26.1459, Review: Applied Ling; Socioling: Weber (2014)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-1459. Tue Mar 17 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.1459, Review: Applied Ling; Socioling: Weber (2014)

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Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 11:29:26
From: Jason Sarkozi [jtlolac at gmail.com]
Subject: Flexible Multilingual Education

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/25/25-2130.html

AUTHOR: Jean-Jacques  Weber
TITLE: Flexible Multilingual Education
SUBTITLE: Putting Children's Needs First
SERIES TITLE: New Perspectives on Language and Education
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2014

REVIEWER: Jason Steve Sarkozi, Central Michigan University

Review's Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

This book is a good resource for readers, especially education policy makers,
teachers, and parents, seeking an extensive comparative study on cases of
multilingual education success and failure. The author challenges traditional,
fixed (subtractive) multilingual education, which, he argues, often
prioritizes the need of maintaining (or revitalizing) the minority language
over children’s non-linguistic educational needs. Praise is given, instead, to
flexible (additive) multilingual language-in-education policies which build
upon the resources in children’s linguistic inventories, a theme that echoes
throughout the chapters of this book. The overall aim, however, is to explore
some of the most promising ways of moving towards the goal of educational
equity by highlighting the most effective policies in multilingual education
and scrutinizing the medium of instruction. 

The introductory chapter begins with the author distinguishing between
additive and subtractive programs, then contrasting these traditional
approaches to the study of bi-/multilingual education with the more innovative
approach, which focuses on identifying whether a program strives to adopt the
four key principles underlying multilingual education identified by Jong (as
cited on p. 3): (1) striving for educational equity; (2) structuring for
integration; (3) affirming identities; and (4) promoting additive
bi-/multilingualism. The introduction concludes with a contrastive analysis of
fixed and flexible multilingual education systems and a criticism of mother
tongue education in which the linguistic reality of the children often becomes
simplified by ignoring non-standard language varieties and downplaying the
importance of access to local and global languages for all students. 

After the introductory chapter, the book is divided into two parts. Part 1 is
concerned with the overarching issues of language varieties in education
(Chapter 2), access to high-quality language teaching and learning (Chapter
3), and language policy and planning (Chapter 4). Part 2 further discusses the
topic of language-in-education policies by looking at issues according to
country and/or region: The USA (Chapter 5), Hong Kong and China (Chapter 6),
Singapore (Chapter 7), South Africa (Chapter 8), Luxembourg (Chapter 9), and
Three Autonomous Communities of Spain: Catalonia, the Basque Country, and
Galicia. Chapter 11 recapitulates the major themes of the book and offers
concluding remarks.

In Chapter 2, Weber discusses issues of language variation by referencing
indigenous minority languages, immigrant minority languages, pidgins and
creoles, and societal majority languages. First, he examines the debates
surrounding the standardization of indigenous minority language, i.e. Quechua,
Breton, and Corsican. He then turns his attention toward immigrant minority
languages, especially concerning the marginalization of Cypriot Turkish,
Sylheti, Swiss German, and Cypriot Greek and their communities. Third, he
focuses on Seychellois Creole, Hawai’i Creole English, and Nigerian Pidgin
English and their status as being non-standard varieties, as perceived even by
their own speakers. Finally, Weber concludes that teachers should build on the
home variety in the classroom, even if it is negatively valued in society,and
use it to scaffold students’ learning, thus aiding them in meeting academic
standards.    

