Small-Group Discussions Provide Insight About Bilingual Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Bilingual Voices: Learning From Our Community

Abstract

Small group discussions were employed as a means to explore fourth and fifth grade bilingual children’s attitudes toward bilingual education and bilingualism in three different school settings. School A (n = 4 students) was a Spanish-English dual-language immersion school, School B (n = 5 students) was a monolingual English school that was in the process of converting to a Spanish-English dual-language school, and School C (n = 5 students) was a monolingual English school. The most biased pro-bilingual arguments were articulated by children in School A, while the most balanced discussion was held by students in School C, contrary to hypotheses. Children’s voices are seldom heard or considered in the bilingual education debate, and this study privileges those voices.

Authors

• Patrick Proctor, Boston College

• Joelle Marie Pedersen, Boston College

• Marcela Ossa Parra, Boston College