Having never been to a school be-fore, he was very excited and lovedi right

13

from the start. He came home most daysfull of excitement and stories about his newschool. Mario attended a bilingual kinder-garten class. He knew no English at all be-fore entering school. He and his classmateswere pulled out for ESL instruction, half ofthe class at a time, on a daily basis. Mario'skindergarten teacher, Mrs. Velez, remem-bers Mario very vividly. Both she and heraide recaP his immaturity as compared toother children in the class. He often criedfor the most seemingly minor reason, andhe did not know how to share with otherchildren. The teacher attributed thislargely to his mother's overprotective rela-tionship with him. For example, she recallsthat well into the school year, his motherwould still bring him in and unbutton hisjacket for him and tell the teacher his ltmchchoice. Despite his immaturity, Mario al-ways interacted a great deal with the otherchildren. "He was always aware of every-thing that was going on around him " Mrs.Velez remembers that Mario arrived withno skills (such as how to hold a pencil) andhe did not know his last name or his firstname

Mario's bilingual program was similarin the first grade. He received pull-out ESLinstruction with other children in the classevery day. The first grade teacher also re-calls him as being immature, "emotionallybehind". On the other hand, he exhibited agood knowledge of Spanish vocabulary,though he was behind many others inlearning to read and write. Mathematicswas difficult for him because he had a hardtime concentrating. By the end of the yearMario had made considerable progress inEnglish speaking ability. He could separatethe two languages very effectively, eventhough many of his peers mixed Spanishand English a great deal.

Mario is currently in a bilingual sec-ond grade classroom. He is one of six (out of

13

akuto *************************1014

25) students who receive all of their lan-guage arts instruction from 8:30 a.m..unti111:00 a.m. in English with a Chap-ter I (ESL) teacher. The six students joinapproximately six others from two othernon-bilingual classr000ms and go to a smallroom for this instruction. His teacher, Mrs.Molina, selected students for this optionbased on the fact that they were alreadyreading fairly well in Spanish, and theywere already speaking fairly good English.

Once Mario and the others returnfrom instruction with the Chapter I

thusiasfic and participative of students. Inhis English class, Mario was observed to bedaring in his use of English, in fact more sothan children who were more proficientthan he in the language. He seemethxmfi-dent, was often the first to respond to aquestion and would use whatever vocabu-lary he had to construct a response, a sen-tence or a question. For example, the fol-lowing exchange was recorded as theteacher introduced the book, DoctorDeSoto:

Teacher: Today we're going to start a

Mario uses primarily Spanish with hisSpanish-speaking peers even as

"asides" during English instruction classand English with his English-onlyspeaking peers and teachers.

teacher, they spend the rest of the day inMrs. Molina's class. This time includeslunch; math; spelling or an additional Span-ish language arts activity; and either socialstudies or science instruction. These sub-jects are carried out primarily in Spanish,although English is sometimes used, de-pending on themes and materials available.

Mario uses primarily Spanish with hisSpanish-speaking peers even as "asides"during English instruction class - - and En-glish with his English-only speaking peersand teachers. In both English and Spanishinstruction, Mario is among the most en-

14

new book

Mario: I know, about a dentist!

Teacher: How did you know?

Mario: Because I saw it over there.

Teacher: Okay, what does a dentistdo?

Mario: He gets out teeth. (March19, 1991)

In his English class, Mario often par-ticipates in discussions or answer questionsby "cueing in" to a familiar sounding partof a word, and providing an answer based

1 6

Ando *****************te.**********on that sound. For example, on one occa-sion, when the teacher mentioned Hawaii,Mario yelled out, "Hawaiian punch!" He didthis frequently in his English class. Eachtime he did it, he laughed, almost as if itwere a game, but also as if he had theslightest hope hejust might be right.

&cording to Mario's mother, he enjoysusing English at home playfully, but heuses both Spanish and English. She saidshe does not sense any rejection of Spanishon his part. At times he enjoys teachingEnglish to his parents, both of whom speakfar less English than does Mario. Hismother said, "Sometimes he speaks En-glish so fast and then he can't explain itto us. He says, "Ay, no se como explicarme(Ay, I don't know how to explain myself).Sometimes I feel badly about that." Shegave another example of when she askshim if he has any homework. "Sometimeshe says, 'No tengo tarea, solo homework' (`Idon't have homework [in Spanish], onlyhomework' [in English]). When Mario wasasked what language he speaks most athome, he responded "Spanish." Whenasked why, he said, "Mil siempre mehablan espaiiol." ("They always speak tome in Spanish at home").

Mathematics is Mario's strongest areaof academic performance in second grade.He is very quick and more able than manychildren in class to concentrate and solvemore abstract problems; however, theteacher thinks he could perform even bet-ter if he were less immature. Mario's high-est grades (B's) are in math.

His comprehension appears to bequite good when he reads in Spanish. How-ever, his writing in Spanish is quite poor,particularly in relation to his reading abil-ity; he leaves words and sentences unfin-ished, leaves out verbs, and writes thingsthat don't make sense in Spanish. Because

15

Mario receives his languagt As instruc-tion in English, he doesn't have the oppor-tunity to write in Spanish every day. Whenhe does, it is usually for a social studies ac-tivity.

As far as his reading abilities in En-glish, Mario is able to decode fairly well. Heis anxious to read aloud (alone or to theclass) and often volunteers to do so. How-ever, his comprehension when reading inEnglish is not up to par with his compre-hension in reading Spanish. For example,Mario's English teacher had the childrenreread a story which had been read the daybefore. Mario read it aloud softly to himself.The teacher then gave the students aworksheet which called for filling vocabu-lary words into a sentence where theymade sense. Mario read the worksheetaloud to himself, concentrating very in-tensely, and then went to work. When theclass went over them as a group, Mario sawthat each of his answers was wrong, and helooked angry with himself and discouraged.

Mr. Ferraro, the Chapter I teacher,finds that Mario has a hard time gettinghimself to write in English. He too seesMario as immature and unable to concen-trate for very long. But he has also seenMario struggling to write. Mr. Ferraro saysthat he understands what is spoken anddiscussed in class, but he is "just not thereyet" as far as writing goes. Mario often cor-rects others teachers as well as peers. Heoften calls his English teacher's attentionto a period left off in a sentence written onthe board, a letter written illegibly, or to thefact that he has passed his place in the book.

Mario is an enthusiastic, outgoing andhappy child. He is almost constantly seenchatting with the children sitting next tohim, getting up to tell something to anotherchild on the other side of the room, or gig-gling about something. This behavior is not

1 7

aktrio

appreciated by his teachers, and when heis gently reprimanded, he complies. Hisability to socialize is so important to Mariothat his first grade teacher feels he wouldbe a different child today had he not beenable to do so in his native language at sucha young age.

As was seen earlier, the main charac-teristic Mario's teachers attributed to himwas "immaturity". Through the patientwork of his second grade bilingual teacherhe has matured a great deal. Mario has de-veloped more self-discipline and is more se-rious about carrying out his work now.

minimal amount of critical reading.

He seems to view himself as a bilin-gual individual and to value that qualityand see it as an advantage. When askedwhat he thinks about children and adultswho speak Spanish and English, the follow-ing conversation ensued in Spanish:

Mario: It's good to speak Spanish.

Researcher: Do you think you speak goodSpanish?

M: (laughs) Yeah.

R: Do you think you speak good

He seems to view himself as a bilingualindividual and to value that quality and

see it as an advantage.

.11111

Mario says there is nothing aboutschool which he does not like this year. Hereally looks forward to computer, art andgym classes. He particularly likes math,and he sees it as his best subject: "Porquees muy dificil hacerlo, pero lo entiendo"("Because it is very hard, but I understandit.") He says he also likes reading. Whenasked if he prefers to read in Spanish orEnglish, he doesn't hesitate; "Espanol.Porque en ingles es muy dificil...laspalabras." ("Spanish. Because in English itis too hard...the words.") Ma o has veryhigh standards of achievement for himself,and he succeeds most in math, a subjectwhich, at the second grade level, involves a

16

M:

R:

M:

R:

M:

R:

I s

English?

Yeah.

When you grow up and youhave children, do you thinkyou will teach them Spanishor English?

Both

Why?

It's better to speak Englishand Spanish.

When they went to school,would you put them in a bilin-gual program or an English-

Amin ****************************

M:

R:

M:

R:

only program?

Bilingual.

If you could be in an English-only classroom, would you likethat?

No.

Why not?

M: Because it's nice to speakSpanish. (April 4, 1991).

Mario says he would like to keepstudying for a long time and go to college.When he is older, he might like to "work inan office... sign papers, know all ofeveryone's numbers ... to be able to helpthem out." (Mario, personal communica-tion, April 4, 1991).

Integrated Byingual Education

Integrated Bilingual Education pro-grams connect existing bilingual and main-stream classes and teachers, preserving bi-lingual education for students in the Tran-sitional Bilingual Education program(TBE). During the course of a day, studentsare integrated in different ways. Mixedgroups of TBE and mainstream studentsare formed Ar some content area classes andclasses with specialists, such as music, com-puter and art. Other integrated groups con-sist of TBE and mainstreamed Spanishspeaking students for the purpose of receiv-ing instruction in Spanish. At other times,TBE students are grouped by themselves forinstruction in a content area in Spanish, orfor concentrated ESL. Field trips, play-ground activities, lunch, holiday celebra-tions, and after school sports are all orga-

Carlos ++,++++++++++,/

It was snowing for the first time of theyear. Carlos stood by the window andwatched the snow collect on the outside sill.The window was open just a crack. Carlosstood by the window hoping to catch somesnow blowing in. Carlos asked, " 4Maestra,puedo tocarlor ("Teacher, can I touch it?")He already had a handful before an answercould be given. As Carlos watched the snowmelt in his hand, there was an expressionof excitement, wonder and joy on his face.

Carlos is 11 years old and up until No-vember, he had lived on a farm in El Salva-dor where his family owned a house andraised cows and chickens. They also pickedanona, a juicy tropical fruit, off the treesand sold it at the market. "In my town,"Carlos tells, "there are dirt roads. The only

nized for the entire cluster to be together. Theschedule is organized to offer all subjects toall students. The ME students take somecourses in Spanish only, some in Englishonly, and some that are taught bilingually.The mainstream students take coursestaught in English as well as some that aretaught bilingually. Spanish-speaking stu-dents in the mainstream can take courses inSpanish as well. Carlos, a TBE student,and Nilda, a mainstreamed Spanish-speak-ing student, are both members of an inte-grated 5th gra& cluster. This cluster has 50students working with a bilingual teacher,a mainstream teacher and Chapter 1teacher. In this particular elementaryschool, each Chapter 1 teacher is paired withtwo classroom teachers.

paved road is the road that leads in and outof town." He also says that there are morecows than cars in the street.

Carlos likes El Salvador. He says thatit's a nice place to live except for the war.He describes how soldiers barge intohouses, give orders, and kill anyone whodoesn't listen. With four sons eligible to bedrafted into the civil war, Carlos' parentsdecided to leave El Salvador. The parentsand oldest brothers came to Massachu-setts, where they had relatives. Both par-ents worked to save money to bring the restof the family over. The mother returned toEl Salvador this past N. -omber to bringthe rest of her family, including Carlos, tothe United States.

18 20

Carlos Hsi"14+++4+14%eu. isi-44+614++++++++++v+'

In El Salvador, Carlos completed thefourth grade, where he studied the samebasic subjects that he studies here, exceptfor art, music, and computer class. Carloslikes school here. He thinks that it is greatthat students don't have to pay for water.He was surprised to see so many "free" wa-ter fountains in school. He says that he alsoenjoys hot lunches here. Other details thathave impressed him are the use of scissorsin the classroom, free paper and pencils and

doesn't have many books at home, but soonhe will have a library card so he can borrowbooks from the town library. Carlos' favor-ite pastime in school is using the computer.He had never seen a computer in El Salva-dor. He enjoys playing math games andtyping creative writing stories on the com-puter.