Polarization of linguistic communities and languages in conflict are key
themes in this book. Thus, in Chapter 3, the author discusses the issue of
access to high-quality language teaching and learning by examining the
education systems of Francophone Canada, Wales, New Zealand, and Malaysia. In
Francophone Canada, restrictive language policies favoring French over English
have exacerbated tensions in the region, and the use of standard French in
schools marginalizes speakers of still-stigmatized Canadian French vernaculars
and those of immigrant varieties, namely immigrants from Haiti and Somalia who
also have less access to opportunities to learn and practice English. In the
case of Wales, the author touches on the issue of choice versus compulsion
concerning Welsh and English in Welsh-medium schools, in which a majority of
subjects are taught in Welsh and the rest in English. Consequently, 
code-switching becomes widespread in these schools, and studies show that
students have rebelled against conservative norms established by educators
which promote the use of “pure” Welsh. In the case of New Zealand, providing
students high-quality access to both English and Maori,  as opposed to the
right to be educated in either language, is discussed, as well as the
successful revitalization of Maori. The author closes with the need for
“safetalk” practices (e.g. code-switching to scaffold students’ learning) and
more effective, equitable learning in the Malaysian education system. The
overall thesis of this chapter is that the needs of students, immigrant and
native-born alike, are often overlooked in bi-/multilingual education.   

In Chapter 4, from a social perspective, Weber asks the question: What makes
and what breaks a good language-in-education policy? First, relying on
findings from case studies carried out in places such as Zimbabwe, India, and
Ecuador, he argues that in societies where English, for example, is a lingua
franca so-called “good” policies are informed by both-and (both local
languages and English) rather than either-or (English or local language)
language-in-education policies which lead to students’ proficiency in both
dominant global and local indigenous languages. He also claims to have
demonstrated how social factors like emigration or institutional ideologies
can weaken “good” policies, e.g. France’s one nation-one language ideology
that denigrates migrant languages like Arabic. Finally, examining Australia
and Japan, Weber depicts how political and economic policies can result in the
opening of a nation to multilingual influence (e.g., Japan’s Japanese with
English abilities plan) or the closing of a nation (e.g., Australia’s
English-only programs) .    

As the first chapter in Part 2, Chapter 5 examines how, since the
implementation of the No Child Left Behind policy of 2001 under the Bush
Administration, the US mainstream system of education underserves language
minority students because of  its mandatory high-stakes English testing for
all children. This chapter is divided into three parts by minority group,
i.e., African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. After summarizing the
debate on whether Ebonics is a language or a dialect, Weber considers how
Standard English can be taught by harnessing (instead of denigrating) the
vernacular and explaining to students which variety is appropriate in which
contexts. He notes the importance of implementing language-in-education
policies that build on students’ knowledge of AAE to lead them toward mastery
of Standard English, but recognizes that such policies will fail unless there
are also social changes, i.e. improving social conditions for those who are
trapped in the cycle of poverty and unemployment. Next, the author focuses the
attitudes toward both their home language and English of Native American
students’, namely speakers of Navajo,  discussing the possibility of
successful flexible bilingual programs that foster language maintenance and
revitalization of the home language, as well as academic success in English.
Finally, Weber discusses the English-only movement, especially its
implementation in Arizona, and its negative effects on Latino students,
specifically the (social and academic) segregation that English Language
Learners experience as a result of the four-hour a day English Language
Development block in which focus is on language forms and discrete skills,
e.g. phonology and vocabulary, at the expense of academic content, such as
math or science. He exemplifies how Latino students are further
disenfranchised by the development of dual language (Spanish-English)
education programs that tend to be available only in middle- and
lower-middle-class areas of urban cities.            

In Chapter 6, Weber focuses on language and education in Hong Kong and
language-in-education policies and issues in mainland China. He recounts how
the increasing demand for English-medium schools created a social divide in
which English-medium instruction, whose students scored higher on university
entrance exams, is reserved for the elite. Thus, Chinese(Cantonese)-medium
instruction was forced on the large majority of Hong Kongers, and as a result
they scored lower on the same exams. However, policies implemented in 2010
have allowed more flexibility to offer both Chinese and English as media of
instruction. Still, Weber points out that there is a need for schools to adopt
bilingual strategies, such as code-switching, to scaffold language learning.
Just as in Hong Kong, the author highlights the increasing demand for English
in mainland China, and describes how majority group students (Han) are
expected to develop proficiency in both Mandarin and English, whereas minority
language students are being transitioned from the  minority-language medium in
the early years to the eventual Chinese medium. Weber suggests introducing
more flexible dual language or partial immersion programs informed by both-and
(both minority languages and Mandarin) logic as well as high-quality access to
English.       

