32.1371, Review: Anthropological Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Ijalba, Velasco, Crowley (2019)

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Subject: 32.1371, Review: Anthropological Linguistics; Sociolinguistics: Ijalba, Velasco, Crowley (2019)

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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2021 15:39:17
From: Laura Dubcovsky [lauradubcovsky at gmail.com]
Subject: Language, Culture, and Education

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-1832.html

EDITOR: Elizabeth  Ijalba
EDITOR: Patricia  Velasco
EDITOR: Catherine J. Crowley
TITLE: Language, Culture, and Education
SUBTITLE: Challenges of Diversity in the United States
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2019

REVIEWER: Laura Dubcovsky, University of California, Davis

SUMMARY

“Language, culture, and education. Challenges of Diversity in the United
States” aims at contributing to policy reforms to better integrate children
and families of minority groups living in New York.  Divided into three major
parts, the book focuses on policy and planning, households’ conditions and
engagement, and issues of general health and some language disorders,
respectively. Specialized authors inform on each field following different
criteria of analysis but common ecological (Bronfenbrenner, 1986) and
socio-cultural perspectives (Vygotsky, 1978). The interdisciplinary topics are
relevant to a broad audience of bilingual teachers, immigrant parents, and
health care providers of diverse and multi-ethnic communities. 

Part I, “Immigration, bilingual education, policy and educational planning,”
encompasses an overview of historical and legal landmarks in the advancement
of bilingual education, as well as health and disabilities issues faced by
minority language families. Elizabeth Ijalba and Patricia Velasco point out,
“Political, social, and educational challenges in the struggle to develop
bilingual education as a pedagogical model in the United States” in Chapter 1.
They summarize bills, acts and court cases that have either protected or
hindered the use of minority languages and characterize major modalities of
bilingual programs, as they evolved throughout the years. Above all, the
authors highlight how bilingual education is a pedagogical model in continuous
change, in the light of socio-political and cultural events that impact the
physical and mental well-being of minority students and their families. 

Catherine Crowley and Miriam Baigorri address the problem of, “Distinguishing
a true disability from “something else.” In the first part (Chapter 2) they
highlight, “Current challenges to providing valid, reliable, and culturally
and linguistically appropriate disability evaluations.” The authors explain
how difficult it is to discern between students with language disorders and
those with linguistic and academic gaps, usually given by a constellation of
variants, from linguistic and cultural different backgrounds,  to lack of
shared home and school experiences with mainstream children, etc.  Because the
number of students categorized with different types of learning disabilities
and/or language disorders varies widely within and between states, the authors
raise questions about the validity and reliability of these diagnoses.
Moreover, the disproportionate number of minority students being referred to
special education, calls for further investigation on racial, ethnic, and
linguistic biases shown in norm-referenced tests, outdated assessments and
vocabulary and IQ tests, as well as in many teachers’ perceptions of the
students who need referrals. Therefore, Crowley and Baigorri offer a solution
in the second part, moving “Toward a model of culturally and linguistically
appropriate speech-language disability evaluations.” Chapter 3 incorporates
the voices of parents, students, and teachers, as they can help design more
accurate and fair evaluations and shape the evaluator’s training. The authors
encourage dynamic assessments, based on representative students’ portfolios,
and careful selection of culturally sensitive texts and pedagogical material.
Above all the evaluation model would reflect on what minority students are
able to do, meeting the diverse population’s needs.

The second part of the book, “Bilingualism, literacy ecologies, and parental
engagement among immigrant families'' displays a broad picture of households,
including Latino, Chinese and Korean families, literacy episodes, from
spontaneous conversations to more formal reading events, and children of
varied ages and abilities. In Chapter 4, “Raising children bilingually: What
parents and educators should know about bilingualism in children, Anny
Castilla-Earls offers guidance on how to raise children in a house where more
than one language is spoken. She explores possible combinations of language
uses,  following speakers who belong either to the majority or the minority
linguistic group, or identify with both languages (De Houwer, 2007).  The
author uses her personal experience to share strategies that increase the
amount of exposure, such as frequent readings, presence of books and comics,
listening to songs and rhymes,watching selected TV and playing with computer
games in the second language. Finally, the author offers typical instances of
codeswitching and language transfer, drawing from her small children’s
utterances, “¿Mami, me das un snack? Quiero cranberries y cashews” (“Mom,
would you give me a snack? I want cranberries and cashews”), and “En papi
carro” (“in father’s car”) instead of the well-formed Spanish construction “en
el carro de papi,” respectively. 