Carlos enjoys being with students andteachers who speak English and Spanish.

Carlos likes school here. He thinks thatit is great that students don't have

to pay for water.

the me of books. Carlos is also impressedthat his American teachers write up testson paper, and that they duplicate enoughcopies for everyone. He wishes that stu-dents in El Salvador could have the samesupplies found in public schools in the U.S.

Carlos is adjusting well to school inthe U.S. He has made the honor roll twice.He received B's in math, language, reading,science, spelling and writing, and in all ofthese subjects he has received A's for his ef-fort. He also received A's for his conduct andwork habi ts. When Carlos was asked if hisbrothers and sisters also receive goodgrades, he said yes. Both of Carlos' parentsencourage their children to succeed aca-demically. Carlos often asks his brother,who is in high school, to help him with hishomework. Carlos also likes to read athome. He brings his language book homewith him so he can read stories. His family

19

He takes reading, language arts and socialstudies in Spanish. Math is taught bilin-gually; science sometimes bilingually, L1OMPtimes in English; ESL and specialists, suchas music, gym, in English.

Social studies is Carlos' favorite class.He enjoys learning about history and aboutpeople from all over the world. When he firstfound out that he would be moving to theU.S. he was very excited because he was cu-rious about how other people lived. Sincesocial studies is taught in Spanish, he isable to fully participate in class. Ms. Hill, thebilingual teacher, says he loves to memorizedates and names of historical events. Healso likes to voice his opinions. When askedsome reasons why the colonistswere rebel-ling against British rule, Carlos answeredthat since the reason the colonists came tothe U.S. was for freedom, why should theylisten to a king who was denying their free-

21

Carlos

dom?

When Carlos first arrived, he was al-ways asking for reassurance. In math, hewould complete a problem and then ask theteacher or student teacher ifit was correct.According to the bilingual teacher, he hasthe potential to be an excellent student butthere are gaps in his basic skills. His Span-ish grammar, punctuation and spellingneed to be improved but the teacher at-tributes this to the different school curricu-lum in El Salvador and not to Carlos' apti-tude.

Ms. Hill sees Carlos as a very self mo-tivated child. He is very happy to be in the

they are saying. Since he doesn't under-stand everything, he works with proficientbilinguals who translate lectures. In thisprogram, students are also given the oppor-tunity to do science in both languages. Forexample, when studying the skeletal sys-tem, they were allowed to learn the namesof the bones in either Spanish or English.They are also free to take the test in eitherlanguage. Carlos ended up taking the finalin English and scored a perfect grade.Sometimes, however, he tires of Englishand tunes out.

Recently, while playing an ESL game,Carlos surprised himself at the amount ofvocabulary that he really knew. The ESL

-AM*

Carlos enjoys being with students andteachers who speak English and Spanish.

U.S. and very eager to do well in school. Inmath and language class, his desk is withina cluster in the front of the room. He worksindependently and rarely talks with hiscluster members unless it is to confirm as-signments or homework. He is quite meticu-lous about his things and doesn't like itwhen other students sit at his desk. He dis-likes art class because the top of his deskgets very dirty.

In ESL and science class, Carlos ismore dependent on his classmates becausehe needs help translating English intoSpanish. Carlos says he enjoys having sci-ence with teachers who don't speak Span-ish. He says that he likes to guess at what

20

teacher took the students outside and ex-plained that on their way to the park, theyhad to name objects that began with par-ticular letters. Carlos loved this game Hewas shouting tree, apartment, car, bird,brick and more. When he couldn't think ofan object, he would shout out expressionsthat he often hears in school. For example:"forget it," "be quiet" c -"hold on."

The monolingual English teachersalso see Carlos as a very eager and enthu-siastic child. When a board needs to bewashed or paper needs to be distributed, heis the first to volunteer. These teachers seehim as a child who is excited about being inthe U.S. and in school. Ms. Ross, the mono-

2 2

Carlos ++++++14+++++++++14++++++++44+

lingual teacher, says that on a scale of 1-10, Carlos is a 10. She feels that his enthu-siasm as well as his exposure to the inte-grated classroom model has helped him todo well. Ms. Ross says that Carlos beganusing English with her the very first day.She says that sometimes he surprises her.For example, one day recently she askedthe class as a whole, "Where is Julian?"Carlos responded, "He's absent" before anyofthe English proficient students could an-swer. He also wrote a sympathy card to thelibrarian, who had just lost her father. Inthe card he wrote, "I sorry your father die."He did this without asking for help.

Sometimes he is afraid to speak En-glish, but being surrounded by other stu-dents who are also learning the languagehelps. His closest friends are other new ar-rivals. During inside recess he plays with aboy from Costa Rica and a boy from El Sal-

vador, or whoever is sitting at the com-puter. During outside recess, he plays witha group of girls and sometimes plays withthe quieter boys. Although Carlos has beenin the U.S. for only 6 months, he is a happychild who is adjusting well to his academicand social environment in the school.

All his teachers agree that Carlos hasadjusted more rapidly than other new ar-rivals. They believe that his excitementabout school and being in this integratedprogram has facilitated his adjustment.Some of Carlos' success can be attributedto his personality. Ms. Hill says that Carlosputs great pressure on himself because hewants to be recognized. She also feels thatthe integrated model has provided a securemulticultural environment where hedoesn't feel different, because he is withothers who were new arrivals just a shorttime ago.

NI& *******************************

Nilda came to Massachusetts fromPuerto Rico when she was nine years old.She had completed second grade at a pub-lic school on the island, yet she was notcompletely literate in Spanish, her nativelanguage. Nilda and her mother, Rosa, mi-grated to Massachusetts in search of bet-ter educational opportunities. Upon ar-rival, Rosa enrolled in an English as a Sec-ond Language program at a local commu-nity college, while Nilda entered thirdgrade in a Transitional Bilingual Educa-tion program.

The mother and daughter moved to aneighborhood where the daytime schoolbuses were replaced at night by the luxurycars of drug dealers. Because they had nei-

21

ther family nor friends, Rosa and Nilda feltisolated and scared. They decided to moveto a three-story, six-family apartmentbuilding in a residential section of a smallertown, where there was a larger PuertoRican population, and where bilingual pro-grams would continue to be available toNilda.

Nilda was tested in third grade, in theTBE program. According to comprehensivetests of basic skills in English, she scoredbelow the national average. However, inmathematics she scored 20 percent higherthan the average. Her computational skillswere assessed at the 7.5 grade level. Inmathematical concepts and applications,where more knowledge of English is re-

WI& *******************************

quired, she scored at a 1.7 grade level. Inan assessment of her Spanish vocabularyand comprehension skills, she scoredslightly above grade level. In the fourthgrade, a similar test was administered toher in Spanish. Once again, she scoredslightly above grade level.

Upon entering fifth grade, Nilda wasmainstreamed, but within the IntegratedCluster. In the Integrated program, shetekes math and social studies in English.Scifince is taught by all three teachers, sosometimes her science class is in English,sometimes it is taught bilingually. Al-though Nilda is mainstreamed, as a mem-ber of the Integrated Cluster she receivesinstruction in Spanish reading and lan-g o age arts. This continues the develop-ment of her native language skills A ma-

teachers say that she needs to develop herEnglish reading, writing, and speakingskills and her Spanish writing skills. Shestal has some fear of speaking in English.At times, her lack of confidence in express-ing herself hinders her class participation.In all of her classes, Nilda works hard tocomplete her work, but she does not ac-tively participate in the class unless calledupon by the teacher. In math class, Nildaworks diligently and often enjoys assistingthose students who are having difficulty.However, on one occasion when she waspaired with a monolingual student to solvesome word problems together, she did notcommunicate at all with her partner, whotried to solve the problems on her own.Nilda gave no input. She then decided thatshe wanted to work with two other PuertoRican students, and she left the monolin-

A major concern of Nilda's mother is thatshe not lose her Spanish.

jor concern of Nilda's mother is that she notlose her Spanish. The mother says: "Aquiviven muchos hispanos y despues que sabeningles matan el espatiol... Empiezan a decirque si el 'roof!): la 'Awoke (Many Hispanicscome here and after they learn English theymurder Spanish, saying the `roofo' or the

Nilda's language skills are not all ongrade level. According to her teachers, sheis at fifth grade level in Spanish and atabout third grade level in English. Her

22

gual student to work by herself. Nilda thenworked productively with the Puerto Ricanstudents.

At the beginning of the school year,Nilda did not socialize with many of theother students. She associated only withher best friend, Marfa, another main-streamed Puerto Rican student. Even inSpanish reading and language arts class,Nilda usually sits apart from the group andconverses only with Maria. The teacher of-ten separates them so that they can inter-

wick *******************************

act with the other students in the class.However, as the school year progressed,Nilda associated more and more with theother students in the duster, in particularwith three other Spanish-speakers. And fi-nally, during a class camping trip, she wasable to relate freely with all students.

Nilda is a very shy person. Her teach-ers sense that she needs to develop her so-cial skills. By involving her in a cross-ageproject where she tutors a first grader inreading every Friday and a second graderin math every Thursday, her social skillsare developing and her reading and mathskills are reinforced. More importantly,during the cross-age projects, she is in con-trol of the situation. For example, with herlanguage teacher's assistance, she finds abook in the school library which is appro-priate for her first grade tutee. She has in-

troduced her tutee to such genres as fairytales and poetry. She reads to her slowlyand carefully, pointing to every word thatshe reads. When she completes reading thestory, she usually asks the child if she en-joyed the story, or she asks her readingcomprehension questions. Then Nilda in-vites her to play games on the computer orto draw and color. This interaction withyounger students seems to have helpedNilda come out of her shell.

Already, she finds that being bilingualis useful and necessary. Her bilingualismis put to use when she serves as hermother's interpreter and as her teacher.Nilda helps her mother pronounce Englishwords, and her mother helps her pronounceSpanish. These experiences have made herfeel good about being bilingual.

23 P5

Two-Way Bilingual Program

Miguel and Pedru attend a Two-WayBilingual school which goes from kinder-garden through pude seven, with an eighthgrade planned for next year. The goal of theprogram is that all students in the schoollearn Spanish and English. There are 384students, 60% of whom come from Spanish-speaking backgrounds.

The school has two classes for eachgrade level, with one teacher and one aide.The mgiority of the staff is bilingual, includ-ing the principal. Classes are taught in bothlanguages, with a greater proportion of En-glish used for math and social studies in-struction, and about an equal proportion ofboth languages used for science. The use ofEnglish increases in the upper grudes. Lan-

guage arts in Spanish and in English aretaken by all students. Thus, Spanish as aSecond Language is offered for all the na-tive English-speakers. In the lower grades,students are grouped for language arts ac-cording to language dominance, and in thelater grades they are grouped according toprofwiency. For other subjects, studentslearn in their homeroom groups, which arefully integruted Teachers use hands-on in-structional techniques and cooperativelearning methods to facilitate learning.

The goal of the school is to offer a fullacademic program using two languages, sothat all students achieve bilingual profi-ciency, regardless of their mother tongue.

Miguel & PedroAt 8:30 on Monday and Friday morn-

ings, Miguel and Pedro leave their house togo pick up their friends, Andy and Robert,for school. Their mother has gone to workOn their way, they often pass a 30 foot mu-ral painted on a garage. Its colorful slogansdeclare 'Latino Powet. and We will do whatwe have to do to survive'; the mural also fea-tures a large portrait of Malcolm X. Thisarea, with its triples decker housing, isknown for drug dealers and gangs.

