31.3586, Review: Applied Linguistics: Helmer (2020)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-3586. Fri Nov 20 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.3586, Review: Applied Linguistics: Helmer (2020)

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Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2020 22:19:01
From: Laura Dubcovsky [lauradubcovsky at gmail.com]
Subject: Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-901.html

AUTHOR: Kimberly Adilia Helmer
TITLE: Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom
SUBTITLE: Engaging Mexican-Origin Students
SERIES TITLE: Bilingual Education & Bilingualism
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: Laura Dubcovsky, University of California, Davis

SUMMARY

Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom. Engaging Mexican
Origin Students, by Kimberly Helmer recounts the first year of a new charter
school founded under the place-based learning premises (Gruenewald & Smith,
2008). Following an ethnographic perspective, the author attempts to explore
the visible tension between engagement in and resistance to the learning
experience, particularly noticeable among students of Mexican origin. In
Chapter 1, “Beginnings and Endings,” Helmer describes the school setting and
the philosophical criteria that shape the school pedagogy, summarized in the
“Habits of Heart and Mind,” and the “Ten Common Principles” (Coalition of
Essential Schools, 2018).  The author emphasizes the serious commitment made
to connect the school curriculum to the surrounding area, as “Learning takes
place not only on school grounds, but also in neighborhoods, local museums,
businesses, gardens, libraries, theaters, state and national parks, utility
plants, universities and so forth” (p. 12). Moreover, the school welcomes
students’ background, language varieties and culture to the classroom. Overall
place-based learning draws upon local history, geography, ecology, politics,
economics, and arts dimensions. 

In Chapter 2, “From Cecilia Paulson to Downtown High school, research
questions, methodology and theoretical frameworks,” Helmer intertwines her
personal experience during the year-long observation, with objective steps
expected in a research study. On the one hand, she refers to her personal
contact with teachers and students, participation in school events in and
out-of- the- classroom, and school interviews. On the other hand, she poses a
set of research questions, describes the focal participants, and collects data
from multiple sources to triangulate the information.  The author highlights
micro-ethnographies (Heath, 1983), critical ethnography and  applied
linguistics (Pennycook, 2001), and  interactional sociolinguistics and
symbolic interactionism (Hornberger, 2003), as the three main methods used for
her analysis, which seamlessly align with the school’s “place-based learning”
founding framework. These overlapping perspectives not only broaden the scope
of her analysis, but they also deepen the understanding of macro and micro
factors that influence the classroom exchange. Then the chapter pinpoints
relevant traits of teachers’ personalities and their educational experience,
as well as students’ attitudes, interests, and social behavior in the
classroom.  Drawing from a variety of sources, the data collection comprises
classroom observations, field trips, professional development meetings, oral
interviews, written reports, video logs, audiotapes, photographs, and other
artifacts.  The author insists on building a “dialogic analysis” that
considers the language used in the classroom by teachers and students (p. 40).

Chapter 3, “Hablais como Pachuco,” focuses on the first semester of the
Spanish for heritage speakers’ class. The chapter provides the historical
context of language policies aimed at integrating, and often assimilating,
English language learners into the public-school system (Combs, 2006). Helmer
follows a socio-linguistic approach to contrast the Spanish spoken by the
Mexican-origin students with the academic Spanish used by the dominant
English-speaking teacher in charge of the class. Through multiple examples,
the author shows how the focal students display a negative demeanor in the
Spanish class, causing disruption and distraction, as has long been documented
in the literature with the term as “performance strikes” (Shor, 1992). Helmer
explains how the asymmetrical power relationship contributes to most students’
lack of interest in learning, increasing resistance and rebellion, which
ultimately cause classroom management problems. Additionally, teachers and
institutions typically maintain a negative attitude toward minority learners,
either by neglecting or disrespecting their first languages. While almost the
entire educational community helps strengthen the stigma among second language
students, good teachers know how to ameliorate the heavy burden of
marginalization, by complementing effective teaching practices with caring and
personable approaches (Salazar, 2010). 

