34.2252, Review: Teaching Young Multilingual Learners

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LINGUIST List: Vol-34-2252. Wed Jul 19 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.2252, Review: Teaching Young Multilingual Learners

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Date: 02-Jun-2023
From: Laura Dubcovsky [lauradubcovsky at gmail.com]
Subject: Applied Linguistics, Language Acquisition: de Oliveira, Jones (2023)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.609

AUTHOR: Luciana C. de Oliveira
AUTHOR: Loren Jones
TITLE: Teaching Young Multilingual Learners
SUBTITLE: Key Issues and New Insights
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: Laura Dubcovsky

SUMMARY
Teaching young multilingual learners is a brief book centered on five
key concepts and possible pedagogical practices that prove to be
effective with young multilingual speakers. De Oliveira and Jones
define frequent terms used in the field while providing solid evidence
of the growing multilingual population all over the world, which makes
imperative the need to describe and improve current teaching
strategies used with students of different languages.  The authors
highlight the big shift between negative values used in the past to
characterize multilingual learners in subtractive terms and contrast
it to modern positive attitudes that support multilingualism and value
students who speak other languages than English as assets to the
classroom. The booklet is organized in three sections that consider an
overall socio-cultural framework, emphasize successful strategies and
techniques for the teaching of young multilingual learners, offer
abundant examples drawing from pedagogy-informed research studies, and
conclude with implications for teacher education.
The first section is devoted to culturally sustaining pedagogies
within contexts where English is the dominant language and medium of
instruction (Ladson-billings, 2014).  De Oliveira and Jones show some
“Practices to enact the culturally sustaining pedagogy” (Figure 1, p.
7). The authors suggest incorporating students’ funds of knowledge.
This allows teachers to include students’ interests and needs, as well
as practices developed in households and communities (Moll et al,
1992). They also propose to draw on previous interactional scaffolding
moves that assure better tutoring and higher student participation in
the classroom (Hammond & Gibbons, 2005), and they also add a model
that explicitly shows how teachers can integrate specific discourse
supports, such as linking to prior experiences, recasting, moving
conversation forward, etc. (Figure 2, p. 10, based on de Oliveira,
Jones & Smith, 2020). The authors underline the use of students’ first
language in the classroom as a powerful strategy to convey meaning,
explain grammar, and encourage collaborative learning, among other
positive consequences (Reyes, 2012), as well as translanguaging
practices that  have been shown by several studies to produce a
significant improvement in language and content development (Garcia &
Klein, 2016).
De Oliveira and Jones also encourage the use of multimodal instruction
to convey meaning across content areas, expanding their understanding
of academic texts (Ajayi, 2009), and even enhancing multilingual
learners’ experiences, strengthening their agency, and building on
their identities (Pacheco & Smith, 2015).  Finally, the section
highlights how a functional approach to language will enable teachers
to better help their multilingual learners analyze how the language of
instruction works, develop their own linguistic repertoires, and
explore meanings in texts. Moreover, a functional approach will
provide students with explicit metalinguistic tools to engage in
discussions about language and identify choices across genres and
registers through the language of schooling (Schleppegrell, 2004).
Following Martin’s and Rose’s pedagogical framework of a teaching and
learning cycle (2005), the authors present in the original and
modified Figures 3 and 6 (pp. 14 and 34, respectively) an “Enactment
of a functional approach to language development,” that comprises
building shared knowledge, deconstructing a model, bridging reading to
writing, guiding a joint reconstruction, collaboration among students,
and independent work.
The second section shows practices in action. De Oliveira and Jones
offer examples of culturally sustaining teaching practices, drawing
from pedagogy-informed research studies that shed light on successful
strategies.  The authors bring vivid evidence from varied classrooms,
different grade levels, and specific type of programs. In excerpt 1
they exemplify how a 5th grade teacher promotes conversations with her
multilingual class on a lesson about their families and ancestors
drawing on students’ funds of knowledge, while fostering home/school
connections (p. 21);  the second excerpt shows how interactional
scaffoldings moves with first graders who speak other than English
languages create spaces for meaningful classroom participation (pp.
23-4).  Likewise, two passages on a Kindergarten teacher who allows
the incorporation of her Latino students’ first language in the
classroom bring clear evidence how home language and culture is a
valuable resource to support and legitimize minority voices (Excerpts
3 and 4, pp. 25-6). Moreover, a careful lesson plan on the parts of
the plant (science project) directed to second graders exemplifies
varied multimodal and multisensory elements (auditory, reading,
writing, visual, kinesthetic) used to deliver instruction and
facilitating language and content comprehension (table 2, pp. 28-9).
In a different class about animals delivered to fourth grade students,
the teacher follows a functional language approach to promote a joint
discussion of the main participants, processes and scientific
descriptions that take part in the science lesson. While Excerpt 5
enables us to follow a “detailed reading” of a mentor text (pp. 33-4),
Excerpt 6 illustrates how students develop their linguistic awareness,
build shared knowledge, and expand meaning-making resources (p. 37).
The third section offers implications for general teacher education,
including content for language teachers, elementary and secondary
teachers, bilingual and special education teachers, and ESOL
specialists of young multilingual learners. De Oliveira and Jones
claim that not only do well-prepared teachers need to manage language
and subject matter, but they also must integrate pedagogical knowledge
and linguistic and cultural awareness. The authors highlight the fact
that the culturally sustaining practices analyzed embrace diversity,
equity, and inclusion elements for young multilingual learners (figure
4, p. 20). Additionally, effective deploying students’ funds of
knowledge, interactional scaffolding moves, students’ first languages
and home cultures, multiple modalities, and functional approaches to
language development must be accompanied by solid and asset-based
studies. Finally, the authors consider future research steps toward a
thorough understanding of a positive learning environment and more
comprehensive integration of language and content, as well as a
stronger preparation of teachers’ cultural and linguistic awareness to
better serve multilingual learners (Peercy et al, 2022). Above all, de
Oliveira and Jones suggest educational programs should provide
frequent professional opportunities so that pre-service teachers can
gain experience in diverse classrooms and interact with students from
different backgrounds and languages, who have different needs and face
particular challenges. In this way, experienced and novice
practitioners can work together to find the most appropriate resources
according to age, grade levels, language competence, and particular
school disciplines’ demands.