Miguel and Pedro are the only twochildren of the Rodriguez family. Mivel iseleven years old, and Pedro is nine. Theyare third generation: their grandparentscame from Puerto Rico in 1952 to settle inNew York with the grandmother's sister.They had just married and were seventeenand eighteen years old when they migrated.TEe grandfather became politically in-

24

volved with the Hispanic community inNew York. The grandmother became ahomemaker, taking care of their eight chil-dren. The family did not return to PuertoRico; the grandfather said he "just wantedto make a life here in the United States withhis kids."

After the grandmother suffered a se-vere illness, religion started to play a cen-tral role in the family's life. They becameactive members of a Pentecostal church.The grandfather decided to become a min-ister and accepted a job in Massachusettsat the Church of God in 1970. Miguel andPedro's mother was thirteen at the time.She graduated from high school and gotmarried. Five years ago she was divorced,and she now works at a housing project ser-vice, where she does intake interviews andtranslates for Spanish speakers.

Pt3

Mtgud & Tedm

In Miguel and Pedro's family, religionalso plays a central role. Their mother regu-larly points out how it has helped her dealwith the problems that face her as a singleparent. They go to the Pentecostal churchthree evenings a week. At church, services,songs, and Bible study are conducted inSpanish. Miguel and Pedro are members ofthe church choir.

The two brothers are very close.Miguel often serves as role model for Pedro.For example, according to his mother,Miguel will:

...go down to his books before he willturn on the TV or the Nintendo game, and ..Pedro used to just come run and turn the TVon, he couldn't miss his cartoons or playNintendo. Now..he doesn't do that. Nowthey both go into their room and so he fin-ishes all his homework. (March, 1991)

pendent on each other.

Miguel and Pedro's mother's attitudestowards languages seem to reflect what herparents taught her. She says her father,"wanted us [his children] always to domi-nate the English language. He had hisframe of mind: you get your Spanish athome" (March 6, 1991). According to hisphilosophy, command ofEnglish came first,but Spanish was not to be forgotten. Hewould tell his children: "Never forget thatyou are a Spanish person, [but] alwaysdominate the language where you live...."His daughter remembers, "That was hisgoal for us" (March 6, 1991).

The same attitude is expressed byMiguel and Pedro's mother. She empha-sizes that the cultural enrichment that theschool provides is something she never had

Miguel and Pedro's mother... emphasizesthat the cultineal enrichment that the

school provides is something she neverhad and cannot give.

Miguel's role as exemplary olderbrother is revealed in a number of ways.When Miguel talked about a good fifthgrade teacher, Pedro immediately re-sponded that he wanted her too. Miguel isgoing to an elite high school next year andhopefully on to college, and Pedro claimsthat he wants to follow in his brother's foot-steps. In general, whenever you see Miguel,you see Pedro; they are very close and de-

25

and cannot give. She adds that commandof Spanish can be useful in the future whenher children go out looking for ajob or wantto be active in the Hispanic community. Sheis proud of the fact that her sons are profi-cient in both languages:

My other sister's two kids, they don'teven know what you say to them in Span-ish. At least my kids understand and they

P 7

. .

atiguel, & Pedro

understand what the question is. They willrespond in English but they know what theyare talking about in Spanish. ...they can in-terpret. (March 6, 1991)

Pedro, however, has refused to re-spond in Spanish from the very beginning.His mother did not mind it but his grand-mother did. She has little knowledge ofEn-glish, and would call her daughter to findout what was going on, because Pedro re-fused to talk Spanish. She would ask herdaughter, "What are you teaching this kid,he doesn't even know how to speak Span-ish!", and Pedro's mother would answerthat she tried, but that "if he doesn't wantto respond I can't help that". On the otherhand, when Pedro compares himself withstudents who are not fluent in English, heconsiders himself 'better': he can under-stand two languages, whereas they can not.

Their only close friends outside school areEnglish-speaking, and so are their cousins.They talk English to their friends at churchas well, although the songs, the service, andBible study are conducted in Spanish.Miguel comments on the reason why theytalk English and not Spanish: "Cause theyall understand English; right off the batthey don't start speaking Spanish, theystart to speak English" (February 26,1991).

With their grandmother, they mostlyspeak English as well, unless it is abso-lutely necessary to use Spanish. In otherwords, English is used most of the time,whereas Spanish is used only when theyreally have to.

Miguel and Pedro have been in the

The boys' environment ispredominantly English

except for church activities.

Miguel is more open-minded, and didnot show this kind of a resistance to Span-ish. When asked about his feelings aboutSpanish, Miguel responded: "I like it [Span-ish], but I don't use it all the time. It's justanother language" (February 26, 1991).While Pedro is reluctant to speak Spanishat school, Miguel will use it whenever nec-essary. For example, when someone ap-proaches him in Spanish, he will fluentlyrespond in that language.

The boys' environment is predomi-nantly English except for church activities.

26

two-way bilingual school since kindergar-ten. Their attendance at the school was ini-tially based on the fact that the school wasnearby. Over the years additional reasonsfor staying at the school have come up. Astheir mother remarks:

The kids are learning much more, theactivities at the school... the culture thatthey learn.., it's so good to them... it's some-thing that I can't teach them because mybackground as I was not born and raised inPuerto Rico... and they getting a feel of whatI didn't get... how it really is, how they livein Puerto Rico, what their music is, what

4711,iguel, & Pedro ..-.----)>,,.....):..--):........);.-)0..-

their food is, what they're, you know... awhole culture. (March 6, 1991)

Pedro is presently in fourth grade. Hetook Spanish reading in both first and sec-ond grade, and in second grade social stud-ies also had units in Spanish. In thirdgrade, Pedro remarked, all subjects (exceptSpanish reading) were taught in English,but the teacher would switch to Spanishwhenever necessary. Now he is in fourthgrade, and there is an increase in the use ofSpanish. He has math in Spanish most ofthe time, and on 'Spanish days' social stud-ies is in Spanish as well, after Spanish read-ing.

When Pedro arrives in school in themorning, he enters his classroom, and histeacher greets him in English. His class-room is divided into two parts: a corner withprojects in the back of the room, and a partwith all the desks. The desks are groupedin four groups of six tables. The upper por-tion of one of the walls is lined with postersof discipline-related mottos, illustrated bydrawings of multiracial groups of children.The sayings, as well as and most other ma-terials, are in English (e.g. `Runnning inschool is far from coor depicts a white boyrunning and a black child looking at him insurprise). There is one board decoratedwith Martin Luther King quotations inSpanish and English: `A man with a dream/un hombre con un suefio'. In the class Pedrosits at one of the back tables, his friend Rob-ert at one of the front desks. They are inclass with 22 other students, 14 of whomare Hispanic.

Pedro appears to be an impulsive boywho actively participates in class, but he isalso sometimes easily distracted. He is veryoutgoing and seems to know everybody inthe school. The latter becomes clear when

27

you talk to him he knows everybody fromfirst up to seventh grade, including teach-ers, aides, and their stories. Pedro's motherused to get amments from teachers thatPedro was too sociable, that he talked toomuch. This year, after Pedro came homewith a Ilf for conduct, his mother made itclear to him that being social was not thepurpose of his E ing to school. She told him,"You can do whatever you want, you don'tfollow no one, you don't listen to no one,justlisten to the teacher, that's what you go toschool for" (March 6, 1991).

Pedro's impulsiveness shows itself inthe way he approaches assignments. Hetries to solve math problems without care-fully checking the several steps that mightbe necessary. For example, the teacher hadher class working on math problems insmall groups. The assignment consisted ofsteps that had to be followed in order to getthe right answer. Pedro impulsively startedcounting and exchanging the woodenblocks, without realizing that he had over-looked some of the steps. Also, when work-ing on his computer during computer class,he tends to run through a particular lessonand just memorize the right answer. Hethen runs it again and answers without re-ally reading the questions again.

In general Pedro offers his opinionsand answers to teacher's questions readilyand easily in English class. His overall pro-ficiency in English is good, and he is in thehighest reading group (he has a B averagefor English). His oral skills are enhanced byhis outgoing nature. Whenever the teacherasks questions about a text or a book thatthe class just read, most of the time Pedrois one of the pupils with his hand up. Also,when the class discusses topics, Pedro isone of the first to provide the teacher withhis viewpoint.

P 9

Mtgud & Pedro )0.-)p.--)0,-):--)>-)0..-.);..--);--,1-0.--

In Spanish class, Pedro's attention isless focused and he does not participate asmuch as in the classes in English. He ismore interested in what his classmates aredoing and other distractions, such as get-ting up to sharpen his pencil and the like.His Spanish is grammatically not alwayscorrect, although he does get the right an-swers (e.g. he chooses the right verb, butdoes not conjugate correctly). Whenever hegets a chance, his responses are in English.For example, during one lesson the classhad to define characteristics of a doll.Pedro's contributions, which were few, wereall in English. His teacher acknowledgedthis resistance to speaking Spanishspontanously: "Pedro, he understands, buthe can't produce..." (April 4, 1991).

he has Spanish as a Second Language, andthe class presently has a science unit inSpanish .

Miguel's current sixth grade teachergreets many studenth in Spanish; he is oneof the few monolingual English teachersand now is learning Spanish. In the roomthe desks are arranged in two U-forms;Miguel and his friend Andy sit at one of theoutside ends. In the classroom there is astudents' corner with a listing of eachstudent's classroom jobs and the disciplin-ary rules. Miguel's homeroom has 22 stu-dents, 13 of whom are Hispanic.

Miguel has always loved school. Hismother describes him as a 'bookworm'. He

In Spanish class, Pedro's attention is lessfocused and he does not participate as

much as in the classes in English.

Miguel, Pedro's brother, is now insixth grade. He had reading in Spanish infirst and second grades. In decond grade,Spanish was also used for science. In thirdgrade he had some Spanish instruction inscience, but most of the time English wasused for that subject; all other subjectswere in English. Miguel describes his fourthgrade curriculum as including "lots of Span-ish". For science he had one semester aboutthe human body in Spanish, and one se-mester in English, and he had Spanishreading. In fifth grade Spanish was used forreading, while all other subjects weretaught in English. As a sixth grader now,

28

is more quiet and serious than his youngerbrother. During class time he does not ac-tively participate, but listens attentively towhat his teacher says, regardless ofthe sub-ject or language of instruction; this behav-ior is typical of his general attitude towardsschool. For Miguel it is not enough to fmishthe assignment, he also wants to do it well.This often leads him to take the initiativewhen working in groups. For example, oneday during social studies, the teacher hadsmall groups work on different newspaperarticles. Each group had to share a page ofa newspaper, make a summary of the ar-ticle, and state the facts and give their own

3 ,)

Aigud & Tedro

opinion. In Miguel's group some of the stu-dents did not start worldng but were chat-ting instead. At this point, Miguel took thenewspaper page and did the assignmenthimself. When his fellow students askedhim why he took the page away, Miguel re-sponded that since they were not working,he might as well take it and use it. Histeacher remarks:

He will contribute, he will push others.Just because Miguel himself wants to dowell, he's not going to let anyone sloucharound in his group. If the group isn't par-ticipating, he'sjust going to take over (April4, 1991).

In general, Miguel displays both thisattitude of wanting to do well as well as thewill to work hard for it if necessary. Thisquality has resulted in good grades for allsubjects. In both English and Spanish, hisproficiency is above average (a B+ in Span-ish, an A- in English). Like his brother, heis in the highest reading group. For mathhe has to work hard: according to his

teacher, "it's not easy for him."

The school organizes before and afterschool programs. Both Miguel and Pedroattend the Alerta before school pmgram Itis the first year for Pedro and the third yearfor Miguel. The program is three morningsa week and is defined by a teacher involvedin it as a program for Hispanic studentswho are either very bright [or] excel in acertain area. She says, "We also try to bringin other students who we like to develop inthose kinds of areas." In the program, stu-dents "explore different [content] areas aswell as study skills...how do we take ex-ams" (March 20, 1991). Both Miguel andPedro agree that the program prepares thestudents for taking tests. Much time isspent on special topics. For example, lastyear Miguel did a project on China, and theclass went to a Chinese restaurant. Thisyear the topic is Puerto Rico, its history, andits customs. Miguel and Pedro also attenda gym after school program once a week.

