Language Acquisition in U'S' Public Schools

1
Language Acquisition in U.S. Public Schools
Foundations of SEI
2
Objectives

• Participants will be able to
• Articulate Americas multilingual heritage
• Describe the legal foundations of ELL education
• Devise a personal policy regarding students use
  of native languages in the classroom
• Use the advantages inherent in the linguistic
  similarities of English and Spanish to develop
  lessons more comprehensible to Spanish-dominant
  ELLs

3
Trivia Quiz

• Bilingual Founding Document
• Reason Pilgrims came to America
• Franklins concerns about English
• Swanee River
• Bilingual university
• Van Burens prohibition of English
• Code Talkers in Europe
• Bilingual U.S. state
• Top five languages
• Compulsory ignorance laws

4
Why is language acquisition such a controversial
subject?

• Language is powerand therefore has broad
  economic and political implications
• Consequently, language policy is driven by
  political more than pedagogic or scientific
  considerations
• However, economic interests tend to overwhelm
  political ideology when the two factors are at
  oddsas they are on the subject of language.

5
Compulsory Ignorance Laws

• VirginiaRevised Code of 1819 That all
  assemblages of slaves, free negroes or mulattoes
  at any house or school for the purpose of
  teaching them reading or writing, either in the
  day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be
  deemed and considered an unlawful assembly and
  any justice of the peace may authorize any sworn
  officer or officers to enter the house or school
  for the purpose of apprehending such slaves, and
  to inflict corporal punishment not exceeding
  twenty lashes. (1 Rev. Code, 424-5.)

6
Language is not just a tool. It is an
inheritance, a way to experience life, to
interpret sensory information, to define our very
being.
It is not just the Black childs language that
is in questionA child cannot be taught by anyone
whose demand is, essentially, that the child
repudiate his experience and all that gives him
sustenance. James Baldwin
7
Reflection

• Why didnt the Founding Fathers legally establish
  English as our nations official language? Or
  did they?

8
Language Experiences in America, 1650-1950
A. Force B. Abandon C. Bilingual D. Refusal
9
Educating Americas Immigrants The True History
Richard Rothstein

• During the last great wave of immigration, from
  1880 to 1915, very few Americans succeeded in
  school, immigrants least of all. By 1930, it was
  still the case that half of all American 14- to
  17-year-olds either didn't make it to high school
  or dropped out before graduating.
• Far from succeeding by immersing themselves in
  English, immigrant groups did much worse than the
  native-born, and some immigrant groups did much
  worse than others. The poorest performers were
  Italians.

10
Why this history matters

• This history is not a mere curiosity, because
  those who advocate against bilingual education
  today often claim that we know how to educate
  immigrant children because we've done it before.
  However, if we've never successfully educated the
  first or even second generation of children from
  peasant or unskilled immigrant families, we are
  dealing with an unprecedented task, and history
  can't guide us. emphasis added

11
Language Acquisition in America A Historical
Perspective

• Why should we permit German Boors to swarm into
  our Settlements, and by herding together,
  establish their language and manners to the
  exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania,
  founded by the English, become a Colony of
  Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to
  Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and
  will never adopt our Language and Customs, any
  more than they can acquire our Complexion.
• Ben Franklin in Observations Concerning
• the Increase of Mankind, 1755

12
England to Holland

• William Bradford on the Puritans
• Paid smugglers and left the country as
  illegals
• Remained expatriates for eleven years
  (1610-1621)
• Abandoned Holland out of fear of assimilation
• (And take off those ridiculous wooden
  shoes!)

13
Arizona history demonstrates that ELL education
has been a critical issue since the inception of
our public school system

• In 1867 bilingual Tucsonan Augustus Brichta
  became Arizonas first public school teacher
• Brichta had attended the University of Havana in
  Cuba and St. Louis University in the U.S.
• 55 Spanish-monolingual boys comprised Arizonas
  total public school enrollment
• Brichta resigned after two months over salary and
  workload concerns but noted that the state could
  hire two women for what it paid him

14
Arizonas first staff development program
Spanish lessons

• Five years later, John Spring became Arizonas
  second teacher (1872 to 1873)
• María Wakefield and Harriet Bolton joined the
  district in 1873
• Spring wrote that the two women began teaching in
  September of 1873, but since Spanish was the
  predominant language, they were forced to take
  the language in lessons from Mr. Spring

15
Two landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions about
language and education
The protection of the Constitution extends to
all, to those who speak other languages as well
as to those born with English on the tongue.
Perhaps it would be highly advantageous if all
had ready understanding of our ordinary speech,
but this cannot be coerced with methods which
conflict with the Constitution a desirable end
cannot be promoted by prohibited means...
U.S. Supreme Court Meyer vs.
Nebraska, 1923
16
The Lau v. Nichols Case

