Improving Literacy Outcomes for Latino Students: Ideology, Research, and Practice Claude Goldenberg, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 27
About This Presentation
Title:

Improving Literacy Outcomes for Latino Students: Ideology, Research, and Practice Claude Goldenberg,

Description:

ELLs--and Spanish-speaking in particular--tend to lag behind English-proficient ... Positive transfer L1 (Spanish) to L2 (English) Few negative transfer outcomes ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:60
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 28
Provided by: read4
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Improving Literacy Outcomes for Latino Students: Ideology, Research, and Practice Claude Goldenberg,


1
Improving Literacy Outcomes for Latino Students
Ideology, Research, and PracticeClaude
Goldenberg, CSU Long BeachIRA Reading Research
ConferenceApril 30, 2005
2
Ideology
  • a body of ideas characteristic of a particular
    social group or class
  • ideas that help to legitimate a dominant
    political power
  • systematically distorted communication
  • forms of thought motivated by social interests
  • socially necessary illusion
  • how conscious social actors make sense of their
    world
  • action-oriented sets of beliefs
  • semiotic closure
  • Source Eagleton, T. (1991). Ideology An
    introduction. London Verso.

3
Ideology
What persuades men and women to mistake each
other from time to time for gods or vermin is
ideology. Eagleton (1991)
4
Outline of the rest of my comments
  • The Latino population in the US
  • What guidance does the research offer?
  • The ideological (and political) challenges

5
The need is great
  • Number of ELLs (limited English proficient) in
    US schools has increased considerably
  • Nearly 5 million ELLs (gt70--3.5
    million--Latino) in public schools, nearly 10 of
    public K-12 enrollment.
  • ELLs--and Spanish-speaking in particular--tend
    to lag behind English-proficient peers in
    academic achievement.
  • There are serious consequences for youth and
    adults whose literacy levels are low and who
    remain limited-English proficient.

6
The US Latino population
  • Very diverse, but overall tends to be
  • younger (36lt18yrs old vs. 24 non Hisp whites)
  • poorer (2335K/yr vs. 49)
  • less educated (57 high school vs. 88)
  • than native-born or other foreign-born US
    residents.

7
The US Latino population
  • More likely to be immigrant or child of
    immigrants than the rest of the US population
    (gt39 Latinos foreign born).
  • 1/4 of Latino students speak mostly Spanish at
    home 17 speak English and Spanish equally.
  • Within the Latino population, persons of
    Mexican and Central American origin tend to have
    lowest levels of income and education Cubans the
    highest.

8
Latinos comprise 14 of the total US population
(40/291 million) and growing
9
  • what

What guidance does the research offer?
10
Some general observations on ELL research
  • There is useful research, but surprisingly
    little on many important topics (e.g.,
    accelerating English acquisition)
  • What exists is often of uneven quality,
    non-programmatic, and difficult to use as basis
    for policy and practice
  • Much of the research that exists suggests that
    ELLs learn in much the same way as EOs
  • Differences that exist have to do with language
    limitations rather than socio-cultural
    differences in how students learn
  • Ideological and political issues are difficult
    to disentangle from empirical research

11
Research topics
  • Transfer
  • Language of instruction
  • Other instructional studies
  • More complex approaches
  • Sociocultural factors

12
Transfer of literacy skills from first to second
language
  • What is transfer? (positive and negative)
  • Does knowing academic skills in one language
    help learn academic skills in another?

13
Transfer of literacy skills
  • Positive transfer L1 (Spanish) to L2 (English)
  • Few negative transfer outcomes
  • Vocabulary transfer from cognate languages
  • Transfer of comprehension strategies
  • Little/nothing about phonics transfer

14
Transfer of literacy skills
  • Writing
  • Positive transfer
  • Invented spelling
  • Orthography is important
  • Spelling
  • Negative transfer to surface structure, but
  • invented spelling might be positive.

15
Language of instruction
  • L1 (e.g., Spanish) instruction is beneficial
    for L2 (e.g., English) achievement (3
    meta-analyses).
  • Effect size approximately .3-.4 (small to
    moderate cf phonics instruction)
  • Better designed studies get stronger results
  • Inconclusive data on length of time for L1
    instruction
  • 2way instruction very promising
  • No data on use of L1 in English immersion

16
Other instructional studies
  • Generally, what works for L1 literacy works for
    L2 literacy
  • Results largely consistent with findings for L1
    reading Instruction in phonemic awareness,
    phonics, oral reading fluency, vocabulary,
    reading comprehension (NRP areas), and writing
    promotes literacy learning
  • HOWEVER...

17
  • Adjustments are necessary when teaching L2
    literacy, e.g.
  • tasks must be very clear
  • mispronunciations should not be counted as
    errors
  • particular sounds might cause confusion (/ch/,
    /sh/)
  • cultural or background knowledge can influence
    comprehension
  • Too few studies to make determinations in any
    one area, e.g., different approaches to
    comprehension or phonemic awareness

18
Experimental studies of complex approaches to
literacy teaching
  • Intensive early intervention with at risk
    students--very promising
  • Enhanced literature discussions and enriched
    language arts instruction--promising
  • Encouraging reading in L2--maybe positive
    effect
  • Encouraging reading in L1--little to no effect
  • Reading aloud--hard to say
  • Reading recovery/tutoring--effects on L1 but
    unknown effects on L2

19
Social and Cultural Influences
  • Familiarity with the content has a positive
    effect on comprehension.
  • Parents can have a positive effect on literacy
    outcomes. However, schools typically do not take
    advantage of this.
  • Little other evidence for the impact of
    cultural factors (aside from language per se) or
    social group factors (aside from SES-related) on
    literacy outcomes.
  • Culturally compatible instruction might
    positively affect motivation, engagement, and
    participation achievement effects are unknown.

20
Practice What can we conclude from the research?
  • L1 instruction should be used.
  • As needed, students should be taught to
    transfer what they know in L1 to L2 learning
    tasks (dont assume they know).
  • Teaching/learning L1 literacy and L2 literacy
    can be approached in similar ways, but
    adjustments are needed.
  • Basics are important, but enhanced instruction
    is necessary and probably beneficial.
  • Given the opportunity, parents can make a
    meaningful contribution to childrens school
    achievement.

21
  • The ideological challenges

22
Three important ones
  • Language at school and at home
  • Economic and educational status
  • Preschool (Head Start) funding

23
Language THE issue
  • Language policy--our forgotten bilingual legacy
  • Language use in school
  • Language use at home

24
What language should parents use at home?
  • Conventional wisdom Parents use of the
    language they know best will support both L1 and
    L2 achievement.
  • Little adequate research, but what exists does
    not tend to support this.

25
Analysis of recent data
  • Spanish at home ? Spanish achievement
  • English at home ? English achievement
  • BUT.

26
Analysis of recent data (contd)
  • Spanish at home ? - English achievement
  • English at home ? - Spanish achievement
  • CAUTIONS
  • These are correlational data
  • Several possible explanations
  • Data only for K-2

27
  • \
  • Can we deal with the ideological quandary?
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com