Supporting Emergent Bilinguals through Linguistically Appropriate Instruction

Being able to use linguistically appropriate instruction is an important area of competence for teachers of young emergent bilinguals. This chapter synthesizes theory and research that is key background knowledge for making linguistically informed instructional decisions: information on proficiency levels, on second language acquisition (SLA), and on classroom language demands. From this foundation, the chapter proposes four functions of linguistically appropriate instructional strategies: (1) getting emergent bilinguals involved in classroom routines and providing ample opportunities for interaction; (2) drawing on emergent bilinguals’ existing language and literacy competencies; (3) promoting grade-level vocabulary learning; and (4) scaffolding listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Finally, this chapter offers some specific suggestions of activities or instructional strategies that fulfill each of these functions along with additional resources that may be helpful.

The Effect of New Environments on Children’s Language Ability

Change is the only constant. This is the mantra for immigrant children and those who serve them. Schools and communities are employing various approaches to addressing the needs of these children and their families. In many schools, there are several levels of English proficiency. Students who are in the initial level have the lowest level of English proficiency, while those at the terminal level have the highest level. State reading standards are unique for each of these levels. ELL classrooms are often challenging places to teach and learn because students in them come from an assortment of different backgrounds and have many different proficiency levels. Because of this, many learners need individualized or differentiated instruction. This chapter explores how an early intervention language specialist addresses the needs of immigrant learners at a Title I kindergarten class as recorded in an instructional journal.

Crossing Borders toward Young Transnational Lives

Young immigrant youth often live their lives across borders, either by physically crossing them for return visits and/or by metaphorically crossing them through social media and cultural identification. The authors argue these students are better understood as transnational, shifting the focus for educators away from imagining their immigrant students on a straight, one-way path to assimilation in the U.S. to understanding these youths’ abilities to cross borders. Specifically, they call for a redesignation of English Language Learners (ELLs) as Transnational English Learners (TELs). Highlighting examples of educators’ successful border-crossing work, the authors call for educators to cross borders as well in their curriculum and relationships with transnational youth.

Using Technology to Address the Challenges to Effective Assessment of Young Learners who are Immigrants

Assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. Assessment data is gathered to monitor progress and developmental gains in child development and learning, to guide curriculum planning and decision making, to identify special needs, and to evaluate the effectiveness of early childhood programs. Current research indicates that assessment data gathered from children who are immigrants does not always lead to the development of effective curriculum and instruction, and the data is not reliable in identifying immigrant children with special needs. This chapter discusses the possible technologies available to mitigate the threats and challenges that continue to affect the gathering of effective assessment data from young learners who are immigrants.

“I’m Not from the Dominant Culture!”

The United States has experienced a large growth in the number of immigrant students who speak English as a non-native language. The results of a 2004 survey on the topic of English Learners (ELs) or English Language Learners (ELLs) showed the number of ELs had almost doubled to 5,119,561 in public schools across the nation (NCELA, 2008). These ELLs bring their cross-cultural expectations into dominant culture classrooms, and teachers must be prepared to meet the cross-cultural issues between student and teacher that might occur, where ultimately the student loses. Similarly, North Dakota has experienced enormous surges in its ELL populations in its previously culturally homogenous population; consequently, mainstream teachers struggle to learn how to interact with culturally diverse students. Instances of cultural dissonance negatively impact students’ performance and school culture. The awareness of culture and how it impacts content learning is thus a subject of critical importance, and developing cultural awareness as well as effective and culturally relevant instructional methods is a necessity for all classroom teachers. Therefore, this chapter describes multiple methods and strategies that are linguistically appropriate and culturally relevant for all teachers, but particularly for teachers of ELLs.

Protective Factors Immigrant Children Bring to the Classroom

This chapter focuses on strengths and protective factors immigrant children bring into the classroom. If well nurtured, these strengths can enhance immigrant children’s positive outcomes and those of future generations. The “immigrant paradox” is a phenomenon used to describe the positive outcomes of immigrant children despite developmental risks associated with their relocation and adjustment. Unfortunately, the effects of these protective factors reduce with later generations. This incredible loss is a gap that educators could fill. Using strategies that give immigrant families and children “voice” is critical in breaking through the barriers, stereotypes, attitudes, and under-information that come between the educators and the immigrant children in their care. Some strategies that have proven effective in accessing immigrant children’s strengths are suggested in this chapter.

Multicultural Curricular Frameworks for Preservice Teachers

One in four children in the US has a parent who is an immigrant. Studies indicate that by and large such students are at-risk for learning and their increasing numbers continue to significantly impact the labor force and the future of the country in multiple facets. Additionally, teachers shoulder a huge responsibility in educating immigrant learners, and their performance is a function of how well teacher education programs prepare them for their work. In contemporary scenario, the performance of teachers depends on how their teacher education programs prepare them for multicultural Pre K-12 classes. To this end, a social justice orientation is useful for teachers working in multicultural classrooms because it allows teachers to strive for equity by employing culturally responsive curriculum. The chapter author presents multicultural frameworks and models with a social justice orientation that could assist preservice teachers to become more effective in their instructional practices.

Preparing Teachers to be Effective in Cross-Cultural Learning Environments

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 18.9 percent of elementary and middle school teachers are from diverse backgrounds. Only 15 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers are minority (“Household Data Annual Averages,” 2008). The current teacher workforce remains predominantly white, middle class (Hughes & Kwok, 2007), and female (Kearney, 2008; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clark & Curran, 2004; Garmon, 2005; Thomas & Kearney, 2008). Another problem that affects teacher workforce is that half of new teachers leave their jobs within their first five years of teaching (Kearney, 2008). Because of high burn out due to improper working conditions and lack of support, teachers are leaving schools with a high minority rate (Horng, 2009). Therefore, this chapter is intended to stimulate reflections on strategies to deal with the increasing diversity in the national teacher educator workforce. Further, since diversity is a complex issue, issues that teachers of all ethnicities (including white) come across in working with culturally diverse learners are also examined.

Mathematics Acquisition and Immigrant Children

Given that early mathematics education lays the foundation for later mathematics achievement, teachers of young children have the responsibility and challenge of providing effective mathematics instruction to all children, including those who are immigrants. This chapter discusses four key points relevant to mathematics acquisition and immigrant children: (a) bilingualism as an asset, (b) strengths of immigrant families, (c) teachers' mathematical knowledge, and (d) developmentally appropriate mathematics environment. It is suggested that institutions of higher education, administrators, and teachers of young children consider those four key points, and that each topic is linked to on-going professional development for the purpose of effective instruction.

Building on What They Bring

As each child arrives in school with a series of family-provided and possibly previous-schooling-provided memories and experiences to draw from, culturally responsive teachers probe, learn about, and build upon these opportunities. With a focus on ways to best tailor instruction to capitalize upon the strengths each child brings to the classroom, this chapter explores some of the ways cultural norms around mathematics may shape a young child’s early mathematical experiences in a U.S.-based school setting. Additionally, this chapter includes a focus on the key role of families and ways culturally mediated beliefs about the role of the teacher and learner influence mathematics instruction. Further, this chapter touches upon several specific mathematical examples that differ around the world.