Young Emergent Bilinguals' Classroom Participation: Access to Language and Learning Opportunities

• In Event: 44.047 - Explorations of Bilingualism and Biliteracy as a Resource Across School, College, and Career: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Objectives
Research demonstrates that (English-Spanish) emergent bilinguals experience teaching, learning, and curriculum practices that marginalize, silence, and limit their bilingual and academic potential (Flores, Kleyn, & Menken, 2015; Author, 2010, 2015-a; Poza, 2016; Valdés, 1998). This paper analyzes the differential participation of English monolinguals and emergent bilinguals in two different programs—DLI and Transition to English—to determine how it affected learning opportunities. Analysis of participatory moves and patterns across English and Spanish demonstrates that first, English monolinguals enacted an “entitlement to learning” and second, emergent bilinguals engaged more dynamically when working together than with English monolinguals.
Theoretical Framework
This paper employs cultural-historical perspectives that view learning as interactionally constituted as peers and teachers appropriate co-participants’ understandings, knowledge, and sense-making (Cole, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978). From this perspective, children learn language as they engage linguistic forms within their current level of English proficiency as well as beyond it, or within their zone of proximal development. It is also informed by literature that demonstrates how participatory moves and patterns—including silence (Schultz, 2009)—affect learning (Au & Mason, 1983; Erickson & Mohatt, 1977).
Methods and Data Sources
This analysis draws from two semester-long studies of curriculum practices in DLI and Transition classrooms and was guided by the following question: How did students participate across English and Spanish in bilingual classrooms and how did it affect their learning opportunities? Both studies employed ethnographic methods, including participant observations, primary document collection, photography, and audio recordings (Creswell, 2009). The DLI classroom included emergent bilinguals and English monolinguals working in both languages, whereas the Transition classroom included emergent bilinguals beginning English-only instruction.
This analysis draws from field notes, analytic memos, primary documents (e.g., worksheets), photographs, and audio recorded classroom interactions. Inductive data analysis revealed major themes related to English monolingual and emergent bilingual students’ distinct participation in social and academic tasks, activities, and discussions across English and Spanish (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2013).
Results
First, the participatory moves and patterns of English monolinguals in the DLI classroom revealed an “entitlement to learning,” or situated ways they appropriated new knowledge, actively extended others’ ideas, openly employed their musings, and assertively engaged with peers and teachers. This participation differed from that of emergent bilinguals, regardless of the language of instruction, since emergent bilinguals engaged more actively when they worked together by, for example, posing and answering questions, sharing understandings, employing metalinguistic awareness, and articulating critical thinking. Analysis showed that students exploited curriculum practices in ways that affected their opportunities to learn across languages.
Scholarly Significance
This analysis demonstrates that the dispositions and deep knowledge of how classrooms work differed among English monolinguals and emergent bilinguals and resulted in varied learning opportunities. It emphasizes that educators must extend their focus beyond language to include the participatory moves and patterns that facilitate learning, such as the uptake of new knowledge, the active extension of others’ ideas, and assertive engagement with co-participants.

Author

• Mariana Pacheco, University of Wisconsin - Madison