EVALUATION
Teaching young multilingual learners is a succinct book that helps
current and future educators with fundamental concepts and practical
steps to better perform in the teaching of young multilingual
learners.  De Oliveira and Jones design a straightforward plan,
offering unambiguous goals and definitions. Their clear explanations
are accompanied by visuals that enrich the understanding of more
complex notions, such as the mentioned enactment of a culturally
sustaining pedagogy (Figures 1 and 4, pp. 7 and 20, respectively), a
functional approach to language development in the teaching-learning
cycle (Figures 3, and 6, pp. 14 and 36, respectively), a model of a
detailed reading (Table 1, p. 16), and the delicacy of interactional
scaffolding moves (Figure 2, p. 10).  Written in a direct and
unpresumptuous style, the book is supported by episodes from real
classrooms across content areas, which contribute to compose a
reading very accessible to all types of audiences. Although the
booklet constitutes an ‘Element” in a series that is not intended to
elaborate on capital concepts and explanations, de Oliveira and Jones
provide a bibliography that acknowledges pioneer and current studies
in the field, inviting readers to deepen their understanding and test
the results in their daily practice.  A minor weakness involves the
cited bibliography, as there are a few mismatches between the body of
the text and the final reference list regarding the year of edition
and the authors. Otherwise, Teaching young multilingual learners
represents a useful tool to be implemented as an instructional manual
in teaching preparation programs, especially directed to future
educators willing to serve bilingual and multilingual learners in
today’s global societies.

REFERENCES
Ajayi, L. (2009). English as a second language learners' exploration
of multimodal texts in a junior high school. Journal of Adolescent &
Adult Literacy, 52(7), 585–595.
De Oliveira, L., Jones, C., & Smith, S. (2020). Interactional
scaffolding in a first- grade classroom through the teaching-learning
cycle. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism,
1-19. doi:10.1080/3670050.2020.1798867
García, O., & Kleyn, T. (Eds.). (2016). Translanguaging with
multilingual students: Learning from classroom moments: Routledge.
Hammond, J., & Gibbons, P. (2005). Putting scaffolding to work: The
contribution of scaffolding in articulating ESL education. Prospect,
20(1), 6-30.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 20.: Aka the
remix. Harvard Educacional Review, 84(1), 74-84.
Martin, J., & Rose, D. (2005). Designing literacy pedagogy:
Scaffolding democracy in the classroom. Continuing discourse on
language: A functional perspective, 1, 241-280.
Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of
knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes
and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132-141.
doi:10.1080/00405849209543534
Pacheco, M., & Smith, B. (2015). Across languages, modes, and
identities: Bilingual adolescents’ multimodal codemeshing in the
literacy classroom. Bilingual research journal, 38(3), 292-312.
Peercy, M., Tigert, J., Fredricks, D., & al., e. (2022). From
humanizing principles to humanizing practices: Exploring core
practices as a bridge to enacting humanizing pedagogies with
multilingual students. Teaching & Teacher Education, 113, 1-14.
Reyes, I. (2012). Biliteracy among children and youths. Reading
Research Quarterly, 47(3), 307–327
Schleppegrell, M. (2004). The language of schooling. A functional
linguistics perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Laura Dubcovsky is a retired instructor and supervisor from the
Teacher Education Program in the School of Education at the University
of California, Davis. With a Master’s in Education and a Ph. D in
Spanish linguistics/with special emphasis on second language
acquisition, her interests tap topics of language, bilingual
education, and bilingual children’s literature. She has taught
bilingual teachers to use and practice communicative and academic
Spanish needed in bilingual classrooms for more than ten years. She is
currently helping with professional development courses for bilingual
teachers, interpreting in parent/teachers’ conferences, and
translating for several institutions, such as Davis and Riverside
Joint Unified School Districts, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento,
YoloArts in Woodland, Davis Art Center, STEAC, and the Zapotec Digital
Project of Ticha.  Laura is a long-standing reviewer for the
Linguistic list Serve and the California Association of School
-University Partnerships (CASUP), and she also reviews articles for
the Elementary School Journal, Journal of Latinos and Education,
Hispania, and Lenguas en Contexto. She published “Functions of the
verb decir (‘to say’) in the incipient academic Spanish writing of
bilingual children in Functions of Language, 15(2), 257-280 (2008) and
the chapter, “Desde California. Acerca de la narración en ámbitos
bilingües” in ¿Cómo aprendemos y cómo enseñamos la narración oral?
(2015). Rosario, Homo Sapiens: 127- 133



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