The effect of Arizona language policies on Arizona Indigenous students

Combs, Mary Carol; Nicholas, Sheilah E.

doi:10.1007/s10993-011-9230-7

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Furthermore, in common with many other Anglophone countries, high-stakes educational testing in literacy and numeracy has been introduced, partly justified as a means to reduce Indigenous disadvantage by ensuring competency in English (Allendorf 2017;Macqueen et al 2018;McCarty 2009;Ryan and Whitman 2013;Wyman et al 2010). In Australia, USA, and Canada, where rates of Indigenous language loss have been the most dramatic, the results of nationwide tests for educational attainment, conducted in English, have been used to reduce support for bilingual education (Combs and Nicholas 2012;Devlin 2011;Wyman et al 2010). But development of these policies focused on English competency has seen less emphasis on the effect of formal education on competency in Indigenous languages, nor on appropriate ways to evaluate such an effect (Hinton 2011;Macqueen et al 2018;O'Grady 2018), leading to the 'squandering of the personal, community, and national linguistic and intellectual resources within the mainstream classroom' (Cummins 2005).…”

Section: The Effects Of Education In English and Exposure To Gurindjimentioning

confidence: 99%

Language endangerment: a multidimensional analysis of risk factors

Bromham

Hua

Algy

et al. 2020

Journal of Language Evolution

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The world is facing a crisis of language loss that rivals, or exceeds, the rate of loss of biodiversity. There is an increasing urgency to understand the drivers of language change in order to try and stem the catastrophic rate of language loss globally and to improve language vitality. Here we present a unique case study of language shift in an endangered Indigenous language, with a dataset of unprecedented scale. We employ a novel multidimensional analysis, which allows the strength of a quantitative approach without sacrificing the detail of individual speakers and specific language variables, to identify social, cultural, and demographic factors that influence language shift in this community. We develop the concept of the ‘linguatype’, a sample of an individual’s language variants, analogous to the geneticists’ concept of ‘genotype’ as a sample of an individual’s genetic variants. We use multidimensional clustering to show that while family and household have significant effects on language patterns, peer group is the most significant factor for predicting language variation. Generalized linear models demonstrate that the strongest factor promoting individual use of the Indigenous language is living with members of the older generation who speak the heritage language fluently. Wright–Fisher analysis indicates that production of heritage language is lost at a significantly faster rate than perception, but there is no significant difference in rate of loss of verbs vs nouns, or lexicon vs grammar. Notably, we show that formal education has a negative relationship with Indigenous language retention in this community, with decreased use of the Indigenous language significantly associated with more years of monolingual schooling in English. These results suggest practical strategies for strengthening Indigenous language retention and demonstrate a new analytical approach to identifying risk factors for language loss in Indigenous communities that may be applicable to many languages globally.

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Section: The Effects Of Education In English and Exposure To Gurindjimentioning

confidence: 99%

Language endangerment: a multidimensional analysis of risk factors

Bromham

Hua

Algy

et al. 2020

Journal of Language Evolution

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“…15-752). As Combs and Nicholas (2012) write, with the advent of these state laws “enrollment in Indigenous language programs became, if not illegal, certainly more complicated” (p. 103).…”

Section: Looking Back and Moving Forward: Lessons From A Generation Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Reclaiming Indigenous Languages

McCarty

Nicholas

2014

Review of Research in Education

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“…English‐only policies have drastic consequences for many multilingual students in the United States: retention, intervention programs, segregated learning environments, and special education services (Combs & Nicholas, ; DaSilva Iddings et al., ; Souto‐Manning, ). This litany of subtractive schooling practices (Valenzuela, ) limits access to inquiry opportunities, flexible curricula, opportunities for play, and full inclusion in classrooms.…”

Section: Language Policy and Issues Of Equitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Playful Literacies, Creativity, and Multilingual Practices

Yoon¹

2019

The Reading Teacher

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This article highlights children's creative and complex literacy practices, specifically when given space to express multiple languages in authentic contexts. I like my chick. My chik can run. the chik have a mom. the chick have a nest. he sleep in the nest. (Mohandus, kindergartner; all names are pseudonyms)M ohandus and his family were recent immi grants from Somalia to a city in the South western United States. His teacher identified him as one of the brightest in the classroom, and my semester long observations supported the teacher's assessment. Mohandus finished his work quickly and easily, participated in class discussions, and main tained focus during classroom activity. When I asked him what strategies he used to complete the story about the chick, he responded, "I sounded out the words," articulating one of the expectations for kin dergarten writers.Mohandus was one of 18 kindergartners in the classroom, most of whom were classified as English Language Developing (ELD). The classroom was a diverse, global, multilingual space. Refugee students from Somalia, recent immigrants from Mexico, stu dents from the Marshall Islands, Spanish speaking natives of the state, and four white students formed this vibrant classroom community.In this particular classroom, the kindergarten writing goals were clearly outlined: Write four sen tences, use punctuation, capitalize the first word in sentences, and place spaces between words. Most students found ways to efficiently and effec tively navigate these rules for writing. For example, Mohandus had a formula for writing stories that was consistent across the year. He started each story with "I like," included notable sight words (e.g., my, have, mom, the, can), and carefully placed empha sized periods to meet the minimum requirements.Mohandus was not the only student who adopted this strategy. Academic pressures around kinder garten readiness (Graue, 2006), coupled with state mandated testing that threatened student retention, made prescriptive literacy tasks common across many classrooms. Curriculum and assessments were designed to meet these pressures, leaving little time for students to engage in authentic language and literacy tasks. Thus, opportunities for creativ ity were often limited and overtaken by language activities such as this one.As is the case in many kindergarten class rooms, completed literacy tasks came with the reward and promise of play, a time period that was sacred to many of the other students in the class room. Therefore, spending too much time craft ing sentences, completing worksheets about letter sounds, cutting out sight words, and reading decod able books meant less time to play. Through speedy work, Mohandus ensured ample opportunities to engage in less structured activities.Mohandus was an emergent bilingual student who spoke both Somali and English, and his lan guage dexterity was disadvantageous for him given the sociopolitical context of this region of the United States. English only policies limited opportunities for Mohandus to develo...

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The effect of Arizona language policies on Arizona Indigenous students

Cited by 23 publications

References 15 publications

Language endangerment: a multidimensional analysis of risk factors

Language endangerment: a multidimensional analysis of risk factors

Reclaiming Indigenous Languages

Playful Literacies, Creativity, and Multilingual Practices

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