Raise a child, not a test score: Perspectives on bilingual education at Davis Bilingual Magnet School

Bilingual Research Journal, Spring 2002 by Smith, Patrick H, Arnot-Hopffer, Elizabeth, Carmichael, Catherine M, Murphy, Ellen, Et al

Children's theories as evidence of success

Eder and Corsaro (1999) argue that the process of childhood socialization, once thought to be a private affair of simple internalization, is actually a public, creative process, in which children adopt, adapt, and reinvent adult culture. They use the term "interpretive reproduction" to refer to the complex interplay in which children become co-authors of "adulthood." We suspect that the same is true within the realm of bilingual and biliteracy development. Children do not simply absorb sets of skills in a second language; they transform them and in turn contribute to transformations of how language-oral and written-- becomes defined and how it is perceived. And they are able to achieve all of this in very public arenas, such as schools, as Alyssa's writing illustrates:

In first grade my teachers taught me how to add and subtract big numbers. My teachers taught me how to read more advanced books. Now I am in second grade. We learn about insects, how to measure, about animals, how to add and subtract really big numbers, how to read, and how to take tests. When I am in third, fourth, and fifth grade I think it will be hard. I like this school because I have friends and good teachers. And the most important thing is that we learn two languages.

This is indeed fortunate for those of us interested in studying not only biliteracy development, but also the ever evolving concept of "biliteracy" itself. For schools become ideal sites for witnessing the collective means by which the "interpretive reproduction" of biliteracy occurs. During the past four years, we have documented those public processes by which biliteracy is negotiated and transformed. We have learned that not only do such young children already possess sophisticated notions of biliteracy development, they indeed may already be contributing to changes in our very notions of biliteracy. In the following sections we provide examples to illustrate students' developing theories on the purposes of studying in two languages, their emerging concepts of language, and views on the status of English and Spanish.

Children 5 theories on the purposes of bilingual schooling

Though we have observed few instances of adults explaining to children the purposes of the model of bilingual schooling used at Davis, it is clear that students have developed ways of rationalizing for themselves the use of two languages for instruction. Jennifer, Spanish dominant and 7 years old, describes her theory, explaining the greater use of Spanish in the early grades.

J: Because almost all of the kids know English and they don't know Spanish and they want to be bilingual and they are teaching them.

C: And what about the kids who do know Spanish?

J: Well, there are some words that I don't know. And I get them wrong and... I say them poorly. And so they teach me.6

Jennifer has developed the notion that instruction in Spanish serves all students. Recognizing the benefits for English-dominant students, she also describes the importance of continuing development of the minority language.