Transitional Bilingual EducationSupport for Mainstreamed Students

Five students in this study are enrolledin TBE programs that have between 40 and65 students per language group spread outover K-8. Therefore, students are assignedto a mainstream homeroom for part of theirinstruction, while the remainder of the daythey spend with the bilingual and ESLteachers. The purpose of these programs isto help studeras with their work in main-stream classes and to develop language andliteracy skills, especially in English. The bi-lingual teachers tend to continue helpingthese students long after they are fullymainstreamed. Each program is imple-mented in a somewhat different way, de-pending on the school district and particu-lar school where it is housed.

The Russian Bilingual ProgramThere are 40 Russian students in the

bilingual program that Sergei attends. Twobilingual teachers and one ESL teacherwork with the students in K-8. There is atleast one daily 45 minute pull-out period foreach grade level. During this period, stu-dents leave their mainstream classes andgo either to the bilingual classroom or the

ESL classroom to rereive instruction basedon the needs of the particular group. Forexample, during the same period everyday, most Russian bilingual first graders goto the Russian bilingual teacher for smallgroup instruction. During these pullout pe-riods, the Russian language is used to helpstudents understand information from theregular curriculum or to help them developEnglish concepts. The content of each les-son is determined by the needs of the par-ticular group. For example, on one day inthe bilingual classroom, the seventh gradegroup reviews material from the regular so-cial studies curriculum in Russian, whilethe first grade group works on English let-ter sounds and English vocabulary usingRussian to explain and clarify concepts. Atsome grade levels, depending upon theneed, the bilingual teachers also go into theregular classrooms to provide support forthe bilingual children within the main-stream classroom setting. The bilingualteachers also serve an important role byproviding a link between the Russian par-ents, some of whom speak very little En-glish, and the school.

01+M+1414+14&14+141+14E+M.I4M+1+Ba+1+1+Ba+I+MileT4I+M+I4Ie

Sergei is a quick, joyful, very smartsix-year-old boy with big blue eyes. He isvery unlike his twin sister, Olga, a very sol-emn child who takes her studies at schoolvery seriously. Although he has been in theUnited States less than a year, Sergeispeaks English quite well with almost noaccent. Olga's English is even better. Incomparison to Olga, Sergei seems to bemore childish and playful.

30

When Valentina, their mother, en-rolled them in school, the teachers wantedto put Sergei in a kindergarten class andOlga in first grade. They felt that Sergeiwas small for his age, and not ready for firstgrade. Their mother adamently opposedthe idea of placing them into two differentgrades. She was persistent, and Sergei andOlga were both placed in the first grade.

3

&Net oreetieeeeoPeeeeeiva44444emeoreemweeN44

Sergei, Olga, and their mother cameto the United States last spring as refugees.They made the difficult decision to leaveMoscow for several reasons: the economicproblems, the political instability and therise of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.This move brought about many big changesin Valentina's life, and these events affi3ctedSergei and Olga. Valentina was well estab-lished in Moscow. She had a degree as aconstruction engineer and a good job. Hermother lived with her and took care of thechildren. When the situation in the SovietUnion became worse, Valentina and her

she was happy to enroll the twins. She feltthat the program would enable her childrento keep the Russian language. SinceValentina does not feel that her English isgood enough to help her children with theirschool work, she believed that the bilingualprogram would be especially important forthem.

Serpi and Olga are in a mainstreamfirst grade class. The mainstream class-room is a spacious, well lit room. Drawingsof Soviet and American children as well asthe Russian and English alphabets adorn

When asked why he doesn't participateactively in the discussions, Sergei says it is

easier for him to speak Russian.

husband decided to immigrate to Americawith their children and the grandmother.The father, however, met another womanand decided to stay. The grandmother couldgo only to Israel because of visa problems.Therefore, Valentina and her children im-migrated by themselves to the UnitedStates. She didn't expect that her life in theU.S. would be so complicated. Unable tofind a job, she is presently living on welfare.

Unlike some of their other Russianclassmates, neither Sergei nor Olga had at-tended kindergarden in Russia. Instead,they had spent their days hi the care of theirgrandmother. Neither child could speakEnglish when they arrived in Boston. Whenthe bilingual teacher called their motherabout the new Russian bilingual program,

31

the walls. There is also a small library inthe classroom. American and Soviet chil-dren bring their books from home and theyread them in the classroom. If an Ameri-can pupil cannot understand a Russianbook, a Soviet child translates.

The mainstream teacher and her aidetry to involve all the Russian children inthe classroom activities and make surethat they all understand the assignments.They walk from one child to another, pay-ing more attention to the Russian children.Some Russian children are silent almostthe entire class, but some children talk, try-ing to express their ideas in English. Nina,the bilingual teacher, spends about 45 min-utes each day in Sergei's homeroom classto provide support for the bilingual stu-

:13

Serge', meelealaie4m4oa*E4Boremekr4wer---v- 4440141414

dents. If any of the Russian children needhelp with what the class is working on, shetranslates for them.

Sergei could easily be mistaken for anAmerican student. He sits among Ameri-cans in class and interacts in fluent Englishwith them. When the American teacher ex-plains something in front of the wholegroup, some Russian students need thehelp from Nina. But Sergei seems to under-stand almost everything and almost neverasks for help.

However, when the teacher discussesa theme with the whole class and asks theclass probing questions, Sergei is silent. Heseems to understand the questions becausehe responds when the teacher asks him di-rectly. When asked why he doesn't partici-pate actively in the discussions, Sergei saysit is easier for him to speak Russian.Sergecs reading and writing skills in En-glish are below grade level, according to histeachers. He never learned to read in Rus-sian, except for the alphabet.

In observing Sergei, it was evidentthat having his twin sister in the sameclassroom helped. For example, when hedoesn't behave properly during the class,she tries to stop him and she usually suc-ceeds. If he can't understand something, hissister usually helps him

Sergei goes to another teacher forreading. In this class, the teacher does nottry to involve Sergei and other Russianboys in the classroom activities, althoughthe students seem to want to be part of thewhole class. She seems to assume that theydo not speak English well enough to partici-pate in the first grade reading program Forexample, one morning while the class wasreading some rhymes, Sergei and threeother boys were playing with English let-

32

ter cards and making words. AlthoughSergei and the other Russian boys seemedto enjoy playing with the cards, from timeto time they tried to follow the readingteacher while she read rhymes and showednice big pictures to the rest of the group.

The Russian students are pulled outof the mainstream classroom to go to thebilingual classroom for a 45 minute lessonevery day. The bilingual classroom is a big,spacious room. There are many books inRussian and English including English-Russian dictionaries. On the walls aredrawings by Soviet children. There are alsobirthday cards written in English and inRussian. The friendly atmosphere in theclassroom and the positive attitudes of theRussian bilingual teachers toward Sergeiand the other Soviet children help Sergeiand his friends feel at home. They appearto want very much for these children to suc-ceed. They also keep in close contact withall the teachers who teach Sergei and otherRussian students.

Sergei seems more joyful and morecomfortable during class in the bilingualclassroom. It is simply easier for him to beamong Russians and to speak Russian andEnglish in a smaller group, wheie theteacher can understand both languages.Sergei actively participates in classroomactivities. Sometimes he is over zealous andtries to answer a question directed to otherstudents. Sergei almost always uses Rus-sian when speaking to Nina or the other bi-lingual teacher.

Sergei enjoys the activities in the bi-lingual classroom. He likes to draw picturesof the meanings of the words discussed bythe class. He is also very competitive. Oncewhen the teacher asked Sergei and otherstudents whether they knew the wordsthat start with the letter `1-1' he tried to re-

3

Serget aevBeieop*

member as many words as possible and tosay them before the other pupils. He alsohas ESL with an American teacher whomhe likes very much.

Sergei likes to spend time at schoolwith his Russian friends. For example, atlunch time he and his Russian friends sittogether and discuss various things in Rus-sian. The Russian bilingual room is alwaysfull of students and Sergei likes to stop byat other times to play games orjust to chatwith the bilingual teachers.

The mainstream teachers want theAmerican and Russian children to becomebetter friends, to know more about eachother, and to help each other. Early in the

The Japanese Program

The Japanese Bilingual Program inthe school that Masa and Shimpei attendserves about 65 students in grades K-8.Most of the Japanese families stay in Mas-sachusetts an average of a year, althougha few families stay up to five years. Ms.Sunamura, the bilingual teacher, is as-sisted by two aides who are native speak-ers of English but know J wanese, and anEnglish-speaking volunteer. The studentsare assigned to a mainstream class accord-ing to grade level. The bilingual personnelserve the students in three different ways.For the younger students, the teacher oraides spend time within the mainstream

atasa

year, together with the Russian bilingualteachers, they organized a "joint venture,"in which the American children and the So-viet children played the Russian game"Repka" ("turnip"). These joint activitieshave helped Sergei adjust to the Americanschool system and to master his English.

In contrast, the reading teacher doesnot seem to bother with Sergei and thethree other Soviet boys. She seems to as-sume that they would be unable to partici-pate in the classroom activities. Yet byseparating the American students from theother Russian pupils, the teacher has madeit more difficult for Sergei to adjust to theclass and to make friends with Americanchildren in that class.

classes helping the children. The older stu-dents drop in at the bilingual classroom toreceive help with assignments in their dif-ferent mainstream subjects. In addition,newcomers are pulled out periodically fortutoring and English language develop-ment. Japanese students often du their as-signments in Japanese, and the bilingualteachers help them translate these. The bi-lingual teacher keeps in close contact withthe classroom teachers and the students'parents. The whole school works very hardto make the experience of these students afruitful one.

The Takada family is from Tokyo, andhave two sons: Masa, 7 years old, andKenji, 5 years old. The couple had alwayswanted to come to the United States. A yearand a half ago, their dream came true. The

33

medical information company for whichMrs. Takada was working as a translatordecided to send her to the United States.They had only one month to get ready. Mr.Takada quit hisjob and decided to help his

all N

wife in her work.

II IL...4-4-A A II

When the Takadas mentioned theirwish to stay in the United States longenough to complete their children's educa-tion, both of their families expressed strongopposition. Their view was that the Japa-nese school system offered an excellent edu-cation. Mrs. Takada's parents, both schoolteachers, couldn't understand why theirgrandchildren were to receive what was intheir view a lesser quality education. Theyalso worried that the children would havea hard time getting used to the languageand, after acquiring English, that theywould forget Japanese.

Mr. and Mrs. Takada had a differentopinion of the Japanese educational sys-tem. After experiencing the excessive pres-sure and "Examination Hell," the period ofpreparation for college entrance exams, Mr.and Mrs. Takada decided that the exam-oriented education system encouragesmemorization and the mechanical learningstyle of repetition and suppresses indepen-dent thinking and creativity.

Both parents knew English beforecoming to the United States. Mrs. Takadawas particularly fluent, since she had beena translator. However, as a result of theJapanese educational system, both stillhave trouble with aural comprehension andwith speaking English. They have a strongdesire to acquire English skills, but it is stillhard for them to relax and have an enjoy-able chat in English. The family speaksJapanese at home, although Mrs. Takadauses some English when sh 3colds her chil-dren. "I don't know why," she says. "I guessbecause of the nature of language or the us-age of intonation. I'm not sure, but Englishphrases sound more strict than Japaneseones. They listen to me better in Englishthan in Japanese." (Mrs. Takada, personal

34

communication, April 1991) When the chil-dren argue with each other, they alsoswitch into English. They socialize withboth American and Japanese families, andthat gives children the opportunity to useboth languages with friends.