In Chapter 7, the author explores how the role of English and Mandarin as
global languages and processes of globalization act as catalysts for the
changing policies of language-in-education in Singapore. Weber evaluates the
cases of home languages shifting to English, especially among speakers of
Chinese, Tamil, and, to a lesser extent, Malay due to failed language policies
that ignored non-standard home languages. He also discusses Singlish
(Singaporean English) and its perception on the part of the language policy
makers as a non-standard variety of English. Despite the government’s attempts
to eradicate Singlish, code-switching between Singlish and more standard
varieties of English is practiced by people from all social classes, since a
large percentage of the population identifies with it (and possibly another
local language). Also, Weber describes the (recent) spread of Mandarin due to
in-migration from mainland China, which could possibly have contributed to a
social divide where the elite use English (or Singlish) and the Chinese
majority community use mostly Mandarin. He concludes the chapter by suggesting
that, in light of the increasing diversity, Singapore adopt a flexible
bilingual system in which students learn English and another language of their
choice (instead of a language assigned to them according to their perceived
mother tongue based on family background).       

In Chapter 8, Weber argues in favor of a flexible system of additive
multilingual education in post-apartheid South Africa which builds on
children’s complex linguistic repertoires and gives them access to English,
indigenous languages, and urban vernaculars. He points out that, despite South
Africa’s move from a highly fixed and restrictive system of Bantu education to
a much more flexible bi/multilingual one, urban vernaculars are spreading
quickly. Thus, he recommends an even greater degree of flexibility in the
system, one which incorporates urban dialects, which tend to be different from
the standard varieties of African languages, in the curriculum. He also
suggests that pedagogies be more flexible, allowing teachers to build on
children’s multilingual repertoires by using scaffolding strategies and even
code-switching.   

Chapter 9 centers on the language politics and linguistic realities regarding
Luxembourgish, a small language spoken in Luxembourg, on which the author
himself has carried out a number of studies. The main points in this chapter
are as follows: Luxembourgish, and to a certain extent, Portuguese are used as
the languages of integration in preschool education at the expense of French
(one of the three national languages). Given that German is also a national
language (and the language in which basic literacy skills are taught),
speakers of Romance languages, such as French and Portuguese, are often given
extra instruction in German and often denied access to English. Thus, Weber
suggests that students be provided greater access to English and French
through a more flexible system which would allow for better educational and
professional opportunities.       

Chapter 10 examines three autonomous communities of Spain: Catalonia, the
Basque Country, and Galicia. In Catalonia, Weber explains how Catalan has come
the language of integration in preschool and primary school. However, Weber
stresses that, because of the high influx of immigrants from other
Castilian-only speaking autonomous communities and Latin America, due to its
socio-economic reputation as being a highly developed and economically
successful community, Catalonia needs to prioritize the necessities and
interests of all students by moving toward a more flexible system of
multilingual education. Galicia and the Basque Country, as the author
specifies, have more flexible education systems that offer a choice of medium
of instruction. Nonetheless, the discourse on language-in-education is still
one of either-or logic and does not account for student’s multilingual
inventories and heteroglossic practices, e.g. code-switching. Weber also
concludes that, given the ongoing conflict surrounding “choice,” the real
focus should be on “access” to local and global languages for all students,
including children of immigrants. 

As a conclusion, in Chapter 11, Weber summarizes the key points in seven
themes: 1) the importance of access and of using non-standard varieties in
education; 2) building on students’ actual home resources; 3) moving from
mother tongue education towards flexible multilingual education; 4) the darker
side of mother tongue education; 5) moving towards flexible multilingual
pedagogies; 6) difficulties in implementing flexible multilingual education;
and 7) flexible multilingual education for all. 

