[Edling] Urgent question from bilingual teacher

Tue Apr 19 00:25:18 UTC 2016

*sorry, i have no knowledge on this, but something peter mentioned did
intrigue me:*

*> *Anne Marie mentions the concept is being used in many ways recently,

*i did see a message from Anne Marie but did not see mention of these "many
ways".  i must confess i have had trouble getting a clear idea of this
concept from the vast and growing literature. **i would really like to know
what are the many ways that the concept is being used, either from Peter
or *Anne Marie.

*Best, Cheers, LarryLarry Selinker*
*ls110 at nyu.edu <ls110 at nyu.edu>*
*http://www.researchproductionassociates.com/
<http://www.researchproductionassociates.com/>*

On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 5:25 PM, Miriam E Ebsworth <mee1 at nyu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Peter,
>
> Thank you for your thoughts and for taking the time and trouble to share
> them.
>
> I'll forward them to the teacher.
>
> Sincerely,
> Miriam
>
> Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, PhD
> Dir. of PhD & Post-MA Programs in Multilingual Multicultural Studies
> NYU Steinhardt,
> 316 East Building
> New York, NY 10003
>
> Research Editor: Journal of Writing and Pedagogy
> Chair, NABE Research SIG Advisory Board
> Co-chair, ELL Think Tank
>
> office phone: (212) 998-5195
> office fax: (212) 995-3636
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 3:15 PM, Peter Sayer <peter.sayer at utsa.edu> wrote:
>
>> Ofelia Garcia’s (2009) *Bilingual Education in the 21 Century* is a good
>> comprehensive text and has a clear explanation of translanguaging, though
>> as Anne Marie mentions the concept is being used in many ways recently, and
>> also harkens back to earlier bilingual approaches to bilingual ed such as
>> Jacobson’s (1980s) “New Concurrent” approach which advocated the teacher’s
>> use of purposeful and strategic language mixing.
>>
>> About the positioning of above-below vs. side-to-side: I’m not aware of
>> any work on this specific aspect of language positioning, but would say
>> from a (1) linguistic perspective, it makes good sense to put a particular
>> sentence in one language above another so that students can more clearly
>> see how syntactic and lexical elements line up.  However, from a (2)
>> language valorization perspective, the problem the observer may have had
>> was not above-below per se, but rather that English was positioned ABOVE
>> Spanish, which may be seen as implicitly reinforcing the subordinate
>> position of the minoritized language.  In that case, positioning the
>> languages side by side represents them on more equal footing (or even use
>> above/below, but put Spanish on top).  Or maybe the observer was just being
>> cranky… but kudos to the teacher for taking the critique seriously and
>> following up.
>>
>> - peter.-
>>
>> From: <edling-bounces at bunner.geol.lu.se> on behalf of anne marie devlin <
>> anne_mariedevlin at hotmail.com>
>> Reply-To: The Educational Linguistics List <edling at bunner.geol.lu.se>
>> Date: Monday, April 18, 2016 at 9:04 AM
>> To: The Educational Linguistics List <edling at bunner.geol.lu.se>
>> Subject: Re: [Edling] Urgent question from bilingual teacher
>>
>> Miriam
>>
>> Current research is coming out strongly in favour of 'translanguaging'
>> where code switching is seen as a benefit to learners rather than a sign of
>> lack of acquisition.
>> I'm not at my desk and don't have access to references at the moment, but
>> a google search should bring up some interesting findings to support your
>> colleagues approach.
>>
>> Hope that helps
>>
>> Anne Marie
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 07:29:35 -0500
>> From: mee1 at nyu.edu
>> To: francis.hult at englund.lu.se; edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
>> Subject: [Edling] Urgent question from bilingual teacher
>>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> A grad of one of our programs is a bilingual (Spanish) social studies
>> teacher in New York City, with 11 years of teaching experience.
>>
>> The teacher received a super-critical review of a class observation from
>> somebody outside the school who observed a single lesson. The observer knew
>> nothing in advance about the teacher's curriculum or approach; there had
>> been no communication with the teacher in advance of the observation.
>> After having written a scathing observation report, the observer refused to
>> have a conversation with the teacher, who sought politely to explain their
>> perspective and try to understand better the nature of the critique.
>>
>> The teacher has requested input on one issue in particular:
>> At the top of the lesson, the teacher had written a guiding question in
>> English with the Spanish version directly underneath.
>>
>> The teacher, as I understand it, sought to have the students first try to
>> understand the text in English, then read it in Spanish, and using all
>> linguistic resources make meaning out of the question. (And ultimately, the
>> students will be tested in English.)
>>
>> One of the many criticisms in the observation report was that the English
>> and Spanish versions should have appeared side by side rather than one
>> above the other. The teacher is perplexed.
>>
>> While the teacher's explanation makes sense to me, I have been asked
>> whether there is any objective guidance available from the research on best
>> practices to advocate for EITHER of the 2 approaches (2 languages side by
>> side versus one above the other).
>>
>> Thank you in advance for sharing your perspective. I'll pass it on.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Miriam
>>
>> Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, PhD
>> Dir. of PhD & Post-MA Programs in Multilingual Multicultural Studies
>> NYU Steinhardt,
>> 316 East Building
>> New York, NY 10003
>>
>> Research Editor: Journal of Writing and Pedagogy
>> Chair, NABE Research SIG Advisory Board
>> Co-chair, ELL Think Tank
>>
>> office phone: (212) 998-5195
>> office fax: (212) 995-3636
>>
>>
>>
>>
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