Masa was six years old when he cameto the United United States and enteredthe first grade. Before coming to the UnitedStates, he had spent a year in kindergar-ten in Japan, where he learned to read"Hiragana", a Japanese alphabet system.Masa's parents' values with regard to theirchildren's education were different fromother Japanese parents. They carefullychose a kindergarten which was most likelyto provide a relaxed and freer atmosphere.There, Masa learned how to play, how tosocialize with others, and how to be respon-sible for specific chores in a very relaxed andnature oriented environment. There werelots of animals that the children cared for.However, academically, in areas such as,writing, reading, and math, he learned verylittle, compared with other kindergartenstudents in Japan. For instance, Masa didnot even know how to hold a pencil whenhe came to school in the U.S., and he had tostart at the very beginning, which is veryunusual for a Japanese student. His par-ents did not teach any English to their chil-dren before coming to the United States.They thought it would be better for theirchildren to learn real English here, ratherthan to learn unnatural English from theirparents.

Masa is now in second grade. His oralJapanese is almost as good as that of othersecond graders in Japan. Occasionally,Masa has English interference in Japa-nese. Ms. Sunamura thinks he is a wonder-ful child. "Masa is such a sweet boy. He isvery kind, he doesn't fight with anyone whois smaller than him, and he helps others

.r4 6

with anything he can. He is a wonderfulchild although he is now behind with hisstudy." (April, 1991)

Mrs. Takada mentioned that Masahas a hard time dealing with pressure."Whenever he encounters some problems,instead of facing them, he tries to escape. Iwish he was tougher and more strict onhimself" ( March 1991). Ms. Sunamurasays that Masa seems to have a short at-tention span and gives up on things veryeasily. For example, when he was observedworking with a tutor in math, he would notsit down and study; instead, he preferredto play a game He rushed through the ex-ercises very quicldy so that he could play.Except for the first couple of questions, heanswered all the questions wrong, and hedidn't pay much attention to the tutor's ex-planation. His mind was already busy withthe games that he could play. When inter-viewed in Japanese, he loved to talk abouthis friends, swim team, his experiences inkindergarten; but when asked about hisclasses, he became quiet. He did not wantto talk much.

Masa's homeroom teacher, Mrs.Brown, has an American father and a Japa-nese mother. She was born in Japan andcame to the United States when she waseight years old. Although she cannot speakJapanese, her teaching style is very Japa-nese. She is serious and strict. She is alwaysin control, and there is very little interac-tion among students. She tends to call onstudents who are slow, or who do not un-derstand very well, and she patiently waitsfor their answers. For example, one day Ms.Brown wrote on the blackboard"6(8)+2=50", and asked Masa where the 6came from. Masa was quiet for a while, soMrs. Brown moved closer to him and said,"Think hard, Masa." Several other students

35

were raising their hands, but Mrs. Brownsaid, "I want Masa to answer this ques-tion." Mrs. Brown waited some more, butMasa kept looking down at his cubes. Fi-nally, Mrs. Brown gave up with a sigh. Shegave the answer and went on to the nextstep.

Mrs. Brown's academic expectationsfor her students are very high. She seemsto expect every student to understand rightaway. In the Japanese manner, she doesnot praise or encourage the students much;rather, she seems to take the right answersfor granted. Masa doesn't want to talkabout Mrs. Brown or her class. When askedhow he feels about her, Masa said, "I don'tknow She is very strict."

"Masa has mastered conversationalEnglish so fast, faster than other Japanesechildren I've seen, that I was prettyamazed at first.", Ms. Sunamura recalled.With his pleasant, friendly personality, hesoon made a lot of friends. While otherJapanese children tend to stick together,Masa mixed in with American peers nicelyfrom the beginning. On his report cards,Masa rates a "good" in almost all behaviorcategories such as friendliness, politeness,and cooperation. However, in academic cat-egories such as reading, spelling, math, heis assessed as "needs improvement."

Mrs. Brown seemed quite angry aboutthe whole situation. She admits that Masahas a wonderful personality, but she is nothappy with his academic performance. Shesaid,"He is very, very behind Anyone whois here for two years begins to read andwrite promptly, but oh, do you know whathe is reading now? This book, it's for thefirst grade, and he's been here for almosttwo years. There is a boy from Mexico whocame here only a year ago, but he caught

IL..-III

up so quickly and he reads and writes muchbetter than Masa." (April, 1991)

Mrs. Brown thinks that she has triedeverything she can do to help him She saidshe even "spoon-feeds" him because hedoesn't have the motivation to learn, andhe is a passive learner. She added,

You know, a teacher can only do somuch. I think he needs his parents' helpnow. I understand his parents are very busy,but the parents values toward success andachievement are reflected in the child. Ithink they need to push him a little harder.

Ms. Sunamura, on the other hand, isvery calm about Masa's progress, and sheseems to watch over Masa from a distance.

anyone, prefering to cooperate insteaingteam because she thought Masa should bestudying all the time. However, Ms.Sunamura opposed the idea, saying thatMasa would lose everything if they tookswimming away from him At this point,his swimming ability is the only skill ofwhich he feels confident, and Ms.Sunamura was afraid that Masa would bediscouraged if he lost evertmosphere in hismainstream classroom has made him ner-vous.

Masa goes to the bilingual classroomseveral times a week. At the beginning ofthis semester, Masa was pulled out almostevery day. However, Ms. Sunamura no-ticed that Mma was enjoying being singled

Mrs. Brown thinks that Masa mayhave learning disabilities, while Ms.

Sunamura thinks it's too early tocome to such a conclusion.

She admits that Masa is behind, expeciallyin math; however, she points out that he isnot the only second grader who uses firstgrade materials in language arts.

Mrs. Brown thinks that Masa mayhave learning disabilities, while Ms.Sunamura thinks it's too early to come tosuch a conclusion. She maintains that hewas not doing badly last year. Ms.Sunamura says that although Masa doeshave a very short attention span, he is try-ing. She points out that Masa just isn't ag-gressive: he doesn't like to compete with

36

out, and that he began to not pay attentionand to daydream during his homeroomclass more and more, knowing that he wasgoing to go through everything with Ms.Sunamura later. She therefore reduced hispull-out time.

There is a sign that says Youkoso(Welcome) in Japanese at the entrance ofthe bilingual classroom. The room is alwaysfull of students, not only those who comehere for help, but also other Japanese stu-dents who just like to stop by and chat withthe bilingual teachers and their peers. No-

3 S

body talks in English here, it is just like be-ing in a Japanese classroom. Masa is moretalkative and lively in the bilingual class-room than in the mainstream classroom.Ms. Sunamura is very kind and patientwith Masa. He does quite well, especiallywhen he is taught one on one and when hedoesn't feel under pressure to respond. Ms.Sunamura constantly praises Masa andencourages him to work She said, "At thispoint, all he needs is encouragement. Heknows he is behind and he is losing con.fi-dence in himself We have to give him a lotof praise to input a positive self-image."

Ms. Sunamura has been a teacher, agood listener for children, a counselor, anadviser, and perhaps most important of all,she has been a liaison between the Japa-nese students and the classroom teachers,as well as between the Japanese parentsand the classroom teachers. For example,Mrs. Brown was going to tell Mrs. Takadato have Masa quit the swimming team be-cause she thought Masa should be study-ing all the time. However, Ms. Sunamuraopposed the idea, saying that Masa would

lose everything if they took swimmingaway from him. At this point, his swimmingability is the only skill of which b.e feels con-fident, and Ms. Sunamura was afraid thatMasa would be discouraged if he lost every-thing of which he could be proud.

Because Mrs. Takada and Mrs. Brownhave such different values toward educa-tion, it is hard for them to understand eachother. At this point, Mrs. Takada feels thatMrs. Brown pushes Masa too far, and Mrs.Brown is frustrated because she thinks theparents should push him furtbm However,Ms. Sunamura has been L.-y.1.'4 her best toestablish a good relatit.aship betweenthem, recognizing that it is Masa who is theone most affected by their relationship.Without Ms. Sunamura's help and properinteraction, Masa would have felt discour-aged, and the conflict between the teacherand the family could not have been avoided.Ms. Sunamura's efforts have helped thema great deal to achieve a smooth relation-ship, and eventually helped Masa to main-tain a healthy self-image.

&dm* +44.4.+44-o.4-+++.04.o.+4.4-*-Shimpei was born in Osaka, Japan.

Both of his parents are well educated. He istheir only child. Shimpei's family moved toMassachusetts so that his father could pur-sue a doctorate in public health. Shimpei'smother spent a year in the United Stateswhile attending college. She loved her timein the United States, "because they let mebe myself."

Shimpei's family moved from theiroriginal home in Massachusetts to theirpresent location so that Shimpei could takeadvantage of the Japanese bilingual pro-

37

gram. Shimpei entered the fifth grade ofthe Transitional Bilingual Education pro-gram in September 1987 at the age of ten.Shimpei had gone to school in Japanthrough fourth grade. His school experi-ences there were not particularly happy.He was teased a lot by his classmates be-cause he did not share their interests inT.V. or sports. He often came home with abloody nose. The parents decided that theywanted to move to America where theythought he would have a better educationalexperience. "I was interested in the U.S.since I was in kindergarten," declared

Shimpei. "Because U.S. was very famous."

Shimpei entered the bilingual pro-gram with virtually no Eng .ish speakingability. He had attended summer school inorder to have a taste ofAmerican school lifeand an introduction to the English lan-guage. Up to that point, his only exposureto English had been through his motherteaching him the alphabet and a few shortphrases such as "Hello, how are you?"

Initially, the violin was an importanttool for Shimpei in building a bridge fromone culture to the other. He had begunplaying in the first grade, and by fifthgrade, had become quite proficient. He said,

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

move for him" (April 1, 1991). He spent agreat deal of time in the ESL and the Bilin-gual classrooms. The Bilingual classroom inparticular became a "safe place" forShimpei, giving him a sense of security byproviding resources with which he couldidentify. Teachers who were either nativeto his culture or at least conversant in Japa-nese encouraged him.

The focus of his mainstream class-room at the time was American history andmath. Since his English ability was so lim-ited, Shimpei was unable to gain muchfrom these classroom lessons. The bilingualteacher encouraged him to write stories inJapanese. She would then translate them

Initially, the violin was an importanttool for Shimpei in building a bridge

from one culture to the other.

"When I came here, I couldn't speak lan-guage, but I could play the violin whichcould make myself perform to public, to theschool kids. I think it helped me a lot inmaking friends." He joined the town'schildren's orchestra, a positive experiencefor him, where he met other American chil-dren, including some from his own school.

Shimpei is a highly motivated boywith a persistent desire to improve his lan-guage facility and to attadc and conquerthe barriers to his progress, no matter howchallenging they may be. Nonetheless,that first year was extremely difficult forhim. As one teacher stated: "He was veryhyper at the time. It was a very traumatic

38

into English. Most of his stories were aboutspace travel, a topic of great interest tohim. Through this story writing, Shimpeikept up some contact with his own lan-guage, and began to experience his owncreative thiriking expressed in his new lan-guage.

Not only was the language new toShimpei, but the "school culture" was newas well. He found the school life in the U.S.much more informal, less structured andregimented than that which he had expe-rienced in Japan. His mother recounted anincident which captures this difference:

One day Shimpei couldn't finish his

40

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

homework. If that had happened in Japanwe would have had to write a letter explain-ing why he didn't finish it. Parents are re-quired to write such a letter.... This particu-lar day, Shimpei said he couldn't do thehomework so I asked him, "Should I writea letter?" He said that he wouldn't need onebecause the teacher would believe himwhen he told her the reason. "She will trustwhat I say." When he was attending theschool in Japan, if I didn't write a letter, hedidn't go to school. He couldn't go. He didn'thave the courage. (Shimpei's mother, per-sonal communication, March 16, 1991)

In Japan, students are expected to bequiet, remain in assigned seats and aboveall to be obedient and respectful of theteacher. A student there would never chal-lenge a teacher. Shimpei found himself in-advertently bowing to his teachers here,too. He commented:

Many kids thought it was strange,many kids laughed, but I didn't really carebecause you know how kids tease in Japan.So I got used to it. So I didn't really mind,that's one thing helped me because if I re-ally mind about it I wouldn't study reallyhard, you know, and I get scared of Ameri-cans. "Why are they laughing at me? I'm do-ing something wrong?" I quite thought likethat (March 11, 1991).

