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

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

Spanish/English

One-Way Second/Foreign Language Immersion
Two-Way Bilingual Immersion

Pre-K
Elementary (K-5)
Middle School/Junior High
High School

This project contributes to the scant but growing body of research on African American involvement in dual language education by examining existing language ideologies in the African American community towards multilingualism, particularly Spanish-English bilingualism, that might inhibit or facilitate participation in the district’s dual language program. 

This qualitative interpretivist study uses Richard Ruiz’s language orientation framework to explore the perspectives of African Americans towards Spanish-English bilingualism as it relates to dual language education.  Ruiz presented three ideologies towards minority languages: language as a problem, language as a right, and language as a resource (1984).  Galindo later added language as a boundary (1997). This study attempts to add to these frameworks by providing an alternative perspective: a minority language as seen by members of another marginalized group and how these orientations might inhibit or facilitate participation in the district’s dual language program.

Previous research demonstrates the potential of dual language programs to promote academic, linguistic, and cross-cultural competence in all students (Howard, Sugarman & Christian, 2003; Thomas & Collier, 2011), yet also suggests that African American students are experiencing limited inclusion in these types of programs (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2008; Lindholm-Leary, 2001).  This project contributes to the scant but growing body of research on African American involvement in dual language by examining the existing language ideologies in the African American community towards bilingualism.  The researcher analyzed 5 semi-structured interviews with members of the African American community in one urban school district.  Thematic coding revealed the representation of each of Ruiz’s original orientations as well as Galindo’s demonstrating African Americans’ perceptions of Spanish as a problem, right, resource, and boundary in the traditional sense.  However, the data analysis also uncovered nuanced and additional ideologies emerging from the racial position of African Americans in U.S. society.

In practice, the implications of this study suggest alternative approaches to the design, recruitment, and implementation of dual language programs with African American students in mind.  In theory, this study presents a racially nuanced understanding of Ruiz’s original language orientation framework as well as engages in problematizing the existing raciolinguistic hierarchy of power in U.S. society.