Understanding Spanish Academic Language Development Among Latino English Language Learners

• In Event: Understanding Growth: The Challenges of Documenting Bilingual Oral Language Development in Linguistically Segregated Schools

Abstract

Purposes
Across research, policy, and practice, attention has focused on improving the academic language abilities of English Language Learners (ELLs). However, academic language itself has not been clearly defined (Valdés, 2004) in a way that can guide instruction or assessment. This research study sought to better conceptualize academic language by examining students’ language use during one academic practice—learning from science texts in Spanish—and in a specific context—a reading group of Latino ELs attending a linguistically-segregated school. Despite the challenges of linguistically-segregated schools, students’ shared primary language can be a resource for engaging in rigorous academic work (García & Bartlett, 2007). Focusing on Spanish also builds on students’ linguistic resources and affirms the importance of bilingualism and biliteracy for future opportunities and well-being.

Theoretical framework
The study conceptualized reading comprehension as a social process of constructing meaning from text (Aukerman, 2008; Smagorinsky, 2001). Drawing on Lave and Wenger’s (1991) perspective on learning as a process of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, I examined students’ changing participation as evidence of growth.

Methods & data sources
I conducted a design research study (van den Akker et al., 2006), teaching a reading group of fourth graders for seven months. All 85 sessions were audio and videotaped and were analyzed to understand how students used talk to collaboratively construct meaning from text. I identified nine interactional moves as functional for this practice and examined quantitative and qualitative changes in students’ enactment of these moves.

Results
By the end of the year, each student used each interactional move and did so with increasing frequency, suggesting greater and more competent participation in the practice of learning from science text. I posit that students’ discourse developed in three dimensions associated with science literacy: an inquiry approach, intertextuality, and the use of argumentation (Cervetti et al., 2007; Goldman, 1997; Goldman & Bisanz, 2002; Lemke, 1990). The workshop presentation will focus on qualitative analysis of students’ discourse and engage audience members in examining transcripts. In later sessions, students applied textual information for their own social purposes, including to argue, clarify for a peer, and answer their or others’ questions. They engaged in text-based discourse, but also used the text flexibly for their own purposes and increasingly contributed to the group’s collaborative meaning making, as seen from their peers’ responses. This flexibility and application reflect conceptions of comprehension that highlight students’ use of text for social purposes (Aukerman, 2008; Lemke, 1990) and suggest greater comprehension than when readers regurgitate the text’s language.

Scholarly significance
This research offers a contextualized understanding of academic language in Spanish among Latino ELLs in a linguistically-segregated school. Understanding growth as more competent participation raises implications for teaching, underscoring the importance of engaging students in holistic academic practices. In addition, it suggests how assessment can capture students’ language use and analyze it in terms of the practices it accomplishes. Such analysis can inform instruction and help educators articulate clearer and more grounded goals for students.

Author

• Laura Alvarez, WestEd