By the end of the fifth grade, Shimpeibegan to speak and write English, thoughhe was still quite limited. Because of theselimitations, he still felt quite insecure. Hestill socialized mostly with Japanese stu-dents:

I stay there [bilingual classroom]whole day and I didn't even speak to myAmerican friends. I didn't even try to do it.rm not really sure why, maybe that's differ-ence between languages and cultures.

And they [non-Japanesel don't look

same as me, that's one thing I think, thatalways happens I think. Even here, evenpeople who could speak English, blackcomes to one group. Orientals come to onegroup. (Personal communication, March,1991)

While Shimpei's memories of his earlyexperience reflect a somewhat shelteredand negative outlook, his teachers (the bi-lingual teacher, the teacher aide, the fifthgrade mainstream teacher) rememberShimpei as being shy, happy, perhaps in-secure, yet highly motivated and verybright. They also remember him as havinga strong desire to interact with peers.(Japanese and non-Japanese) but seemingto lack the skills to do so. They agree, how-ever, that Shimpei was accepted readily byhis fifth grade peers.

In fifth grade, Shimpei also attendedan ESL class every day. The ESL teacherconcentrated entirely on English. Shimpeienjoyed this teacher very much and foundher to be encouraging and sensitive to eachtudent's individual needs. She particularly

focused on his writing and speaking skills

Sixth grade was a very different expe-rience for Shimpei. The sixth grade teacherwas a very serious man who had high ex-pectations of his students. Shimpei foundthat he had to study very hard, memoriz-ing "giant" vocabulary lists with extremelydifficult words. The demanding curriculumincluded math, with word problems that of-ten were difficult even for the native speak-ers. In order to meet these increasing aca-demic demands, Shimpei had to study longhours every day staying up till midnightmost nights.

His parents were a great support forhim, helping whenever they could. Shimpeireflected on this period of his life: "I was

39

4

Shim*

tired of doing it, but I like it sort of and Ithink I thought about future helping meabout English and it really did help me. Ithink it was good" (March 16, 1991).

Shiznpei continued going to the Bilin-gual classroom for help, three or four timesa week for several hours each time. Hewould study each subject together with thebilingual teacher. He also continued inESL. He especially enjoyed that class be-cause the teacher used the comput, r agreat deal. The teacher created originalgames to teach principles ofEnglish usage."I like the computer and feel like it is myfriend," commented Shimpei. This workedwonders in the development of Shimpei'sspeaking and writing skills

glish. The focus was on grammar and vo-cabulary. As a result, Shimpei's Englishconversation ability dropped off markedlythat summer. During the first severalmonths of his seventh grade (back in theU.S.), he spent time working to regainsomeof the skills that he had lost. That first quar-ter, he received a number of C's on his re-port card. The second quarter, working dou-bly hard, he achieved mostly Ns and B's. Bythe third and fourth quarters, Shimpei hadachieved Honor Roll status. During thatyear, he only went to the Bilingual Class-room during study periods for homeworktutoring. Other than those visits and hisregular ESL classes, Shimpei carried thefull complement of academic courses.

"I enjoy getting attached to othercountries' peoples," he says.

Though the academic demands of thesixth grade were quite high, Shimpei's pre-dominant memories are of his teacher'schallenging him in such a way that hemade marked progress in his English abil-ity. Also, by the end of sixth grade, he hadmade several American friends with whomhe felt he could comfortably talk, play, andstudy.

In the summer Shimpei completed thesixth grade, his family returned to Japanand he entered a summer program in En-

40

After seventh grade, the family onceagain returned to Japan during the sum-mer. Sl ampei was enrolled in a high schoollevel English course. He studied Englishgrammar and did very well. This helpedShimpei's confidence immensely and he re-turned to the U.S. with renewed motiva-tion. According to his parents, relatives andfriends, he had become even more friendlyand cheerful than before.

This year (eighth grade) has broughtabout tremendous changes, both academic

4 2

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

and social. As his fifth grade teacher hasstated: "The system has really worked1,000% for him." He has fully integratedinto the mainstream of school life. He nolonger attends ESL, nor does he require thehelp of the bilingual classroom (except onrare occasions, like when he is in need oflunch money). He is now learning anotherlanuage, Spanish. The fact that he is theonly Japanese student in the school takingSpanish has boosted his self-esteem andgiven him a new area of study to enjoy. Hecontinues to excel in violin, studying at theNew England Conservatory and playing inthe school orchestra.

Socially, he has made tremendousstrides. This fact has been attested to by allof the teachers who have known him over

these past four years. This year, for the firsttime, he cheerfully greets them in the hall-ways. Also, he is participating in a teamsport. His classmates are very friendly, andhe now feels accepted as a regular memberof the group. Some have commented thatthis year he seems to have mastered the artof "friend making." He even attended adance at school and said that when heasked girls to dance, no one refused. Now,most of his closer fri Inds are non-Japanesepeers. He has become cicee friends with twoBrazilian boys. "I enjoy getting attached toother countries' peoples", he says.

Shimpei is the first student to com-plete the school's Japanese bilingual pro-gram His family is planning on movingback to Japan at the end of the year.

Me Vietnamese Program

The program Phong attends is acombinaton of Transitional Bilingual Edu-cation Support and self-contained TBE.Forty-three Vietnamese students are ser-viced by two bilingual teachers. Theseteachers and an ESL teacher work with allVietnamese students in grades K-2. Stu-dents in grades 3-7 are mainstreamed halfof the day while they spend the other halfwith the bilingual teachers. The bilingualteachers work in two small actjacent roomsThey both teach the standard school cur-riculum, using both Vietnamese and En-

glish. With the older children, Mrs. Tranpresents all lessons in English, using Viet-namese to elaborate and clarify informa-tion. Each grade level is given assibnmentsand then the students work independentlywhile the teachers meet with small gradelevel groups for instruction. Once a weekthey teach Vietnamese language and cul-ture. The goal of both teachers is for stu-dents to become proficient enough in En-glish to function in mainstream classrooms.An ESL teacher works with the students ingrades K-2.

Thong 444-1:440400444404444444-4440444Phong was born in Vietnam on March

8, 1978 and lived there with his parents,grandfather and four older brothers and sis-ters until he was seven years old. He lived acomfortable, carefree life playing with other

41

children. But when he turned eight every-thing changed, and his family became im-poverished. He had to stop going to schoolin order to help his parents with the familygarden and house chores. At night he stud-

3

ied with his mother and father. During thisperiod of his life Phong was rat. ..r un-happy.

Phong's uncle decided to go to theUnited States. Phong, who was eight yearsold, and his sister, who was thirteen, accom-panied their uncle. Phong came to theUnited States in order to get an educationand make a better way of life for himself.Phong's older brothers and sisters and par-ents remained in Vietnam Embarking ona month's boat trip with about 30 other

at home with his sister, and when he visitswith his uncle's family. He associatesmostly with Vietnamese children both inand out of school. He would like to havemore American friends and hopes this ispossible once his English improves. One ofthe teachers, however, does not think thatVietnamese and American children relatetogether much in the town whey Phong isliving.

Phong was eleven years old a year agowhen he entered the bilingual program in

Mrs. Michael and Mrs. Conant were notaware of Phong's family situation andeducational background. They had no

contact with Phones family.

people, Phong reached the refugee campsin Hong Kong, stayed there for two yearsand then was sent to the Philippines wherehe stayed for six months. iit studied En-glish while at this camp. Their unclereached Massachusetts ahead of them andwas able to sponsor them so they could getto the United States. Phong and his sisternow live by th 3 in Massachusettsin a town a%c4A to where their unclelives, but they ...rd the bus many week-ends to visit him and his family. Phong cor-responds with his parents and missesthem. When asked if he planned to returnto Vietnam, Phong answered: "Sometime inmy future."

Phong speaks Vietnamese exclusively

42

the fifth grade. Because he came to theUnited States mainly to get a better educa-tion than was possible for him in Vietnam,Phong takes education very seriously.When asked what he does after school andon weekends, Phong responds that he stud-ies.

Phong is presently in the sixth gradeThe bilingual program for children ingrades 3-7 is a half-day program. Phong isin a mainstream 6th grade for the morningto study English, math, art, and physicaleducation and to have lunch. He is in thebilingual class from 12:00 to 2:00 in the af-ternoon to study science, social studies,reading and writing. The focus of the pro-gram is to help him understand the 6th

4 .4

grade curriculum taught in English. For 30minutes once a week he receives instructionin Vietnamese language and culture.

Mrs. Michael, his homeroom teacher,states that Phong is brilliant in math. "Healways does his homework and is ex-tremely polite" (Personal communication,March 3, 1991). He is quiet and withdrawnand speaks very little. But he has blendedwell with the other students in the class.Although he never vohmteers answers, healways knows the answer when called on.Phones only difficulty in math is with wordproblems. The teacher usually reads theproblem to him and then he is immediatelyable to figure it out. He received an "A" inmath.

Phong's entire class has a differentteacher for English. Mrs. Conant character-izes Phong as "extremely quiet and respect-ful with an outstanding attitude" (Personalcommunication, April 2, 1991). He puts inextraordinary effort, doing all of his home-work to the best of his ability. During En-glish class, Phong sits in the back corner ofthe classroom and never says a word unlesscalled on. He completes his grammarworksheets dilingently and his answers areusually correct.

Mrs. Conant does not usually gradePhong's writing. She puts a check with acomment such as "Good try. Keep up thegood work". She gave him a "C" on his re-port card last marking period. In the mostrecent marking period he got a "B." How-ever, she does not grade him like the otherstudents due to his difficulty writing clearlyin English. When Phong writes, he uses anEnglish-Vietnamese dictionary. His writ-ing demonstrates his difficulty with the nu-ances of English word meanings. The con-tent of his writing usually demonstrates

43

adequate knowledge of his subject. His or-ganization, however, is somewhat choppy.He has many grammatical errors thatsomewhat obscure the meaning. His spell-ing is excellent. His teachers have seengreat improvement in his English. He isable to speak and write on a very concretelevel; but he is unable to express deeperfeelings, attitudes or ideas. For example,when interviewed he could give the factssurrounding his immigration to the UnitedStates, but when asked how it felt to be liv-ing in this country he was unable to articu-late his feelings. Nor was he able to explainwhy his uncle had moved to another town.

Mrs. Michael and Mrs. Conant werenot aware of Phones family situation andeducational background. They had no con-tact with Phong's family. They were quitesurprised when they were told that he wasliving alone with his sister and that his par-ents and older siblings remain in Vietnam.

Phong walks to school with two otherVietnamese boys and begins his day in thebilingual class before going to his main-stream homeroom. He chats with the otherchildren in Vietnamese and asks Mrs.Tran, the bilingual teacher, for help withanything that he does not understand. Mrs.Tran displays a warmth toward the chil-dren in her classroom and seems to have agenuine interest in them. Phong does notreceive any help with his school work fromhis sister or his uncle. In fact, he stated thathe spoke better English than his sister, sohe helped her with her high school work.

Phong seems at ease in the bilingualenvironment, conversing easily with hispeers. He states that he enjoys the bilin-gual program because of the Vietnamesefriends he has and because his teacher usesVietnamese to explain anything to him

,1 5

that he has trouble understanding. Phongwould like to repeat the sixth grade nextyear and remain in the bilingual programin order to learn more, but Mrs. Tran sees

no reason for him to be retained, as he is anhonor student. She also feels that he is pro-ficient enough in English to be main-streamed at the end of this year.