Chapter 4, “It’s not real: It’s just Spanish class,” Helmer makes a
distinction between teaching Spanish as a foreign and as a heritage language,
and encourages Spanish teaching preparation programs to equip candidates with
solid knowledge and effective strategies to work in the two settings. Aside
from different goals, topics and activities, Spanish teachers need to be
particularly aware of the student population that attend each course. Above
all, the author focuses on the broad range of heritage students, who differ in
language(s) experience, proficiency levels in their first language, schooling
and types of programs, etc. (Lynch, 2008).  Helmer underlines the intersection
of identity and language, as a relevant entry point to better understand the
still unsolved achievement gap between mainstream and language minority
students (Norton, 2013). She emphasizes that the complex personal, social, and
imaginary layers involved require that the notions of language and identity
are situated, negotiated and reciprocally constructed in the heritage language
classroom.

In Chapter 5, “The Tao of teaching,” Helmer analyzes the learning experience
in the humanities class following the two major educational agents. First, she
compares the students’ involvement, genuine interest and active participation,
with the former defiant attitudes of apathy, aggression and rejection
demonstrated in the Spanish for Heritage speaker class. More importantly, in
the humanities class learners start to develop a distinctive sense of
belonging and membership to the learning community, showing incipient academic
awareness (Mendoza-Denton, 2002).  Second, Helmer turns to the teacher and
examines relevant features of her personality and professional ethos, as shown
during the class presentations, in interviews and in field notes. She also
explores the teacher’s strong preparation, both in pedagogy and content-
knowledge, that translates into a solid curriculum, with clear objectives,
coherent lesson plans, and efficient strategies. Consequently, students in her
class feel respected and supported by the careful reading material and
demanding long-term projects. Several classroom episodes illustrate students’
appreciation toward the (“favorite”) humanities teacher and her class, which
starkly contrast to the negative remarks toward the Spanish teachers and the
(“not real” and “a waste of time”) heritage language class.

Chapter 6, “Place and project-based Spanish heritage language teaching and
learning” claims that the same principles of content-based instruction (Tedick
&Cammarata, 2010) and project-based learning  across the curriculum (Holm,
2011)  need to be implemented also the Spanish for heritage speakers’
classroom. As a matter of fact, Spanish speaking students should be offered
meaningful and highly demanding tasks that incorporate academic content in
each disciplinary area to maintain, develop and strengthen their first
language. Heritage language classes must provide plenty of opportunities to
practice the language, transfer knowledge from one language into the other,
and use a variety of genres and modalities to improve and raise levels of 
literacy and critical thinking in heritage and second languages.  The author
suggests a “pueblo-based” pedagogy (p. 174) that relates situated practices 
with projects, service learning and content instruction, offering authentic
material and collaboration, in a communicative and safe environment. 

In closing, Chapter 7, “Then and now” summarizes the growth of the student
population and faculty members, as well as physical and structural changes
experienced from the school’s creation to the present time.  Some interviews
show institutional factors that have contributed to students’ resistance and
engagement throughout the years, while other comments elaborate on teachers’
challenges and accomplishments, and others reflect on the gradual
transformation of the original vision and goals. Helmer includes additional
literature about the creation and sustainability of charter schools, which
becomes a relevant topic in the current educational environment.  Finally, the
author underscores major findings of her study, such as the complexity
involved in language minority students’ identity, the benefit implied in
allowing different registers and dialects in the classroom, and in taking up a
positive perspective toward heritage speakers, valuing their language and
culture. She claims that these findings will help overcome the
engagement/resistance dichotomy, enabling students to assume strong
involvement in the educational process and gain social and academic agency
(Stritikus, 2006). 

