Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in multicultural contexts

Bilingual Research Journal, Spring 1997 by Ricardo L Garcia

Ovando, C. J. & Collier, V P. ( 1998). Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in multicultural contexts. Second Edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Bilingual and ESL Classrooms is a first-rate textbook focused on the pedagogical and political parameters surrounding the education of students for whom English is a second language. Carlos J. Ovando and Virginia P Collier believe bilingual and ESL instruction are effective tools for educating students for whom English is a second language. They buttress their belief in Bilingual and ESL Classrooms by aiming for "a comprehensive look at research, policy, and effective practices in U. S. schools for students who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds." They achieve their ambitious goal by using an abundance of current research findings and expert opinions to present comprehensive coverage of issues and factors and by providing helpful guidelines and practical teaching suggestions relevant to the education of linguistic minority students.

The book is firmly grounded in the cultural underpinnings of teaching and learning. Culture is portrayed as an interactive, three-dimensional human invention, i.e., culture as a concurrent product of the past and a process in the present, enabling individuals to mold and shape their future lives. While an entire chapter is devoted to culture as a theoretical phenomenon with a living, dynamic presence, linkages to culture are made throughout the text, especially in the chapters on the teaching of mathematics, science, social studies, and language and literature.

Also, the book makes extensive use of theories of second language acquisition and native bilingualism, i.e., acquiring two languages simultaneously. Language acquisition is described as a prism with four interdependent processes: sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive. Bilingual and ESL Classrooms opens with a Foreword by Jim Cummins, who provides an overview of major themes, and is followed by a Preface depicting the book's content, organization, and intended audience-preservice and experienced educators serving grades K through 12 ... [and] administrators and school counselors. The Foreword provides conceptual clarity to the entire text while the Preface points to different areas of specialized interest within the text.

Each of the nine chapters is written with the assistance of experts with special knowledge of the area. Dr. Ovando authored the chapters on Students, Culture, Mathematics and Science. The chapters on Social Studies and School & Community were written with the assistance of Kristina J. Lindborg. Dr. Collier authored the chapters on Policy & Programs (with a section by James Crawford), Teaching, and Assessment & Evaluation, with the assistance of Wayne P. Thomas. By specializing and involving the specialties of other scholars, the authors managed to pack each chapter with a depth and breadth of data, illustrations, and analyses, raising the standard for texts used in teacher education courses. While preservice education students are challenged to learn new ideas and perspectives (which may confront and provoke some of their comfortable assumptions about linguistic minority students), experienced teachers, counselors, and administrators are challenged to wrestle with the political, emotional, cultural, and pedagogical complexities of bilingual instruction within a diverse society.

Bilingual and ESL Classrooms reads as a unified whole made coherent by themes that pervade throughout the text: (a) The debates around linguistic diversity and bilingual education are political, involving fundamental issues of national and individual identity; (b) Teaching, learning, and curriculum construction must be culturally meaningful, interactive, and collaborative; (c)Culture and language are creative and formative human phenomena. Each theme is fully elaborated in certain chapters and alluded to in others.

Chapters One (Students) and Three (Teaching) develop the theme that linguistic minority students are active learners who are curious and interested in the world they inhabit. An understanding of their native bilingualism and bicultural identities requires educators to know their students in more than superficial ways. Teaching is portrayed as both an art and science, with art given the upper hand emphasizing teaching and learning as interactive and collaborative. Examples for interdisciplinary, cooperative, and multi-sensory lessons are interspersed throughout Chapter Three.

Chapters Four (Language) and Five (Culture) develop the themes that language and culture are dynamic, creative, and formative. "Language," Collier explains, `.`is enchanting, powerful, magical, useful, personal... As teachers we serve as catalysts for our students to make the best use of their two or more languages." Chapter Four provides the essential knowledge for teachers to understand first and second language acquisition in comprehensible prose. ESL instructional approaches-Grammar-Translation, Audiolingual, Direct Method, Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning, Total Physical Response, Natural Approach, and Whole Language - are described as having strengths and weaknesses, a refreshing twist of the lemon since most similar texts commit to an approach or position as better or worse. The chapter ends with practical suggestions for teaching literacy in a bilingual-ESL setting.