The Chinese Program

Li li attends a school with studentsfrom eleven different nations. All of themare serviced by two ESL teachers. In addi-tion, a Chinese teacher who speaks Man-darin and Cantonese works with the Chi-nese students. She helps them with read-

ing and writing in English as well as thecontent areas such as science and socialstudies, which she explains in Chinese. Theteacher meets with the students' parentsperiodically or when the need arises.

1.111 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lili is a pretty nine-yew-old girl fromTaiwan, who speaks Guoyu (Mandarin) asher first language. She has an intelligentface and beautiful eyes. Initially, she ap-pears very shy. But as she develops confi-dence she is a very active and engagingchild. Lili's family includes her father,mother, and her 13-year-old sister. Hermother had been worldng as a pharmacistfor ten years in Taiwan before her arrivalin the United States in 1986, and is nowworking as a pharmacist in a hospital. Herfather was a dentist in Taiwan, and now ishere doing business. They have many rela-tives in Taiwan.

Last year, Li li came to the UnitedStates with her father and her elder sisterto join her mother. She was eight years oldand had completed a year and a half of pri-mary school in Taiwan before coming. Theschool in Taiwan was very different fromthe school here. The teachers there wouldpunish the students if they made mistakesmore than three times. The students had

44

to sit up straight and be very quiet in class.She said she likes the school here becausethere is no pressure and the teachers heredon't hit the students. In Taiwan, she wasa very good student, performing above av-erage in all her school subjects.

Lili's father hired an American tutorto teach her English in Taiwan when theyfound out that they would be moving to theUnited States. For more than a year, thetutor went to Lili's house once a week foran hour-long lesson; however, according toLili, "It didn't help because the tutor wasan American and didn't know any Chinese.Nobody knew what she was talking about"(March 20 , 1991). Her mother also said theEnglish tutor didn't help Lili much becauseof their language barrier. When she firstcame to the U.S., all she knew how to saywas 'What's your name?', 'How old areyou?, and 'How are you?'. She felt veryscared when she first went to school be-cause "I didn't know anything the teacherssaid, and I didn't have any friends" (March

4 6

gilt

20, 1991).

Lili's mother moved to a suburbantown in Massachusetts a few months beforeher husband and children came in 1990.She chose the town for its setting and forits good schools. After the children attendeda school with no bilingual program for amonth, she was able to enroll them in aschool that had a Bilingual/ESL programfor Chinese studenth. Lili entered a secondgrade mainstream class towards the end ofthe academic year. Initially she felt scaredin school because she didn't understand En-glish.

Lili is presently in a mainstream thirdgrade class and receives support from theBilingual/ESL program. On the second

first day in this school. I just stayed. Ithelped me to learn the words". She likes theBilingual/ESL class very much because,"Anything I don't understand in English,Mrs. Cheng help me in Chinese" (March 20,1991).

Her favorite subject in school is mathbecause it is the easiest subject in Englishfor her. Lili says that the easiest thingabout school is gym, and the most difficultone is reading. She finds social studies dif-ficult because of her English, but she stilllikes it Since she is very active and lovesgym class, her parents send her to a gym-nastics program after school.

According to Lili's bilingual teacher,Lili's English reading and writing is about

"A Chinese should knowhow to speak Chinese."

floor of the school building right across thestairway between two monolingual class-rooms is a door with a big sign proclaiming"Bilingual/ESL Class". This is the class-room where Lili comes for half an hour ofESL every morning, and about an hour ofbilingual instruction three afternoons aweek. The classroom is a two-room combi-nation.

Lili and her sister started in the bilin-gual class on their first day at their newschool. "I came here (Bilingual/ESL) the

two years below grade level, but her mathis far above average Lili's mother feels thatalthough two years behind in reading andwriting, Lili has made much progress in herEnglish, considering that she started al-most from scratch one year ago. Hermother has a very positive attitude to-wards the bilingual program She said thatit helped her children a lot with their En-glish. When asked what she knew aboutthe program, she said,

4517

I know what is taught in the program.

11

Lill is in that program not te learn Chinese,but to learn English. Since the teacherknows Chinese, it is easier for the child tolearn English, especially for the beginners.Her father and I can both teach her Chineseat home and we have the Chinese textbooks. If we wanted her to learn Chinese, wewould send her to the special Chinese lan-guage school in the town. (Lili's mother, per-sonal communication, April 15, 1991)

At school Lili speaks Chinese with aChinese girl who is also in the ESL classand knows Mandarin. Most of the time Lilicommunicates in English. When the bilin-gual teacher uses English, Lili appears tounderstand most of the instruction. Shelooks at the teacher directly, puts up herhand, and tries to answer the question ifshe understands what is asked. If shedoesn't understand, she looks puzzled andlowers her eyes. Lili often responds to herbilingual teacher in English even if she isasked and given the instructions in Chi-nese. However, when she was interviewedby a bilingual Mandarin-English speakershe responded in whatever language wasused. She was very comfortable in her firstlanguage. She also liked to answer ques-tions in English, even if it was a little diffi-cult for her sometimes. If she couldn't findthe right word in English, she would use aChinese equivalent. She never switched toEnglish when responding in Mandarin.

Lili is literate in Chinese. Her Chinesereading ability is above average. She canread the letters her grandparents and rela-tives write to them. Sometimes she writesher grandmother a letter. According to hermother, "Although her Chinese writingskill is below average, it has also improved"(March 15, 1991). She likes reading storybooks. At home there are lots of Chinesestory books as well as Chinese math books.Her father often tells her Chinese stories,

46

and teaches her reading and math in Chi-nese.

The parents never speak to their chil-dren in English at home. Sometimes thetwo children speak some English with eachother, but not in front of their parents."Ninety percent of the conversation be-tween the two children is in Chinese," ac-cording to Lili's mother (Apri114, 1991). Al-though Chinese is the only language usedat home, Lill gets English support from hermother, who always tries to spend sometime every day helping her with her schoolwork. Lili tells her mother what she doesn'tunderstand at school. Her mother then ex-plains to her in Chinese what she is sup-posed to do.

Lili's strong background in her nativelanguage makes learning a second lan-guage easier. For example, when reading astory she came across "task" and "dusk"two words she did not understand. Whenthe teacher said the equivalent words inChinese, she nodded and gave the follow-ing definitions in English: "work" and "sixo'clock in the evening."

Lili has a very positive attitude to-wards both her native and second lan-guages. She maintains and keeps develop-ing the native language which she thinksreflects her identity. According to her, "AChinese should know how to speak Chi-nese." Besides, she wants to be able to com-municate with her relatives when she goesto Taiwan to visit. English is also importantto her since she wants to live and go toschool in the U.S. Another important rea-son for her is that she wants "to make somefriends." When asked in what language shewould speak to her children, she responded:"Both." (March 20, 1991)

.1 3

English as a Second LanguageProgram (ESL)

Omar attends a school district wherethere are 49 students in grades K-12 whoare native speakers oflanguages other thanEnglish: Portuguese, Cape Verdean,Khmer, Vietnamese, Japanese, Polish, andArabic. There are two itinerant ESL teach-ers who service these students directly ormonitor them. The direct-service programis a pull-out program in which students aretaken from the classroom and instructed inEnglish for half an hour a day. The ESLteachers work in close coordination with theclassroom teachers and periodically visit the

students' homes. The monitor program in.volves the ESL teachers meeting once amonth with the classroom teachers of themonitored students to check on the progressof the students, to give advice and sugges-tions, and to disseminate articles pertinentto bilingual education. The ESL teachersare available for consultation by phone atany time if the classroom teacher finds itnecessary. They also keep in close contactwith the parents and encourage classroomteachers to do so as well.

Omar *cge**************

Omar is a six year old Palestinianchild born in Kuwait. Omes father grewup in Jordan and in Kuwait. He attendedan American university and returned toKuwait where he started his own shippingcompany which exported petroleum prod-ucts. He speaks fluent English. Omar'smother is a college educated Syrianwomen. She speaks very little English.Omar has one older sister and two youngersiblings. Omar's older sister speaks Englishfairly well and the younger siblings speaklittle or no English. Thus, the family usesonly Arabic at home. Shortly after the Iraqiinvasion of Kuwait, the family fled and leftall of their belongings behind. When theyarrived in America they moved in withOmar's paternal grandparents, who hadbeen living in America for five years.Omar's parents plan to stay in the UnitedStates. In spite of their insistence that theywill be staying in America, Omar persistsin telling the people around him that theywill be returning soon. As oflate, Omar hassatisfied himself by saying that he will re-

47

t el tA4 4 IP 4

Cell e i3 C." l4 4 J 4 4 en tAl t el1 !A CV',4 4 4 4 4 4 *) 4

tell4,0

turn in "six years" because he heard his fa-ther say that it will take at least that longfor Kuwait to be reconstructed

Omar started school at the age of fourin Kuwait. He attended a private Englishschool staffed by British teachers who usedno Arabic at all in any grade or subject. Ini-tially, Omar found it difficult and frustrat-ing because he knew no English. As he be-came more proficient in English, his frus-tration decreased. By the time Omar andhis family left Kuwait, Omar w as doingwell in school. At the time of the invasion ofKuwait, Omar was in his second year in theBritish School.

When Omar arrived in Massachusettshe entemd the first grade and was put intothe monitor E.S.L. program. The E.S.L.teacher felt that his English proficiency wassufficient for him to be able to function ad-equately in a mainstream classroom. Thefather wanted a copy of the curriculum andeach book Omar would be using so that he

1 9

*c8frak14441T433

would be able to spend some time withOmar at home on his studies. He asked theteacher to give him periodic progress re-ports so that he could keep abreast ofOmar's progress in school. His knowledgeof English greatly facilitates the communi-cation with the teachers.

The E.S.L teacher urged Omar's fa-ther to continue to speak Arabic at homeand suggested that the parents might be-gin to teach him how to read and write inArabic. Omar did not know how to read orwrite in either English or Arabic when heentered school.

Omar's mainstream teacher keeps in

tn n0.4

gn,6,1

es it" e''sL.4 11.4 *** 17:

was very shy with the other children andspent most of the day sitting on theteacher's lap or standing by her chair. Hewas very eager to speak to the teacher andwould answer any and all questions shehad about his family, school, and Kuwait.He frequently visited his sister, who was ina classroom across the hall. They wouldtalk in Arabic and interact with a greatdeal of physical touching. Then Omarwould smile and walk back to the class-room. This easy access to his sister at anytime of the day is still a comfort to Omar.They frequently eat lunch together. Omar'steacher often gets the two of them togetherto pass on a message to their parents.

Omar's mainstream teacher keeps invery close contact with the family.She has visited their home and has

invited the family over to hers.

very close contact with the family. She hasvisited their home and has invited the fam-ily over to hers. She talks to Omar's fatherabout once a week, and has had conferenceswith both parents. Her classroom has chil-dren of varied abilities who work in hetero-geneous groupings. The classroom is a lan-guage rich environment that encouragesstudent creativity. Her students' experi-ences are an important aspect of the cur-riculum content. The curriculum is orga-nized thematically. Since Omar entered theclassroom she has read and taken coursesthat will help her understand bilingual stu-dents.

For the first few weeks ofschool, Omar

48

When Omar began school here, hecould converse in English, though his abil-ity to understand was much more limitedthan his ability to speak. However, hewould boldly ask "What means ...?" when-ever he did not understand what theteacher or a classmate were saying. In En-glish reading, he was able to efficiently de-code on a beginning first grade level, butunderstood very little about what he wasreading.

