Bilingualism and Special Educational Needs: an interpretive analysis of specialist teachers’ phenomenologies

Bilingualism and Special Educational Needs: an interpretive analysis of specialist teachers’ phenomenologies Dermot Bergin D.Ed.Psych Programme 2007-2010 Cardiff University

Introduction - Terms • Bilingualism: use of two or more languages day-to-day • In Wales: Welsh/English and EAL pupils; • English as an Additional Language (EAL) also referred to as ESL (English as a Second Language) and ELL (English Language Learner) in the literature; • SEN: alternatives Additional Learning Needs (Wales) and Additional Support for Learning (Scotland); • Specialist Teachers in EAL (EALSTs) and SEN (SENCos).

Why is this area important to Educational Psychology? • Professional relevance • Relevance to legislation concerning children and young people: • Every Child Matters (HM Gov, 2003) • Children and Young People: Rights to Action (WAG, 2004) • Relevance to the question of equality in society

Relevance to equal rights • Historic disproportionality (overrepresentation) • Disproportionality: educational composition 20% above or below the population composition. • e.g. Mexican-Amercian pupils in the U.S. • West-Indian immigrant children in the U.K. • Diana v. California (1970) led to retesting of all minority ethnic pupils in Special Ed., 1,000s reintegrated.

Has enough changed? • “...since the case of Diana v. California, the profession of school psychology ha[s] not made sufficient progress in addressing and improving training pertaining to assessment practices with [EAL] students...” (Ochoa, Rivera & Ford, 1997, p. 341) • Bursztyn (2007) proposes psychologists in schools become agents for social change, to “challenge the status quo and expose the injustices created by societal arrangements [to] bring about change in society” (Burstyn, 2007, p.648)

Conflict (macrosocial) Humanism Structuralism Interpretivism Positivism Order (microsocial) Bursztyn (2007) Quantitative Qualitative

Conflict (macrosocial) Humanism Structuralism Interpretivism Positivism Order (microsocial) Bursztyn (2007) Quantitative Qualitative Evidence based interventions The current study

Attainment among bilinguals Equivocal findings: • Strand (2005): At end KS2 only those fluent in L1 and English performed as well as peers. • Demie & Strand (2006): at end of KS3 English fluent EAL pupils’ outperformance indigenous but the difference could be explained by other factors than EAL status; • Mouw & Xie (1999): second generation immigrants only • Portes & Hao (2004): Mexican pupils fare worse • Garcia-Vazquez et al. (1997): greater level of Spanish and English beneficial to academic success. • Thomas & Collier (2002): bilingually schooled pupils outperform in all subjects after 4-7 years.

Can SEN be affected by language? One possibility? Dyslexia • Dyslexics may simply have difficulty with a writing system based on phonemes...they may do better with one based on syllabary instead, e.g. Chinese (Blackmore & Frith, 2005) • Dyslexics experience milder difficulties in languages with more transparent orthographies (Caravolas, 2005); • E.g. Hindi-English bilinguals have more errors in a test of English compared with Hindi (Gupta & Jamal, 2007); • Exposure to e.g. Italian may enhance phonological skills in English (D’Angiulli & Siegel, 2001).

Can SEN be affected by language? SEN unlikely to be affected by bilingualism: ASD • “It is now well established that autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a biological basis in which genetic factors are strongly implicated (Medical Research Council, 2001) . Hereditability estimates greater than 0.90 have been obtained from twin studies” (Frederickson, Miller & Cline, 2008, p.144); • “One puzzle is the rapid increase in prevalence...” (ibid, p. 144) from 4-5 per 10,000 in 1979 to 16 in 2006.

Disproportionality: possible factors • Inappropriate assessment practices; • Prevalence of pupils with EAL within an LEA; • Prejudice; restriction of services to indigenous pupils • Social and environmental situation (e.g. deprivation); • Social constructions surrounding SEN.

Social Constructionism • Interpretation plays a role in SEN assessment. • “...a concept or practice that may appear to be natural, objective and valid to those who accept it, but which, in reality, is an invention or artefact of a particular culture or society” (Kelly, 2008, pp. 20-21); • Micro level: Cummins (1984) noted change in definition of term ‘mentally retarded’ in USA from <IQ 85 to <IQ 70; • Macro-social constructionism/deconstructionism: move from SEN to ALN (WAG, 2007)

Social Constructionism Four pre-requisites appear necessary for social constructionism (Burr, 2003): • A critical stance towards taken-for-granted knowledge; • Acceptance of historical and cultural specificity; • Acceptance that knowledge is sustained by social processes; and • Acceptance that knowledge and social action go together. • Criticism: binary ‘yes-no’ style perspectives of essentialism and realism are of limited utility (Hacking, 2000).

Methods • Qualitative approach appropriate • Theoretical sampling: (SENCos & EALSTs) • Participants: six SENCos and six EALSTs from seven schools (four primary), all female. • Interviews transcribed • Transcripts analysed according to IPA procedure • Data stored and analysed using Nvivo programme • On-going process of theme interpretation.

