crafting a comprehensive response to cultural and linguistic diversity: a perspective from the u.s....
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Crafting a Comprehensive Response to Cultural and Linguistic Diversity:
A Perspective from the U.S.
FORUMCentre for International Mobility and Cooperation
Helsinki, Finland26.1.2012
Nancy L. Commins, Ph.D.University of Turku 2011-2012 Fulbright
Scholar
Guiding Questions
• How can we build on the opportunities that linguistic and cultural diversity provide?
• What kinds of common understandings and principles are needed to guide our work?
• How can knowledge about learning through two languages enhance the way we structure educational policies and programs?
Big Ideas
• Issues of linguistic and cultural diversity are connected to larger issues of race, poverty and prejudice
• Instruction organized with the needs of second language learners in mind will benefit every student in the classroom.
• Chances for success improve when all the adults in a school (or system) share responsibility for the success of all students
• The degree to which this can happen is dependent on the vision and wisdom of school leaders
Reality of Linguistic & Cultural Diversity
• Learning through a second language is much more than just “learning a second language”
• It is more challenging to teach students who are learning through their second language
• When teachers and students come from different cultural and language backgrounds, there can be many misunderstandings in both directions.
Bottom Line
The goal of all educators should be to improve the academic achievement of EVERY child in the school. The question before every staff should be: “How can we best organize ourselves and our resources to meet the needs of ALL students?”
Miramontes, Nadeau & Commins, 2011
Perspective Needed in the U.S.
Students who enter school speaking a language other than English are not broken.
THEY DO NOT NEED TO BE FIXED
RANGE OF PROGRAM STRUCTURES:
Programs for second language learners can be placed on a continuum, based on how much of the students’ primary language is used in instruction.
RANGE OF PROGRAM STRUCTURES IN THE U.S.
> All English Instruction> Primary Language Support
Content Reinforcement / No Literacy
> Primary Language InstructionLiteracy Only
> Full Primary Language Foundation Content & Literacy Instruction
Effectiveness?
Research shows that all of these program structures include instruction in English and all can produce academically proficient English speakers. HOWEVER
They vary in important ways
– The length of time it will take
– The extent to which teachers will need to modify their instruction to make the curriculum understandable to all students
– Students’ potential for lifetime bilingualism
How is academic competence best
developed in linguistically diverse
settings?
First and Second Language Acquisition:Common Underlying Proficiency
Surface Level
L1 L2
Common Underlying Proficiency
Adapted from Jim Cummins by John Hilliard, IRC
Learning through the Mother Tongue
Listening, observing, reading, and imitating, doing
Speaking, writing, artistic expression, physical movement, etc.
Deepen the Reservoir Strengthen the Pathways
Learning a Second Language Begins With Representing What is Already Known
L2
Adding to the Reservoir Through a Second Language
L2
L2
TRANSFER
Our Job As Educators
Fill the reservoir as deeply as possible
Assure that students are gaining concepts and knowledge and practicing higher order thinking skills – no matter the context or the language used to do so
Students Need To Be Able To
Talk about Interact with
Act on Read about Write about
Connect to
Important Ideas
The figure at the end of the road represents academic bilingualism.
Emerging bilinguals are traveling on both pathways
Our role: Make sure students can get there.
Implication for Instruction:
Students benefit when teachers organize instruction to help them take what they know in one language and express it through the other.
Critical Understanding
If we organize for the whole school based on the understandings that guide instruction for ELLs
the blue pathwaythen every child, regardless of language background or proficiency, would benefit.Including highly literate native speakers of the dominant language!
Putting Linguistic & Cultural Diversity At The Center Of The Work
Teaching & Learning in Linguistically & Culturally Diverse Settings
Homogeneous Groups in L1
Homogeneous Groups in L2
Heterogeneous Groups
Exploring Bilingualism
Sociopolitical Context - Global Issues
Lessons in C1 Groups
Lessons In C2 Groups
Lessons in Integrated Groups
Direct Instruction on Equity and Intercultural Competence
Time to Practice Equity and Intercultural Competence
Developed by Nancy Commins, Silvia Latimer & Sheila Shannon
A Contribution to the Evolving Dialogue
Putting Linguistic & Cultural Diversity At The Center Of The Work
Engage in school-wide efforts in which all adults share in the decision making
& instructional responsibilities for all students.
Underlying Assumptions• Learning is a process of development that is both dynamic and
constructive.
• The primary language, developed in the context of social interaction, is fundamental to the thinking, learning, and identity of every individual.
• Students’ first and second languages interact with each other. The instructional opportunities students receive in each language will play a critical role in determining their levels of bilingualism and academic achievement in any language.
• Bilingualism is a cognitive, social, and economic asset for all people, and schools can play a significant role in helping students from English and non-English backgrounds develop full academic bilingualism.
• Individuals will need to function in a multicultural society. Students’ knowledge of their own culture as well as the culture of others is important not only to their school performance but to their overall success in life.
Miramontes, Nadeau and Commins (2011) 2nd Edition Teachers College PressRestructuring Schools For Linguistic Diversity: Linking Decision to Effective Programs
Miramontes, Nadeau and Commins (2011) 2nd Edition Teachers College PressRestructuring Schools For Linguistic Diversity: Linking Decision to Effective Programs
Underlying Assumptions• The sociopolitical context has a direct impact on
pedagogical decisions about education. Educators’ underlying attitudes toward students’ families, cultures, and languages shape their instructional approaches and can result in very different academic outcomes for students from differing backgrounds.
• Schools can make a positive and significant difference for students when educators account for the complex interaction of language, culture, and context, and decisions are made within a coherent theoretical framework.
• In all programs, there are ways to organize even limited resources to optimize student achievement. The most effective programs for linguistically diverse students result from a decision-making process that involves a total school community.
• These assumptions hold true for all students, set the vision for the entire school, and provide the foundation for Organizing Principles (see Chapter 2).
Miramontes, Nadeau and Commins (2011) 2nd Edition Teachers College PressRestructuring Schools For Linguistic Diversity: Linking Decision to Effective Programs
Organizing Principles
• Active learning • The primary language foundation • Learning through two languages• Strategies and contexts for second language
development• Standards-based differentiated instruction • Instructional assessment• Sociocultural and political implications• Parents and community• Intercultural competence• School-wide process for decision making
Miramontes, Nadeau and Commins (2011) 2nd Edition Teachers College PressRestructuring Schools For Linguistic Diversity: Linking Decision to Effective Programs
Take A Moment To Reflect
• How does this mindset interface with the initiatives already in place in Finland?
• How can these understandings be used to improve outcomes for students?
• How can these understandings be more explicitly incorporated into educational policies and practices?
• What are the implications for research?
Possible Topics For Further Discussion
• The best way to move forward with these understandings in mind
• The most likely source of resistance to making change will come from….
• A place where immediate steps could be taken…..
• What you could do in your position to put these understandings into practice….