EVALUATION

“Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom” is written in a
narrative style, by which Helmer introduces teachers and students as the
protagonists of her story, while following the development of events in a
chronological order. The author is a powerful storyteller, who will attract
lay and specialized readers with her colorful anecdotes.  She weaves personal
and academic accounts vividly, and provides laughter, suspense, and climatic
moments along the chapters. Although highly engaging, the book did not fully
accomplish its goals of better understanding the “learning and not learning”
among Mexican-origin students in the heritage language classroom. As the
author recognizes, there is still a huge need for exploring the academic gap
among Latino students at the high school level. Despite examining a secondary
school, Helmer chooses a charter institution, which by definition is smaller
and comprises more particular students than the average public schools’ size
and population, preventing  a valid comparison to the current educational
system. 

As rich and thick as Helmer’s ethnographic study is, to better understand the
school’s philosophy and educational beliefs, the book needs a stronger
structural formalization, as the literature review is interspersed along the
book and the set of research questions is not fully answered, for example.
More importantly, the study does not delve into a deeper analysis of minority
students’ attitudes toward the school learning experience. As much as the
inclusion of students’ voices in the forefront is fully appreciated, relevant
issues on critical language and literacy, culturally responsive environments,
disciplinary and instructional languages, and meaningful activities are almost
diluted throughout the chapters.  Beyond structural and thematic limitations,
the book contributes to shedding light on a major concern in academic literacy
for English learners at the secondary school level. Above all the reading will
facilitate the continuing conversation among concerned teachers in
multilingual educational communities. 

REFERENCES

Coalition of Essential Schools. 2018  See
http://www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/ pub/
ces_docs/about/phil/10cps/10cps.html (accessed 17 March 2006)

Combs, M. 2006. The IC Americanization Program, Proposition 203 and Structured
English Immersion (SEI). Lecture, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Gruenewald, D. & G. Smith (eds). 2008. Place-based education in the global
age: Local diversity. New York, Routledge.

Heath, S. 1983. Ways with words. Language, life and work in communities and
classrooms. London: Cambridge University Press.

Holm, M.2011. Project-based instruction. A review of the literature on
effectiveness on prekindergarten through the 12th grade classrooms. InSight:
Rivier Academic Journal 7(2): 1-13.

Hornberger, N. 2003. Linguistic anthropology of education (LAE) in context.
Linguistic anthropology in education. In S. Worthom & B. Rymes (eds).
Westport, CT, Praeger: 245-270. 

Lynch, A. 2008. The linguistic similarities of Spanish heritage and second
language learners. Foreign Language Annals 41(2): 252-281.

Mendoza-Denton, N. 2002. Language and identity. In J. Chambers, P. Trudgill &
N. Schilling-Estes (eds). Malden The Handbook of language variation and
change. Malden, MA: Blackwell: 475-499. 

Norton, B. 2013. Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation.
2nd edition. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 

Pennycook, A. 2001. Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction.
London, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Salazar, M. 2010. Pedagogical stances of high school ESL teachers: Huelgas in
high school ESL classrooms. Bilingual Research Journal 33:111-124.

Shor, I.1992. Empowering education: Critical teaching for social change.
Chicago, Il: The University of Chicago Press.

Stritikus, T. 2006. Making meaning matters: A look at instruction practice in
additive and subtractive contexts. Bilingual Research Journal 30(1): 219-227.

Tedick, D. & L. Cammarata. 2010. Implementing content-based instruction: the
CoBal.TT framework and resource center. World language teacher education:
Transitions and challenges in the Twenty First Century. In J. Davis (ed).
Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing: 243-274.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Laura Dubcovsky is a retired lecturer 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 and bilingual education. She has taught a pre-service bilingual
teachers’ course that addresses communicative and academic traits of Spanish,
needed in a bilingual classroom for more than ten years. She is currently
helping in- service bilingual teachers for professional development and in
parent/teachers’ conferences. She also volunteers as translator at Davis Joint
Unified School district, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, YoloArts, Davis
Art Center, and STEAC, in Davis, California. She is a long-standing reviewer
for the Linguistic listServe, the Southern California Professional Development
Schools and the Journal of Latinos and Education. 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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