• there is no equality of treatment merely by
  providing students with the same facilities,
  textbooks, teachers, and curriculum for students
  who do not understand English are effectively
  foreclosed from any meaningful education The
  district must take affirmative steps to rectify
  the language deficiency in order to open its
  instructional program to these students.
• Lau v. Nichols, 1974

17
Federal cases since 1980

• Castañeda v. Pickard Instructional programs for
  LEP students must pass a three-pronged test of
  appropriateness (Texas, 1981)
• Must be based on sound theory
• Must be adequately implemented
• Must demonstrate effectiveness
• Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court affirmed the
  states obligation to enroll and serve
  undocumented immigrants (Texas, 1982)
• U.S. Constitution (14th Amendment) provides equal
  protection to all persons in the U.S.

18
The Big Stew Pot of ELL Education Too Many
Cooks May Spoil the Broth
    THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTE INGREDIENTS (laws
regulations)   U.S. Congress Federal and
state courts US Dept. of Education State
legislators US Office for Civil Rights State
Boards of Education State Dept. of Education
(ADE) Voter initiatives Local school
councils Local school boards District
administrators School principals
19
Our System of Public Education

• Tends not to be user-friendly
• Suffers from disjointed regulations
• Contains systematic imbalances in funding

Laws
Courts
Prop. 203
OCR
DOE
ASBE
Local Boards
ADE
Regs
20
The Alphabet Soup of ALPs(Alternative Language
Programs)

• BLE Bilingual Education
• ELL English Language Learner
• ESL English as a Second Language
• IFEP Initially Fluent English Proficient
• LEP Limited English Proficient person
• PHLOTE Primary or Home Language Other Than Engl.
• SEI Structured English Immersion
• SELP Stanford English Language Proficiency test
• SIOP Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

21
Compliance Step 1-Identification
All parents fill out a registration form when
they enroll a child in a public school. By
federal regulation (OCR), schools must ask the
parents to respond to three language questions
If one or more of the parents answers is
something other than English the child becomes
officially identified as a PHLOTE a student
whose Primary or Home Language is Other Than
Englishand who must be tested.
22
Step 2 Assessment

• PHLOTEs then are tested in comprehending,
  speaking, reading and writing English.
• Those who pass are considered IFEPs and treated
  as mainstream students those who dont pass
  become ELLs and qualify for ELL program services.

23
English immersion and bilingual education, the
two most common ELL programs, function as
complements to each other.
24
Our Growing Understanding of Language Acquisition

• How long does it take to learn English?
• Five secondsif one word is enough!
• In other words, the answer depends mostly on how
  much English is expected Enough to follow simple
  directionsor enough to match the literacy levels
  of English-speaking peers?
• Determining the best ELL program for a student
  requires consideration of a number of variables
• Parental values and decisions regarding program
  options
• Quality of the ELL program and its available
  resources
• Students degree of fluency literacy in the
  native language
• Level of stability and support in the students
  home
• Students age and motivation for learning the
  language

25
Major Scientific Theories ofSecond Language
Acquisition

• Five theories underpin the scientific model
• of language acquisition and language
  learning
• The Acquiring-vs.-Learning Hypothesis
• The Natural Order Hypothesis
• The Learning-By-Monitoring Hypothesis
• The Comprehensible Input Hypothesis
• (Acquisition by context clues)
• The Affective Filter Hypothesis

26
What does test data tell us about language
acquisition?

• Based on millions of tests in the years since
  California adopted immersion in 1998, here is the
  states data on English acquisition rates (CA
  Dept. Ed., 2004)
• Mandarin speakers average 3.4 yrs. to proficiency
• Spanish speakers average 6.7 yrs. to proficiency
• Hmong speakers average 7.1 yrs. to proficiency
• So a reasonable answer to the question How long
  does it take to learn English? is Generally
  more than three years.

27
AZ Before After Prop. 203
28
No Child Left Behind Title III

• Title III is the part of NCLB dealing with ELLs
• ELLs are recognized as a key subcategory
• 95 of schools ELLs must take AIMS
• The scores of newly arrived ELLs (those in their
  first year in U.S. schools) are not counted in
  determining whether or not a school makes
  Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)

29
One gap that should never be closed

• ELLsstudents who dont yet know enough English

• FEPsstudents who have learned enough English

By 2014 the US government expects ELLs to meet
all state standards in other words, students
must not know English must know English at the
same time.
30
Confusing high expectations with identical
expectations

• ELLs are to mainstream students as JV players
  are to Varsity. A coach should have high
  performance expectations for both levels, but
  having identical performance expectations is
  inappropriate and indicates that the coach
  doesnt understand what he or she is doing.