Opening doors for bilingual students: Recommendations for building linguistically responsive schools

Abstract

In this article, we outline the necessary action steps for schools to improve the achievement of bilingual students. We review, summarize, and utilize the pertinent scholarly literature to make suggestions for school-wide, collaborative efforts to support the achievement of bilingual learners through linguistically responsive pedagogy and practice. Our research-based recommendations include the need for school actors to negotiate language policy and mandates, lay the necessary ideological foundations, build effective school structures and systems, and foster meaningful collaboration with families and communities. When teachers, administrators, counselors, families, and community members work together, schools can improve to promote the social, cultural, linguistic, and academic achievement of bilingual students.

Dialoging About English Learners: Preparing Teachers Through Culturally Relevant Literature Circles

“…In addition to the theme of immigration (Gregor & Green, 2011), literature circle participants collaboratively explored themes and ideas specific to linguistically diverse students, such as (a) students' social and emotional uncertainties about learning and not learning English when starting in U.S. schools, as reflected in teachers' dialog about Amada (Pérez, 2009), (b) students' and families' social and emotional circumstances related to immigration, such as discrimination and extended time away from families and friends, as represented in various texts (Anzaldua, 1997;Medina, 2001;Pérez, 2009), (c) students' and families' negotiation of cultural differences between schools in their native countries and in the U.S., as exhibited in discourse about Jorge (Medina, 2001), (d) students' complex roles as translators and language brokers and the corresponding benefits and demands, emergent from the conversation about Shota (Bateson-Hill, 2001), and (e) teachers' deficit-based perspectives that can pervade expectations of ELs, as well as the importance of native language support and assessment in academic instruction, exhibited in responses to culturally relevant poetry (Medina, 2001). By utilizing texts that highlight the perspective of the linguistically diverse child, teachers explore the social, emotional, cultural, and linguistic dimensions of children and families (Heineke et al, 2012;Wrigley, 2000) that get overshadowed in the staunch focus on academics in contemporary educational settings (Herrera, 2010).…”

“…Eleven million students in the U.S., or 20 percent of national school enrollment, speak a language other than English at home; about one-half of these students do not speak English well enough to be considered fluent (U.S. Department of Education, USDOE, 2010). Educators must be prepared to support the social, emotional, cultural, linguistic, and academic development of English learners (ELs) in classrooms and schools (Heineke, Coleman, Ferrell, & Kersemeier, 2012;Wrigley, 2000). Nevertheless, under-prepared teachers educate the large majority of ELs in the U.S. (Cohen & Clewell, 2007).…”

“…When spanning out to consider empirical studies of teacher preparation for culturally diverse students, research finds the efficacy of culturally relevant texts to build cultural awareness and sensitivity (Labbo, 2007;Wood et al, 2001) and mediate conversations around issues of culture through book clubs, typically utilizing chapter books written for adolescents (Florio-Ruane, 2001;Martínez-Roldán & Heineke, 2011;Rodgers & Mosely, 2008). In this empirical study on teacher preparation for ELs, I seek to close multiple gaps in the literature by investigating culturally relevant literature circles with picture books, typically a pedagogical approach reserved to support children's reading and meaning making (Barone & Barone, 2012;Latendresse, 2004;McElvain, 2010), with characters and plots that merge the social, emotional, cultural, linguistic, and academic dimensions of EL student development (Heineke et al, 2012;Herrera, 2010;Wrigley, 2000).…”

“…In this empirical study centered on teacher learning for ELs, I extend the small-group approach to cultural diversity utilized with in-service teachers in school settings to include exploration of candidates' learning in culturally relevant literature circles about the social, emotional, cultural, linguistic, and academic abilities and needs of ELs in the university setting (Heineke et al, 2012;Wrigley, 2000).…”

Latino Parents of English Learners in Catholic Schools: Home vs. School Based Educational Involvement

“…Although there are many differences among children who fall into the homogenous EL category, researchers have identified several commonalities that have implications for educational achievement (Heineke, Coleman, Ferrell, & Kersemeier, 2012;Herrera, 2010;Howard, Paéz, August, Barr, Kenyon, & Malabonga, 2014;Leung & Uchikoshi, 2012;Wrigley, 2000). Specifically, ELs are more likely to have parents with lower formal education levels than their non-EL counterparts (Capps, Fix, Murray, Ost, Passel, & Hewantoro, 2005) and to come from low-income, immigrant families (Garcia & Cuellar, 2006).…”