Conceptual Frameworks for the Study of Bilingual Children With Dis/abilities

• In Event: 47.051 - Sociocultural Traditions to Study Teaching and Teacher Education for the Inclusive Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss theoretical approaches and empirical evidence in support of a sociocultural and integrative perspective on bilingual children from birth to 8 years of age. The changing demographic profile in the U.S. has called for our nation to attend to the diverse needs of children and their families, including children with disabilities and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Young children with disabilities and their families are full members of the community and need to be able to participate in a range of learning activities, settings, and educational environments (Division for Early Childhood [DEC]/National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC], 2009). We argue that the unique experiences of bilingual children at home, their communities and society at large contribute to define these children’s development in distinct ways, and thus, the education of these children should move beyond an exclusive focus on these children’s English acquisition and design practices that take into consideration how their bilingualism will influence all developmental domains and learning processes.

Mainstream theoretical frameworks often used in research examining the development of bilingual children lack applicability for understanding these children’s developmental processes because they are based on the characteristics and experiences of monolingual children, and do not address critical aspects of bilingual children’ specific socio-cultural and learning contexts. Furthermore, conceptual frameworks should recognize the history, circumstances, experiences and culture of bilingual children and their families and avoid simple comparisons between bilingual and monolingual speakers, to address the heterogeneity of the bilingual population. We have examined extant and emerging developmental frameworks related to sociocultural theory (Garcia-Coll et al, 1996; Moll, Amanti, Neffe & Gonzalez, 1992; Perez & Saavedra, 2017; Rogoff, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978) to formulate a conceptual framework that motivates a paradigm shift in research on bilingual children’s development. This framework asserts that:

• dual language learning is an inherently socially-embedded process;
• the acquisition of two languages in young children has no inherent negative social, linguistic or cognitive consequences and, to the contrary, may generate advantages in specific social, linguistic and cognitive domains;
• those engaged in providing early care and learning opportunities are necessarily linguistic, social, cognitive and cultural brokers;
• home-school partnerships are critical to understanding and bridging the divides in early care and learning opportunities;
• understanding development requires understanding the array of activities practiced by children in and outside of formal care and learning venues;
• quality of early care and learning environments should be understood in terms of the socio-cultural and historical nature of their structural, affective, and instructional features;

Research on bilingual children tends to adopt a monolingual, dominant culture, deficit approach providing a very limited understanding of these children’s development. A more appropriate approach for conducting research on these children’s development, then, is one which recognizes that development and learning are embedded in environments that are often unique to bilinguals and that these sources of mutually constituting features are taken into account in the conceptualization, design, implementation, analysis and interpretation of early care and education research with bilinguals.

Author

• Dina C. Castro, University of North Texas