Sixth International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education: Connecting Research and Practice Across Contexts

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

English/Spanish

Two-Way Bilingual Immersion
One-Way Developmental Bilingual Education

Post-Secondary

We will share findings from teachers’ voices about their biliteracy trajectories illustrated with excerpts from their bilingually written pre/post essays.  A conclusion drawn from the data is teachers’ recognition that being biliterate depends on where they are on a continuum. Implications for teacher preparation will be discussed.  

Emergent bilinguals (EBs)’ potential is mostly erased at schools even though the country needs to have bilingual professionals to stay abreast in this competitive world. However, if the U.S. educational system were to capitalize and enhance on the students’ bilingualism (e.g., Spanish and English) and instruct them in their primary language (i.e., to maintain and develop their biliteracy skills (Reyes, 2012)), there will not be a shortage of bilingual teachers nationwide.

Interestingly, some of these EBs become bilingual teachers, and when they begin to work, they wonder whether they are “really” bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural teachers, and whether they are prepared to teach in bilingual programs. For most of them, this doubt stems from not having been formally instructed in their primary language (e.g., Spanish). Thus, there is limited research about teachers’ voices about their biliteracy continua (Hornberger, 2003) and what they have lost or gained when navigating beyond their usual borders.

I will present findings gathered from (a) 19 Student Profile forms (e.g., demographics and other items and (b) 19 pre- and post- essays entitled “My bilingual/ biliteracy trajectory” written for a bilingual literacy class that was taught in 2015. Essays were written in Spanish and English (i.e., participants use their translanguaging skills (Garcia & Wei, 2014)). For the analysis, I used Patton’s (1990) concept of iterativeness (i.e., I re-read the writings many times). The following themes surfaced: losing and/or valuing their biliteracy skills at a certain age, their family’s role in honing their biliteracy skills, their identities as biliterate persons, and the rewriting of their biliteracy trajectories. Two conclusions were drawn: Teachers recognize that they are at different stages in the biliteracy continuum as the research alludes and its maintenance depends on various factors (e.g., their need to write in academic Spanish for their classes); and teachers make every possible effort so that their students do not experience the same trajectory (i.e., not having the opportunity to become biliterate). Implications for bilingual teacher preparation will also be presented.

 

References

García, O. (2014). Becoming bilingual and biliterate. In C. A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, B. J. Ehren & G. P. Wallach (Eds.), Handbook of Language and Literacy. NY: The Guilford Press.

Hornberger, N. (2004). The continua of biliteracy and the bilingual educator: Educational linguistics in practice. Bilingual education and bilingualism, 7(2 & 3), 155-171.

Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Reyes, M. (2012). Spontaneous biliteracy: Examining Latino students’ untapped potential. Theory Into Practice, 51, 248-255.