Bilingual Teaching Practices in Secondary Schools

• In Event: Enacting Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy for Multilingual Learners: Investigating Novice Teachers’ Practices

Abstract

Purpose

While more can be learned about bilingual education at the primary grades there is scant research on bilingual education in secondary schools. The scarcity of research on bilingual education in secondary schools is likely due to the common stagnation of dual language programs at grades 5 or 8. In addition to challenges with student scheduling, availability of target language curriculum and materials and student attrition, there is a lack of qualified content area teachers prepared to teach in the target language (Boyle, August, Tabaku, Cole, & Simpson-Baird, 2015; Montone & Loeb, 2000). Given the scant research on bilingual teacher practices in secondary school and lack of bilingual qualified content area teachers, we highlight the experiences of secondary preservice teachers seeking teaching certification in their respective content areas and a bilingual authorization in Spanish. Specifically, we examine bilingual preservice teacher practices and the instructional pivots they make to deliver content area instruction in Spanish to high school emergent bilinguals.

Theoretical Framework, Methods & Data Sources

This study is grounded in discourse analysis. The analytic procedure taken provides a description of the discourse practice, interpretation and explanation (Rogers, 2004). To identify the instructional pivots bilingual preservice teachers made in delivering content area instruction in Spanish, we audio-recorded the teachers as they provided content instruction in Spanish and wrote field notes based on the classroom observations. In addition, we collected lesson plans, gathered lesson reflections and interviewed the preservice teachers. We coded for instructional practices and pivots the bilingual preservice teachers made in response to challenges they and their students faced with language use, logistical constraints and content understanding. Following coding and emergence of themes, we conducted member-checks with the teacher participants to ensure accuracy of interpretations.

Results & Significance

Preliminary analysis shows that the teachers faced logistical issues such as absence of rigorous grade-appropriate instructional materials in Spanish. The preservice teachers practiced resourcefulness to locate necessary materials through on-line venues. The emergent bilinguals in the high school content classes varied in their Spanish language proficiency; few had learned the particular content area in Spanish and few had any formal experience learning any content in Spanish. The variation in student Spanish language proficiency challenged the preservice teachers to differentiate Spanish instruction in a way that students with and without formal instruction in Spanish could access content. By examining the instructional practices and pivots bilingual preservice teachers in high school make when teaching content areas such as Chemistry, Biology, Math and Social Studies in Spanish, this study will help elucidate the challenges and possibilities of teaching content areas in Spanish. Understanding the challenges and possibilities high school teachers face when teaching content in Spanish will be instrumental in providing teacher education programs and professional development providers with information to better prepare secondary teachers to teach their content areas in dual language high school programs.
 

Authors

• Marco A. Bravo, Santa Clara University

• Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Santa Clara University