EVALUATION

In Chapter 2, Weber concludes that teachers should build on the home variety,
whether negatively valued in society or not, in the classroom and use it to
scaffold students’ learning. However, I will mention two underlying
assumptions pertaining to this argument: 1) the teacher is part of the
marginalized language community and 2) a teacher who is not part of the
particular speech community has access to resources in that variety and knows
how to implement them in teaching. Using the example of African American
English (AAE, as the author refers to it), unless a teacher grew up in a
community where AAE is spoken, he or she may find it difficult to build on it.
However, those readers who seek out this book looking for classroom
applications  will not find them here. Because his focus is on language in
education, the author recognizes the weaknesses of the book insofar as it does
not take into account “other important social factors that influence the
quality of education, such as educational infrastructures, the financial
resources of schools, the availability and quality of teachers and of teaching
materials, parents’ involvement in their children’s schooling or the families’
social milieu.” (p. 5). Thus, he does not offer any suggestions on how to
apply his recommendations.      

It is apparent that Weber spent a considerable amount of time and effort in
researching the various studies included in this book. In a portion of Chapter
5 which considers dual language education, he cites work carried out by
Rubinstein Avila in an English-Portuguese dual language school in
Massachusetts ( p. 82), and by Palmer in a Spanish-English dual ‘strand’
program in California ( p. 83). The latter study explores the question of why
African-American students seem to be excluded from dual language strand
programs. The discussion points out several assumptions by teachers, such as
that African-American students would not be interested in these programs or
that these programs might not be appropriate for them because of  their need
for remedial courses. However, Weber fails to include the study that Potowski
(2007) did on a dual (Spanish-English) immersion school in Chicago in which
one of her four focal students, Otto, self-identified as African American.
Potowski followed the four students from fifth to eighth grade, concluding
that Otto’s scores indicated that he lacked general fluency in Spanish, not
because of his ethnic background, but rather because of  his problematic
participation habits that did not give him the spotlight during Spanish
lessons. Although the purpose of her study was not to compare the ethnic
background of the informants, one might ask how ethnic background played a
role in the development of their L2 identity. Also pertinent to Weber’s survey
of dual language programs is the lack of pressure from the teachers on the
students to perform in Spanish that Potowski (2007) witnessed. She compared
classes in this dual immersion school to typical foreign language classrooms
“in which students produce very little of the target language and all
important communication takes place in English” (Potowski, 2007: 199). Weber
suggests that dual language education needs to become more flexible (in terms
of linguistic variation) and more inclusive (of all students), yet he fails to
provide examples of how a dual language school’s flexible linguistic policies
might lead to “graduates […not achieving] the school’s stated goals of
balanced bilingualism” as Potowski (2007: 201) concludes in her study.   

This book is an important addition to studies on multilingual education. One
of its main strengths is its comprehensiveness and comparative nature. The
layout of each chapter facilitates reading and subsection titles provide easy
transition from one idea to the next. Unique to Part 2 of this book, Weber
ends each chapter with a “Lesson to be Learnt from country/region” section in
which he briefly summarizes the main points that can be learned from the
so-called experiences of each country/region, e.g. educational policies,
linguistic realities, etc. I found these summaries to be quite useful as I
read through the chapters. The bullet points made it easy to refer back to a
previous chapter and compare “lessons” from other chapters. Given the
wide-ranging content in this book and its painstaking descriptiveness, I would
recommend its inclusion in the recommended readings portion of syllabi for
both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses and seminars on multilingual
education.     

It is undoubtedly a fact that our societies are being molded by globalization
and that our children’s linguistic needs are often neglected by education
policy makers and other stakeholders. However, Weber, with this book, provides
an invaluable guide to the most promising ways of advancing toward his goal of
granting access to high-quality education to all children. 

REFERENCES

Potowski, K. (2007). “Language and identity in a dual immersion school.”
Buffalo, NY:Multilingual Matters.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jason Steve Sarkozi is an instructor in the English Language Institute at
Central Michigan University, where he is also pursuing his MA in TESOL. His
current research interests lie on the hairbreadth boundary between
sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology where he explores language as a
way of creating cultural worlds through a variety of cultural practices and
natural occurring phenomena, such as language variation and language
attitudes, language and identity, language in interaction and cross-cultural
communication, all within bi/multilingual, immigrant communities in the
Spanish-, English-, Japanese- and Portuguese-speaking worlds.





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