Ch.+22+by+Christian+Faltis

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 * Contexts for Becoming Bilingual Learners in School Settings **
 * By Christian Faltis **

Many educators and researchers have thought how context figures into becoming bilingual (and biliterate) in school environment. //Context// is defined both as an “interactionaly constituted environment” which impacts on how students and teachers interact and convey messages in two languages and as an outcome of efforts to share or create contexts for taking part in communication at any possible time and place. For others context refers to //societal//, //community//, and //pedagogical forces// or texts that influence how learners become bilingual in school settings as well as how bilingual they become (Cortes 1986; Gersten and Faltis 2000; Oglu and Simon 1998; Valdes 1998; Wolfe and Faltis 1999). From the intertextual perspectives meanings which are shared or created via interactions in the classroom by teachers and students are dependent on the texts relevant for the interpretation of classroom tests (Lemke, 1992). According to Faltis contexts moves trough focus in unpredictable way because participants in the interaction create meaningful context for their communication and context has its impact on their interaction and meaning.


 * Societal Forces as Context **

Throughout the history of the USA the attitude toward the use of other languages than English has changed many times. Nowadays, many bilingual education programs in US are transitional which have an aim of moving students out of their native language as quickly as possible.

In the 1990s an alternative approach (modeled after the French immersion schools began in the French-speaking parts of Canada) to bilingual education called “dual language bilingual education” came to light. This program enrolls children from two different language groups to learn through each others’ native language. The aims of this approach are:


 * Learn the language of the others
 * Achieve academically in both languages
 * Come to appreciate each others’ languages and cultures (Lindholm,1994)

Though the dual language programs and French immersion schools try to produce high-level balanced bilingual learners, it is vital to notice that the languages used in these programs are not neutral and each carries with it sociahistorical dimensions of power and utility for society (Edelsky, 1991).


 * Community Forces as Context **

The term ‘community forces’ has to do with the attitudes of minority-language and bilingual communities towards their past and present treatment in schools. This experience has a great influence on their children’s future education, particularly on the extent to which they become bilingual and have academic achievements in school (Ogbu and Simons, 1998).

//Community forces // result from societal forces. Moreover, parents from minority-language communities always compare the quality of education their children receive at bilingual schools with that of dominant groups. And all this forms community beliefs.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Another important phenomenon is //folk beliefs//. Here the main point is the idea of having //a role model//. According to Ogbu (1983) language-minority children and their families in their minds should have some people who they would like to resemble and they should realize how their home language fits that image.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes minority-language parents may hear from other people, usually other immigrants, about their experiences of racism and discrimination. This may result in //suspicion// towards schools and educational programs thinking that they will deprive their children of language and cultural identities. And this kind of suspicion brings about ‘oppositional collective or group identities’ and their children will not have considerable academic achievement as measured through the dominant language and culture (Ogbu and Simons 1998:177).


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pedagogical orientations and teacher abilities as context **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pedagogical orientations and the role of teachers influence the education of bilingual children and their interaction with the community. There are two perspectives used in bilingual schools: **assimilation** and **cultural pluralist** oriented bilingual classroom environment. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Teachers and administrators who support assimilation perspective think that they should concentrate on the dominant language and culture rather than native language. Schools which follow this theory have very few books in native languages and use mostly books in dominant language. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Teachers who support cultural pluralist oriented bilingual classroom environment share a different opinion that children have their rights to learn their native language and culture and be very literate both in their native language and dominant language. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">According to Edelsky and Hudelson, bilingual students should not be forced to use only one language but should be able to use both dominant and native languages for academic purposes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In many cases school teachers and administrators are members of the dominant society and thus their orientations toward pedagogy influence the use of second language in schools. For example transmission – oriented bilingual teachers first of all focus on giving learners the language and knowledge that they need to succeed on tests. In other words learners who become bilingual in transmission-oriented classrooms are taught that learning is first of all doing well on worksheets, homework and standardized tests. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is also important to speak about the way that teachers give instructions in bilingual classrooms. Many teachers translate what they say and write from one language to the other in order to be sure that everything is clear for everyone. However it is claimed that learners do pay much attention on teacher’s talk in second language waiting for the translation. This means that in these classrooms learners have fewer possibilities to interact with each other in the target language. Some teachers just switch from one language to the other without translating and thus they use both languages to interact with students. It is found out however that in these classrooms also the native language is dominant. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Another very important aspect to mention in this context is how well bilingual teachers are prepared for teaching in non-dominant language of the classroom. Bilingual teachers who are more proficient in the dominant language and in their students’ native language have a great influence on learner’s understanding of their language.

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