Chapter 5 “Language Acquisition in emergent bilingual triplets” by Rosemarie
Sepulveda and Elizabeth Ijalba introduces multiple bilingual children, who are
seldom treated in bilingual studies.  From a sociolinguistic perspective that
incorporates translanguaging (García, 2009) and funds of knowledge (Gonzales &
Moll, 2002) as positive mechanisms to strengthen home language learning, the
authors explore the influence of English and Spanish vocabulary and narrative
skills in bilingual triplets, two of them diagnosed with specific language
impairment. The study combines quantitative data, drawn from cognate frequency
(vocabulary scores) and length, and different utterances (narrative scores),
as shown in Tables 5.1 and 5.2 respectively, with qualitative data derived
from ethnographic observations of the home, family dynamics,  and specific
parental roles. Above all the authors discuss the crucial role of home
language and culture in the language development of emergent bilingual
triplets.

The following chapters present immigrant families of different ethnicities,
traditions, and modalities.  Elizabeth Ijalba and Qi Li describe,
“Multilingualism in Chinese families and raising their children bilingually:
Fujianese immigrants.”  Chapter 6 focuses on parents’ high expectations in
education and the language development of children who are raised between the
United States and China. The authors briefly contextualize the several waves
of Fujianese immigration in America, as well as the broad range of languages
and regional speeches in the Fujian province, most of these mutually
unintelligible. The noticeable “reverse immigration” (Kwong et al., 2009) of
children born in the United States and raised by their grandparents in China,
brings about relevant consequences. Among them, the gradual loss of the first
language, the shift into the generalized Mandarin language used in the Chinese
province, and the later English acquisition calls for further investigation. 
These “transnational children” (Bohr, 2010) struggle with bonding to their
parents, assimilating to a new country, and learning a new language, among
other consequences. They show difficulties adjusting to the American school,
including learning abilities and social behavior. Frequently they receive
referrals to speech-language therapy, as they are assessed by their low levels
of language proficiency. Teachers and health providers are not aware of the
children’s language history, first language loss, and lack of practice. By the
same token immigrant parents do not receive adequate tools to navigate the
educational system and help their children.  It is imperative that educational
agents deepen the understanding of the transitional children to better meet
their emotional, cultural, and linguistic needs and support their families. 

Chapter 7 “Bilingualism in Korean-American children and maternal perceptions
of education,” by Elizabeth Ijalba and Nakyung Yoo describes the early
literacy practices that take place at home. Korean families share strong
beliefs in assimilating to the American society and teaching English to their
young children, as it is associated with the language of success. Mothers are
the main responsible for early literacy at home, and use English as the
language of instruction, despite the fact that they are not proficient in the
second language. The authors describe the mother/child dyad and find that
Korean mothers assume an authoritarian role in the interaction. For example,
during a literacy event, the adult shows the picture book, points at the
visuals, labels the objects and demands yes/no answers. She uses commands and
direct type of instruction that focuses on basic facts. Likewise, mothers
teach vocabulary by means of flashcards, exerting great pressure in learning
by repetition and memorization.  This parenting style implemented in a limited
second language puts in risk children’s Korean language and accelerates its
shift to English. Due to a lack of foundation in their first language, and
insufficient practice in the second language, Korean children are often
confused with language delayed students, and misplaced in special; education
classes. 

