Preparing Bilingual Teachers in the Borderlands: The Role of Language in Bilingual Classrooms

• In Event: 42.042 - Practice in the Borderlands: Teaching and Teacher Education and the Promise of Educational Opportunities

Abstract

Objectives
This study explores bilingual teacher candidates’ understandings of the role of language in bilingual classrooms on the U.S./Mexico border through an analysis of their writing.

Theoretical Framework
A dynamic understanding of bilingualism and biliteracy serves as the foundation for the study. Monoglossic views of language see bilingualism as the sum of two independent languages drawing from a monolingual perspective (Garcia, 2014). Diglossic views assume languages are used for separate purposes in different contexts within a community (Garcia, 2013). Dynamic views of bilingualism understand languages are not separate or autonomous, but are intertwined in the language practices of bilinguals (García & Kleifgen, 2010). Bilingual teacher candidates often have been influenced by monoglossic or diglossic instructional practices that have either, not given them the opportunity to develop literacy in Spanish, or have stigmatized the Spanish variation they speak (Ek & Sánchez, 2008; Guerrero 2003; Smith, Sánchez, Ek & Machado-Casas, 2011; Sutterby, Ayala, & Murillo, 2005). This is the case even in the Rio Grande Valley, a region on the U.S./Mexico border (Smith & Murillo, 2013). Garcia (2013) challenges the notion of diglossia as an appropriate description of language use in multilingual regions, and argues that the dynamic use of languages should be referred to as transglossia. Transglossia is enacted through translanguaging, the “complex discursive practices” of bilinguals. Moreover, “translanguaging is the product of border thinking…” (Garcia, 2013, p. 162). Therefore, it should permeate the preparation of bilingual teachers and be reflected in bilingual classrooms in the borderlands.

Methods and Data Sources
This qualitative case study was conducted at a university on the U.S./Mexico border with 23 Latina bilingual teacher candidates enrolled in one bilingual methods course. We applied thematic analysis to identify patterns of meaning across the data sources (Coffeey, 1996): 1) field experience reflections of bilingual classroom observations, and 2) Lessons plans designed to be implemented in bilingual classrooms along with a rationale for the inclusion of strategies that support language learning through content teaching.

Results
The findings of the study are twofold: First, participants demonstrate their understanding of the role of language in bilingual teaching by incorporating specific instructional strategies in their planning of instruction. Teacher candidates’ reflections on their observations in bilingual classrooms also provide insights into the role of language. These findings evidence how bilingual teacher candidates grapple with the monoglossic practices they experienced and encounter in bilingual classrooms and the dynamic view of bilingualism promoted in their teacher preparation program. Second, findings reveal bilingual teacher candidates’ use of metalinguistic strategies to express their understanding of the role of language. Participants’ writing evidences the transfer of literacy skills acquired through monoglossic instruction contributing to biliteracy development in the transglossic context of their bilingual teacher preparation program.

Significance
Bilingual teacher preparation that stems from a dynamic view of bilingualism is necessary to promote the development of content and pedagogical knowledge as well as the language skills that bilingual teacher candidates require to educate emergent bilingual students in the borderlands.

Authors

• Alma D. Rodriguez, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• Sandra I. Musanti, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley