No habla ingles: Exploring a bilingual child's literacy learning opportunities in a predominantly english-speaking classroom

Bilingual Research Journal, Spring 1998 by Brock, Cynthia H, McVee, Mary Birgit, Shojgreen-Downer, Angela M, Duenas, Leila Flores

Abstract

In this investigation, we explore the nature of language-based social interactions of a Spanish-speaking child (pseudonym Adriana) in her predominately English-speaking classroom. In particular, this study examines ways in which a monolingual English-speaking teacher (the first author) and her research colleagues critically analyzed classroom discursive practices in the first author's thirdgrade classroom with an eye toward exploring Adriana's literacy learning opportunities in that classroom.

How does one stop reading the exterior signs of a foreign tribe and step into the inwardness, the viscera of their meanings? Every anthropologist understands the difficulty of such a feat; and so does every immigrant. (Hoffman,1989,p.209)

For many immigrant children, American classrooms are alien places with unfamiliar practices and language. And, increasingly, immigrant children who do not speak English as their first language are entering American public schools (Nieto, 1992; Genessee, 1994). For example, while the enrollment of children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds has increased dramatically in large urban centers over the past decade, this increase is not limited to urban areas. During the 1990-91 school year, 39 states in all regions of the country reported increased numbers of children who do not speak English as their first language (U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Secretary, 1992). Additionally, between 1980 and 1990 there was over a 50% increase in the Hispanic population in the United States. (Garcia & McLaughlin, 1995, pp. 105-106).

Providing a quality education for the rapidly increasing numbers of ethnically and linguistically diverse children in American schools is a significant issue that must be addressed by educators at all levels across the country. The importance of this issue is exacerbated by the decline in the number of qualified bilingual teachers in the United States (Nieto, 1992; Committee on Developing a Research Agenda on the Education of LimitedEnglish-Proficient and Bilingual Students, 1997). Consequently, mainstream teachers must play a pivotal role in working to meet effectively the educational needs of the many linguistically and culturally diverse children in American classrooms.

This investigation focuses on the literacy learning opportunities of one child, Adriana, an immigrant child from Mexico whose first language is Spanish. Adriana was one of a group of 32 third-grade students who were primarily bilingual (Spanish & English) students taught by the first author in a six-week federally funded migrant summer school program in a predominantly Englishspeaking classroom in the Northwest. Literacy learning opportunities, as used in the context of this investigation, refer to opportunities for children to interact with others (primarily through spoken and written language) to make sense of classroom activities (Alton-Lee, Nuthall, & Patrick, 1993; Tuyay, Jennings, & Dixon,1995).

This investigation focuses on the first trade book unit in which Adriana and her class participated. The research question that guided this investigation was: Did Adriana have opportunities for literacy learning in the context of a trade book unit based on the text The Giving Tree (Silverstein, 1964)? If so, how and why were the opportunities constructed? If not, why not?

Review of Literature

We draw on the following lines of scholarship to establish a conceptual framework for this investigation: sociocultural theory (e.g., Vygotsky, 1978), analysis of classroom discourse (e.g., Cazden, 1988; Gee, 1990, 1996; Gumperz, 1986), and research on second language learners (e.g., Moll, 1986; Cummins, 1994). The first two lines of scholarship highlight the central role of languagebased social interactions in facilitating human learning. The latter line of scholarship lays important conceptual groundwork for understanding the central role that Adriana's linguistic and cultural background plays in her literacy learning.

Sociocultural Theory

Sociocultural theory provides a powerful framework for examining the manner in which language is used in classroom communities to construct literacy learning opportunities. Sociocultural theorists posit that we are social beings; from birth, mediated social interactions shape the development of our thought and language (Moll, 1989; Wertsch, 1991 ). More specifically, however, both thought and language are constituted through mediated social interactions in the broader social, cultural, and historical contexts within which we exist. Furthermore, tool use-particularly the use of psychological tools such as spoken and written language-mediates all human learning (Wertsch, 1991). In the context of this study, then, we are primarily concerned with the ways in which others in Adriana's classroom community (e.g., her teachers & peers) interact with her to construct opportunities for her to use language as a tool for literacy learning.

Analysis of Classroom Discourse