Patricia Velasco and Bobbie Kabuto describe a dynamic model of reading between
a Mixteco father and his eight-year-old daughter. Chapter 8,
“Transgenerational bilingual reading practices: A case study of an
undocumented Mixteco family” shows positive results and bilingual reading
growth in each member of the literacy dyad. At the micro level, adult and
child raise their language awareness in two languages. For example, they
contrast meaning and pronunciation between the English pronoun “me” and the
Spanish possessive “mi”, and find similarities in the plural formation (with a
final “-s”) for both languages, etc.  At the macro level   the participants
collaborate in creating a common set of beliefs and practices of what is
considered “good reading”, including comprehension and making sense of the
entire text.  Above all, the bilingual dyad uses a dynamic way for
constructing meaning, benefitting from each other’s knowledge, and moving
freely between the two languages. The authors suggest incorporating the
effective practice in bilingual programs’ reading activities, departing from
unidirectional models and exchange information, helping each other, and
implementing translanguaging practices.

In Chapter 9, “Parent education in Latino families of children with language
impairment,” Elizabeth Ijalba and Angela Giraldo compare pre- and post-
interventions, of several language measures in intervention and waiting
control groups (Table 9.1 p. 171). The authors find growth in Spanish and
English vocabulary, including receptive and productive lexicon, number of
words and expressions, and holistic comprehension, as well as in the number of
children's books in the house and reading frequency (Table 9.2. p. 173). The
authors describe the challenging social context of most immigrant families,
especially when they have children who suffer some type of disability. They
underline the already mentioned disproportionate rate of bilingual children
who are referred to special education and emphasize the need for deepening the
nature and scope of special education, as it encompasses a broad range of
learning disabilities, and host professionals who are not always prepared to
treat students from different cultures and do not speak their language.
Moreover, there are fewer bilingual-related services for children with
language impairment. Ijalba and Giraldo also examine the rapid loss of
immigrant children’s first language, under the pressure of school specialists
who suggest parents’ using the language of schooling. Parents feel the need to
shift into the majority language in the home environment. However, studies
show offering early literacy events in children’s first language at home is
beneficial because parents can teach literacy skills, support expressive
vocabulary, and expand the interaction. This foundation in the first language
home practices favor later  access and development in the second language of
schooling, especially for bilingual children with difficulty in language
acquisition.  

The third part of the book addresses “Cultural perceptions about disability,
the home language and healthcare alternatives among immigrants,” following
ecological and interactionist perspectives, which oppose to static models
currently used by doctors and health providers who tend to categorize issues
of health and disabilities in dichotomic manner (Turnbull et al., 2014). The
first two chapters focus on perceptions and early interventions among Latino
families.  While Ijalba describes, “Perceptions about autism in Hispanics
immigrant mothers of preschool children with autism spectrum
disorders”(Chapter 10),  Victoria Puig claims , “How early childhood
interventions endanger the home language and home culture: A call to value the
role of families” (Chapter 11). Ijalba explores Latino mothers’ feelings of
fear and shame for their children with some type of language disorder or
learning disability, as well as an overall lack of knowledge about autism.
This disinformation, added to cultural beliefs and preconceptions, leads
mothers to associate children’s autism spectrum disorder to maturity
deficiencies, laziness and even to spiritual/fate reasons (“It’s God’s will”),
etc. In Puig’s study, better knowledgeable doctors and health providers also
operate under a set of misconceptions regarding migrant children’s language
disorders, discouraging the use of the first language in their households and
not providing parents with the necessary information about autism disorders. 

Both chapters document parents’ feeling of guilt for communicating with their
children in the first language and showing limited command of the second
language. The negative perception is reinforced by teachers and speech
professionals who privilege the use of English, overlooking dramatic
reductions or absence of communicative interactions in the first language
between mother and child. Detrimental effects for not promoting the mother
tongue generates a “negative social spiral,” causing more harm than good
(Rice, 1993). Finally, Ijalba and Puig offer similar suggestions to speech
language professionals and parents. First, they advocate a cultural and
linguistic preparation for educational and health agents to better meet
immigrant children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic needs.  
Professionals also need to deepen on multicultural issues to conduct more
meaningful interventions.  Above all, gaining awareness of bilingualism will
enable health providers to encourage the use of the first language in the
household in richer interactions that may lead to a stronger foundation of the
second language. Knowledge of language structures and respect toward minority
families will also benefit the communication with parents, offering them
information about the nature and characteristics of autism spectrum disorders
and collaborating with them.