As he felt less intimidated by his newsurroundings, Omar began to display avery lively, animated personality. He wasquick to make friends, and consequently hehas become very well-liked by the other

Omar cklAcSekkkikxklIcet*********ccitx,k

children in the class. He very quicklylearned all the names of the children in theclass and has made some strong friend-ships. He has a good sense of humor, andisn't opposed to laughing at his own mis-takes and misgivings, though he is carefulnever to laugh at other children. He is veryrespectful of adults and is well knownthroughout the school for his happy faceand cheerful attitude.

During the Gulf War, Omar wouldshare his knowledge about the situation.This gave him a certain expert status in theclassroom, and it helped to personalize thewar for the other children when ever it wasdiscussed, formally or informally, in class.In other areas too, Omar enjoys being anexpert. He has a keen interest in reptilesand enjoys adding to class discussionswhenever a reptile is discussed, especiallyif the reptile happens to come from thedesert. Having lived near the desert hiswhole life, Omar is quick to relate his expe-riences about living there.

Omar has become very "American-ized" in his mannerisms, manner of speak-ing, and interests. His speech is pepperedwith terms like "awesome" and "radical",slang readily accepted by his peers, andwhich Omar uses to show that he is becom-ing American. He talks about televisionprograms like "The Simpsons" and "NinjaTurtles". Yet, at the same time, Omar lovesto teach the class how to count in Arabic orto say certain Arabic expressions that coin-cide with American expressions. He hasbrought in from home family photographsand tapes of children singing Arabic songsand has invited his sister into the classroom

t1 ACIGO 6,2 44

A (fl44 44

to teach the children how to do Arabicdances.

Omar's general school performancehas shown improvement; his oral languageskills have shown the most progress. Hisstrategy of asking the meanings of wordswhenever he hears one that he doesn'tknow has helped him increase his verbalvocabulary. When he does learn a newword he tries it out often in the course of aday to see if it "fits". His writing skills areimproving, although the language he usesin his writing is reflective of his speech.Omar is spelling at the advanced phonemicstage, steadily replacing his invented spell-ing with conventional orthography. He hasa good story sense, including the basic storyelementh in his predictions and retellings.He also does very well in art, his favoritesubject. Omar has made averagt progressin mathematical concepts. Improvementshave been made with the use ofmanipulatives, which he was not exposedto in Kuwait. Omar has a positive attitudetoward school. His curiosity and motivationto learn is evident in everything he does.

At home and when speaking to his sis-ter at school, he continues to speak in Ara-bic. In addition, Omar's father has extendedschool activities to the home by going overhis school papers with him and supplement-ing lessons with explanations in Arabic, tohelp Omar learn both languages.

In short, Omar has been able to ad-just to the school experience with the helpof very caring teachers and family. His age,personality and prior knowledge of Englishhave also played an important role in hisadjustment.

49

5 1

SECTION IILet the Students Teach Us

The Value of Bilingualism

In this study we looked at the storiesof12 bilingual students, their triumphs andtribulations in American schools. Their sto-ries show their reactions to the use of thenative language in the school, their processof acquiring a second language, their effortsto succeed academically, make friends, andfeel accepted in the new environment.These students come from very differentcultural, linguistic, educational and socio-economic backgrounds. Despite these dif-ferences, all the students and their families

value bilingualism. Although parents wanttheir children to learn English, in all homesthe native language is used. In the case ofMiguel and Pedro, their mother is domi-nant in English, although of Puerto Ricanancestry, and English is therefore the lan-guage of the home. The mother's motiva-tion to send her sons to a Two-Way Bilin-gual program was precisely to help themlearn Spanish and become familiar with theculture of their grandparents.

The Motivation to Succeed

Regardless of the socio-economic back-ground and education of the parents, mostchildren exhibited strong motivation tosucceed in school This factor seemed to sus-tain them through the most trying times.In school, these students exhibited the needto interact with somebody who spoke theirnative language even after having left thebilingual program They enjoyed the con-tact with adults and other children withwhom they could use the native language.When they were not able to, it seemed tohave negative effects, as in the case of Mai.When she moved to a system which offeredonly English as a Second Language, Maistarted to reject herself, feeling that shewas "ugly" and "stupid", and later she be-gan to show signs of rejecting her own cul-ture.

The children went to different Idnds ofprograms. The difference in the programswas to a great extent ruled by what the dis-tricts could do with the number of childrenand languages. Some programs, such asTransitional Bilingual Education (TBE))Integrated Bilingual Education, and Two-Way Bilingual Education, use the nativelanguage for content and literacy instruc-tion. The other programs, TBE Support andESL Only, do not use the native languageat all or make limited use of the native lan-guage mostly for second language acqui-sition and clarification of concepts. Al-though all districts seemed to be trying todo their best under the circumstances, theyneed to realize that the choice of programcreates different conditions for bilingualstudents.

Native Language Use Eases Adjustment

For example, the use of the native lan-guage, especially initially, allows for aneasier adjustment to school and a continu-

50

ous smooth linguistic, academic and per-sonal development. In contrast, the stu-dents in ESL Only and TBE Support pro-

5 2

grams unanimously expressed feelingscared of school and initially tended to beshy and withdrawn. It took these studentsan enormous amount of personal effort andtime to progress academically in school andccquire the second language. Reading andwriting in English were among their great-est sources of difficulty and anxiety.

A comparison of Carlos' and Shimpei'sexperiences is illustrative of this point. Bothboys entered school in the United States infifth grade. Carlos, who was in an Inte-grated Bilingual Education program, feltthe excitement oflearning new subject mat-ter, associated comfortably with Americanstudents and teachers, and continued to bethe good student he was in El Salvadorall within a year of his arrival. In contrast,for Shimpei, who was in a TBE support pro-gram, trying to learn content in a secondlanguage was an extraordinary struggle. It

took him almost four years to master thelanguage ofinstruction and to feel acceptedby peers and staff.

Another benefit of programs which of-fered students native language opportuni-ties along with English as a Second Lan-guage instruction emerged in several of thecase studies. Those students receiving TBEsupport exhibited very different behaviorsin the mainstream classroom and in the bi-lingual classroom. For example, Sergei didnot participate in whole class discussions inthe mainstream, while in the bilingualroom he was the most vocal student, wherethe discussions were in Russian and some-times also English. For some students, na-tive language classrooms engaged themmore fully, providing them with a chance toparticipate far more uninhibitedly thanthey were able to in an all-English environ-ment.

Desire for American Friends

Many students in these case studiesexpressed a great desire to make Americanfriends. The type of program, English lan-guage development and personality of thestudents were all factors that seemed to in-teract in determining the level of successwith which the bilingual students workedwith American teachers and students. Pro-grams such as the Two-Way and Inte-grated Bilingual Education models havebeen structured so that the bilingual stu-dents and staff work together as "insiders "with the English-speaking students and

staff. Both English-speaking and bilingualstudents see themselves as part of a bilin-gual, multicultural schooling experience.The students in these programs naturallyinteracted with English-speaking studentsand teachers. However, personality playeda role in the case of Nilda, an extremely shygirl. It took her over eight months beforeshe could relate freely with all her peers.Her difficulties seem to be more the excep-tion than the nile for the Integrated Bilin-gual program

Need for Careftd Mainstreaming

In self-contained TBE programs, theprocess of mainstreaming should be care-fully considered. If not done well,mainstreaming can be as painful an expe-rience for bilingual students as is the ini-tial year for students in programs mostlytaught in English. Mario, who was par-

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tially mainstreamed in his third year in thebilingual program, did not exhibit anystress or change in personality. He contin-ued to be sociable with Spanish as well asEnglish-speaking students, and he re-mained a good student, except in writing,which had always given him trouble in both

languages. He had a very healthy attitudetowards his bilingualism. Mai, on the otherhand, who was suddenly mainstreamedbecause of a family move, had a stressfulexperience. It took her almost a year to be-gin to feel adjusted. Her second languageskills, which progressed so quickly whileshe was in the TBE program, did not showas rapid progress once she was thrust intoan all-English program after her move. Inaddition, towards the end of the first yearin the mainstream program, she was show-

ing some evidence of insecurity about heridentity by refusing to talk about Vietnamand her culture.

In programs where bilingual studentsare mostly in mainstream classrooms, theprocess of making American friends cantake a long time, as in the case of Shimpei.Personality, age, and classroom methodolo-gies seemed to have-helped students suchas Serpi and Omar, who took much lesstime to fit in.

Second language literacy Takes a Long Time

One further important factor was evi-dent throughout these cases: second lan-guage acquisition and devaopment, espe-cially reading and writing, are complex, dif-ficult processes which take a long time todevelop to a native-like level. Even whenteachers felt their students' English was

good enough for them to work side by sidewith native speakers, the students couldnot fairly compete. Programs such as theTwo-Way and Integrated Bilingual Educa-tion, which allow students to function as bi-lingual individuals, help students feel thatthey are not always at a disadvantage.

The nice Paid for Lack of Native Language Inshuction

The students in programs such asTBE Support and ESL Only, progressedthrough school but paid a price, due to thelimited or lack of use of their native lan-guage. There were factors, however, thathelped these students: instruction, even iflimited, in the native and second languageby a bilingual teacher; having teachers whocould communicate with those families whospoke only some English; use of inclusivemethodologies by mainstream teachersthat made the students feel part of the class;allowing the use of the native language inmainstream classes; having parents whocould help with homework; success in some-thing, such as math, violin, or swimming;

positive attitude of the school towards thestudents' language; and strong communi-cation and coordination between the TBEand ESL programs and the mainstreamclass. Schools that are implementing thesekinds of programs should consider theabove factors in their implementation.

The one lesson we can learn from allthese stories is the tenacity with whichthese children are facing this difficult expe-rience. They deserve our admiration. Par-ents, teachers and administrators whohave gone the extra mile to help them alsoshould be commended.

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Recommendations

***Value placed on bilingualism in thehome should be reinforced in the schools.Students who feel good about their bilin-gualism have a better chance at overallsuccess in school.

*** There should be careful planningfor the mainstreaming of students in self-contained TBE programs. It should be donegradually, so that the students continue toreceive instruction in the native languagefor part of the time. The teachers shouldcommunicate and coordinate the process,and the mainstream teacher should get toknow the students and their backgrounds.

***In spite of the extraordinary effortsof bilingual and ESL personnel and the stu-dents themselves, the acquisition of the sec-ond language takes a long time to developto a point where it is comparable to that ofnative speakers. For this reason, when stu-dents are in mainstream classes, theirprogress should be recorded systematically,perhaps in the form of portfolios. Giving aC to a student because s/he does not knowenough English seems unfair. Giving thestudent an A or B because of effort seemsto be misleading.

*** The mainstream teachers shouldget to know the parents and their students'background. When a student is workingwith both a bilingual and a mainstreamteacher, they should arrange for confer-ences together rather than leave it up tothe bilingual teacher to make the home

contacts.

*** Mainstream teachers should begiven the chance to observe their bilingualstudents in the bilingual classroom so thatthey can witness how their academic per-formance is different and in most casesmuch richer when functioning in their na-tive language. Thus, they can develop abroader view oftheir students and their ca-pacity.

**0 Schools should develop mecha-nisms to help the bilingual students to as-sociate more with and to make friends withAmerican studenth, and to make them feelaccepted from the very beginning. Workingat computers in pairs, cooperative learningmethods, special projects, field trips, inter-esting American-born students in the cul-ture of their bilingual peers, are but a fewof the activities that can help establish thisearly bond. Another vehicle could be classestaught bilingua/ ly by the bilingual teacherto a mixed group of students.

*** Schools should seriously considerdeveloping programs such as Two-Wayand Integrated Bilingual Education, wherea bilingual, multicultural experience is theschool experience for all. These programmodels provide for a more well-roundededucation for all children. If systems can-not develop a full program, they should con-sider mini-programs that allow all studentsand staff to experience bilingualism andmulticulturalism.

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