Academic and Occupational Language Development of Bilingual Immigrant

Students in a Teacher Education Program

Case Studies

JOSÉ BEIJERFaculty of Education

Research Centre for Multicultural Education Jose.Beijer@hu.nl

My presentation

Method Case studies: charateristic situations Findings Recommendations

Motives

Language problems : ‘First aid Post’ Cure instead of prevention No language development in the curriculum No language development on the workplace Is language the main problem?

Growth of bilingual immigrant students in the faculty (18%)

Language problems: loss of students

Aim

To gain insight into the way students go on in courses andon the workplace:

- To fulfill assignments- Interaction with teachers, coaches- Interaction with fellow students, colleagues

Theoretical frame

(Applied) linguistics• Explicit versus implicit language learning, content-based

approach• Intercultural communicative competence

Learning theory• Social constructivism

Research Questions

How do bilingual immigrant students go about in their study and on the workplace?

How do they solve their problems, particularly language problems?

How do teacher educators and school coaches address the needs of bilingual immigrant students?

Which expertise of teacher educators and school coaches is needed for effectively support in academic and occupational language development?

Data collection

Kind of research: exploratory; qualitative

Period Six months Data Participant observation

InterviewsVideo recordings

Setting Faculty• competence-based training curriculum• seminar of work experience reflection Workplace (school)

Participants

4 Students- 1st year of their study- Identified themselves as bilingual immigrant students- 2 newcomers- 2 born and grown up in the Netherlands

Teachers- 3 teacher trainers- 3 schoolcoaches

Participants

Student Previous education

Admission requirements

Course

Nadya Secondary education in Russia

Foreign diplomaNational exam Dutch as L2

Teacher training program of English

Ghita University studies in anthropology and sociology (India)

Foreign diplomaNational exam Dutch as L2

Teacher training program of English

Mohamed Incomplete secondary and further schooling

Mature student Teacher training program of history

Omer Incomplete secondary and further schooling

Mature student Teacher training program of history

Initial situation(1)

NADYA

. Motivated : – to learn the Dutch language – to become a teacher

. Autonomous language learner

. Aware of using the Dutch language in her study

. Dutch boy-friend

. Home language: Dutch“I come from Russia, then a lot of

questions. So then you always have to say something or to tell

something”

Initial situation (2)

GHITA

-Near native speaker of English-Inadequate information and unrealistic expectations-Dutch husband-Home language: English

“I never anticipated that the teaching material would not be in English”

Initial situation (3)MOHAMED- little academic language proficiency - not motivated to improve his language

proficiency -only contact with Turkish fellow students,

teacher, friends, family- home language Turkish

OMER- little academic language proficiency- not motivated to improve his language

proficiency- contact with Turkish and Dutch fellow

students, teachers, friends - a Dutch girl-friend- home language: Turkish “you understand each other immediately”

Visions on language proficiency

Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation

StudentsMohamed: “sentence use is what I actually must work on”Omer: “I don’t get on in stories, I don’t finish”.

“I speak too fast”. “I have to look up more words

than Dutch students”.

Teachers“he hardly articulates at all in my opinion” (Omer)

“he doesn’t get on in stories, lots of hesitations, starts sentences again, doesn’t finish sentences” (Omer)

“he repeats his self very much, and I switch off”

Feedback

Comments on language proficiency by students, teachers

and coaches : ad hoc and arbitrary

No language criteria or frames for (new) assignments like: writing a reflective report, a portfolio, essays,

collegial coaching,………………

Teacher “ it’s the content of Omer’s contributions that’s most

important and comments about his use of language might be seen as disqualifying the content of what he says”

Informed about each others notions? (1)

Omer

“I don’t get on in stories, I don’t finish”

Teacher

“he doesn’t get on in stories, lots of hesitations, starts sentences again, doesn’t finish sentences”

“ it’s the content of Omer’s contributions that’s most important and comments about his use of language might be seen as disqualifying the content of what he says”

Informed about each others notions? (2)

Nadya

“I have the idea that if I would say or tell something, then if it works, no one would be interested … or I would say something wrong. I find that it is a bit difficult. Because I have the idea that they can do it better, or they know more … I'm a bit behind or something like that.“

Teacher

“Nadya participates very well and has a very good contribution to the discussion”.

Language training on the job

Coach

(Omer, Mohamed)

“I don’t pay attention to professional language, the students will learn it on their own while doing practice”

Language training on the job (2)

Coach

(Nadya)

The coach works on the development of her professional competencies but does not pay any explicit attention to her language competencies, although he does do this implicitly.

Nadya (beginning of a lesson)

"What you have now done, and it's the first time that I have seen it, is that you actually used their names – and that you see that it helps immediately. Don't say "quiet please" but "Farida …"

Nadya (the difficult group)

[English equivalent of original Dutch:] "In fact they were starting to sabotage things, I thought. And then you can get mad at them or want to win the battle against them, but it's better to say 'OK then, you just don't take part any more'. They think that's in fact much worse."

Is language the problem?

GHITA

Work placement

Start of the lesson: "jackets off, mobiles off,

I have a lot to tell you and I'm waiting patiently."

In her lessons : one-on-one contact

pupils are constantly talking to each other ,

or trying noisily to attract her attention.

Findings

Too little attention for academic and occupational language proficiency

No attention to initial language situation of individual students Limited vision on language proficiency No attention to language training on the job Lack of systematic feedback Lack of criteria for language proficiency for study and profession Teachers, coaches and students are not informed about each

others notions about language proficiency of the student No relations between language proficiency (problems) in different

situations Language problems not always the main problems

Recommendations(1) Language development integrated part of the curriculum

Faculty

Linguistic starting situation part of an assessment Information about programs:

• Attention to language proficiency• Language use

Recommendations (2) Language development integrated part of the curriculum

Teachers/ coaches

Distinguish language problems from didactic, pedagogical and other problems

Should be professionalized in:

- Concept of language proficiency as intercultural communicative competence

- Teaching by content based language instruction

- Creating a safe and comfortable learning environment

Recommendations (3) Language development integrated part of the curriculum

Programs

Framework for language competencies (part of professional competencies)

Attention to language development should be part of the course – and career counseling component

Thank you for your attention!