Reem Khamis-Dakwar offers, “A critical review of cultural and linguistic
guidelines in serving Arab-Americans,” in Chapter 12. Less known than other
immigrant groups, the Arab people arrived in the United states in three main
waves from 1885 to the present, from many of the twenty-two Arab countries,
representing varied types of population, religion, and economic resources. The
author focuses on linguistic phenomena of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the
presence of diglossia among Arabic speaking communities (Fergusson, 1959), and
the competence of Arabic by heritage speakers in America, with frequent code
-switching (Rouchdy, 2002).  The chapter also offers a brief contrastive
analysis between English and Arabic, which helps overview benefits and
challenges of Arab immigrants who are learning English. For example, Arabic
alphabet inventories are larger in size, as they have more vowels and
consonants than the English language. At the morphological level Arabic
presents a more complex inflection system, with singular, plural, and dual, in
contrast to the singular/plural number system in English. Moreover, Arabic
syntax allows dropping the pronominal subject, while in English the pronoun
needs to be explicit in the sentence,  while the English word order of
adjective  before the described noun (e.g. “the red book”), is reversed in
Arabic, with nouns before the descriptive adjective (e.g. “the book-- the
red”). Finally, the author suggests teachers and health providers deepening
the knowledge of current Arab-American students, to better serve distinctive
culturally and linguistic groups and overcome biases and preconceptions. 

Chapter 13, “Building home-school connections within a multicultural education
framework: Challenges and opportunities before and after President Trump’s
election” by Patricia Velasco, describes a course on multiculturalism in a
teaching preparation program that aims at raising cultural and linguistic
awareness. The author and professor of the course compares pre-service
teachers’ attitudes toward multicultural students, under socio-political
changes. After tracing the trajectory of multicultural education in the United
States, Velasco claims that a new course on already known topics of diversity
demands departing from shallow and oversimplified lessons on ethnic foods,
typical holidays and celebrations, symbols in flags, and historical role
models, On the contrary,  the current design activates teachers ’self-
reflection on issues of identity, perceptions, and attitudes. Experienced and
novice teachers should respond to the needs of this time and era when
immigrant families seem more vulnerable than before. The author explains how
her course implements new ways of communicating and reaching out to immigrant
parents under current circumstances. Among the examples, a bilingual fourth
grade teacher changes email communications on school activities for voice
messages, as not all the Latino parents  have computers at home; a third grade
bilingual teacher engages parents as co-contributors of a social study unit
about different communities by requesting material (maps, pictures, household
objects) to be shared in the classroom; and a fifth grade teacher involves
English learners’ parents beyond the classroom, by assigning homework
activities that demand the joint effort of parents and children at home. 

Esperanza Tuñón Pablos resumes the health issue, focusing on the Latino
population. Chapter 14 discusses, “Health and alternatives to healthcare for
Mexican immigrants in New York.”  After clarifying that the Mexican population
in New York is heterogeneous, as shown in the demographic profile of Table
14.1 (p. 245), the author describes most common challenges this community
faces to access the health system and the health insurance coverage.  For
example, unhealthy diet habits based on high caloric and low- cost products
and lack of exercise bring negative effects, such as overweight and diabetes. 
While many agricultural workers suffer eczema, otitis, and allergies, Mexican
immigrant women show signs of depression and domestic violence, and their
children suffer from anemia, diarrhea, and colitis in high numbers. In the
school setting, children from Mexican families are frequently diagnosed with
learning disabilities and/or language disorders, sometimes swaying between
misdiagnoses and over-referrals, based on confounding socio-economic,
learning, and language variables. The constellation of physical and mental
conditions to access medical insurances and social health program is
complicated and varies in different states and throughout historical periods.
Among the alternatives, some immigrants look for self-medication,
incorporating natural herbs and homemade remedies, while others prefer
telephone consultation with family members, and others pay private services.
Many travel to their hometowns in special “medical tourism” trips, as they
believe Mexican doctors are highly qualified while the health services in
Mexico are cheaper (Nigenda et al, 2009). 

EVALUATION

“Language, culture, and education. Challenges of Diversity in the United
States” examines educational and health conditions of major ethno-linguistic
groups living in New York. Experts in the field analyze home literacy events,
cases of learning and language disabilities, generalized attitudes toward
immigrant families, and varied experiences across home, school, and health
settings. The fourteen chapters include a broad range of ages, countries of
origin, languages, and circumstances, contributing with new data. Moreover,
authors bring the voices of old and young immigrants, and professionals of
health and education that renew the discussion in current socio-political
situation of tension and hostility toward migrant movements.  From different
theoretical perspectives, and taking up objective or subjective positions,
most authors agree in a common view that converges in inequalities experienced
by bilingual minority children. As shown in many chapters, these children are
often misdiagnosed and/or over-referred to special education, as teachers and
health providers are still confounding linguistic, cognitive, and cultural
variables. Furthermore, each study combines theoretical foundation with
practical guidelines and suggestions for parents, teachers, and speech
therapists. Some chapters are particularly relevant because of novelty or less
explored topics in the literature, such as the case of triplets (Chapter 5),
the description of reverse migration (Chapter 6), and the literate dyad in
Mixteco Language (Chapter 8).  

Weaker aspects are related to formalities. For example, the book’s categorical
division into three parts, shows that topics intertwine within Chapters and
between categories. For example, Chapters 2-3 in Part I, and Chapters 5 and 9
in Part II could be easily included in Part 3 as they discuss health related
issues. On the other hand, Chapters 12 and 13 in Part III could be integrated
to the second section as they also elaborate on parental involvement).
Finally, it is recommended that each study offer the cited references at the
end of each Chapter, not only to facilitate the specific reading, but also to
ensure the exact citation, as sometimes some authors are missed, or dates of
publication do not match. Despite the minor formal adjustments, the book
encompasses rich analyses and strong conclusions to be used by research
specialists, parents, and practitioners in multicultural communities.

REFERENCES 

Bohr, Y. (2010). Transnational infancy: A new context for attachment and the
need for better models. Child Development Perspectives, 4(3), 189-196. 

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human
development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology, 22(6), 723-842. 

De Houwer, A. (2007). Parental language input patterns and children’s'
bilingual use. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28(3), 411-424.
doi.org/10.1017/S0142716407070221

Ferguson, C. (1959). Diglossia. Word, 15, 325-340. 

García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st Century. A global
perspective. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell                

González, N., & Moll, L. (2002). Cruzando el puente: Building bridges to funds
of knowledge. Educational Policy, 16, 623-641. 

Kwong, K., Chung, H., Sun, L., Chou, J., & Taylor-Shih, A. (2009). Factors
associated with reverse-migration separation among a cohort of low-income
Chinese immigrant families in New York City. Social Work in Health Care,
48(3), 348-359. doi.org/10.1080.009813802599174

Nigenda, G., Ruiz-Larios, J., Bejarano-Arias, R., Alcalde-Rabanal, J., &
Bonilla- Fernandez, P. (2009). Análisis de las alternativas de los migrantes
mexicanos en Estados Unidos de América para atender sus problemas de salud.
Salud Pública de México, 51, 407-416. 

Rice, M. (1993). Don't talk to him. He's weird. A social consequences account
of language and social interactions. In A. Kaiser & D. Gray (Eds.), Enhancing
children’s communication: Research foundations for interventions (pp.
139-158). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes 

Rouchdy, A. (2002). Language conflict and identity: Arabic in the American
diaspora. In A. Rouchdy (Ed.), Language contact and Language conflict in
Arabic: Variations on a sociolinguistic theme (pp. 133-148). New York:
Routledge Curzon.

Turnbull, A., Turnbull, H., Erwin, E., Soodak, L., & Shogren, K. (2014).
Families, professionals, and exceptionality: Positive outcomes through
partnership and trust. Columbus: Pearson/Merrill.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental
processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.


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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