Interview Schedule • What experience have you had of working with bilingual pupils and their Special Educational Needs (SEN)? • What have been the common SEN that you have noted in relation to bilingual pupils? • Have you noticed any types of SEN that seem to be relatively rarely found among bilingual pupils? • How do you feel a child’s bilingualism effects his/her education? • What would be helpful to reduce the difficulties experienced by bilingual children? • How can bilingualism be greater utilised to help overcome SEN? • How do you decide whether or not a suspected SEN is due to some aspect of bilingualism? • What might help to distinguish whether a given learning difficulty was due to some aspect of bilingualism or not?

Transcript – Interview I

Summary master tables

Results -Descriptive statistics Number of Years in post Schools (P = Primary, C = Comprehensive)

Results - IPA Super-ordinate themes • How EAL status may affect education. • Experiences and perceptions of SEN among EAL pupils. • Issues and methods in identifying SEN among EAL pupils. • Solutions: current strategies and potential areas for future development.

1. EAL status and education • Early years characteristics of EAL pupils • EAL and Education • Dominance switch to English • Value of bilingualism questioned • Characteristics of English language development • Considerations of possible disadvantages of bilingualism

EAL and education • One SENCo noted that many EAL pupils are behind their indigenous peers when they first start school. • “I find in the Nursery particularly em, I know our baseline assessments may be down…” (SENCo H) • Conversely, EAL pupils were reported to often outperform indigenous pupils after several years. • “…even if they've come as a stage A, which is no language at all, you know, by the time they get to Year 4 or Year 5, they are outperforming the indigenous pupils, who would have come to school with English.” (SENCo A)

1. EAL status and education • Early years characteristics of EAL pupils; • EAL and Education • Dominance switch to English • Value of bilingualism questioned • Characteristics of English language development • Considerations of possible disadvantages of bilingualism

Value of bilingualism questioned Bilingualism seen as demanding/confusing “…but I can understand why people could think that it wasn't the best idea for the child to be speaking two languages you know, that they would have thought that they are coping with so much that it you know, just trying you know kind of- reduce some of the things can be reduced so that it would be easier for the child to learn…” (EALST I)

Disadvantages of bilingualism? Mentally harder to do work “…if your brain is working in one language and you're translating constantly not only are you- you've got that challenge on top- but you're already- your brain's working hard on the translating without trying to take in the curriculum as well and if you happen to have a bit of a literacy difficulty as well that's going to be another layer on top em, and there's only so much one small developing brain can do, isn't there?” (SENCO K)

2. Experiences and perceptions • In relation to theory • Against linking bilingualism with SEN • Stance of school on SEN • Resistance to placing EAL on the SEN register • The prevalence and perception of SEN among EAL pupils

Theory not supported • Schools with low % EAL status pupils having overrepresentation of such pupils in SEN. • No support for differences in rates of literacy difficulties between groups noted.

Resistance to SEN Placing EAL pupils within lower sets had a negative effect on their educational experience. “…she's ((a class teacher)) put one of my children in the special needs group and she's [an EAL pupil] told me, if she has to colour in one more time she said she's going to scream in her home language she said because she's so bored. She said she knows that she can't do the work everybody else is doing but she said she can't sit with this group any longer because they're just colouring in and they're writing simple sentences like 'THIS IS AN APPLE' she said, and she said she knows that she can do much more…” (EALST E)

Resistance to SEN EALSTs feared that being placed on the SEN register might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. “I've come across pupils a long time ago, who've been- that's- that's happened to, they've been put very low down, they just become totally disillusioned and sort of fulfill the prophecy in a way you become an SEN.” (EALST C) SENCos were cautious and some reported delaying their tendencies to place a child on the SEN register because of their EAL status “…because of the EAL issue, you delay it, to see if he's going to take off.” (SENCo F)

Resistance to SEN One SENCo was not ready to comment if there was too much hesitancy in placing pupils with EAL into SEN sessions. DB: “… in the past the number of children you know with Additional- learning English as an Additional Language have been on SEN registers or in placements//” J: “Yes, and that's what we're trying not to do.” DB: “Yeah, uhuh, but has it gone too far in the opposite direction?” J: “Well that's- that's the question. ((laughs)) I'm not prepared to say…I very rarely do anything without consulting with ((the EAL service)) about any child with EAL, well not very rarely, I would never, that's the truth ((laughs)). (SENCo J)

Resistance to SEN DB: “…would be inappropriate to place English as an Additional Language pupils under a broad category of, which would be broader than SEN in a sense, of Additional language needs?” L: “Well it is an additional language need, it depends on your definition really//” DB: “Sorry, Additional Learning Needs, excuse me//” L: “Yeah, it depends on the definition that you would use, doesn't it, and it doesn't fool the kids, just because you change the title you know, it doesn't fool anybody does it? ((inaudible)) it's still SEN, so I don't know, it would depend very much on what else came under that umbrella as well wouldn't it?”

Resistance to SEN Conversely, SEN support sessions could be seen as beneficial by EALSTs when pressed. DB: Is that designed for children with Special Educational Needs? I: Yes. Yes. That's more for// DB: Do you find that- do you find that EAL pupils also benefit from it? I: Yes. In fact, most definitely, because they're sitting down with the same person in a group of about five, isn't it, five maximum I think. DB: Are there cases where EAL is- is of benefit for EAL to be also in with SEN children in some respect like with that Working with Words? I: Well I'm going to be very unpopular and say yes…

Perceptions of SEN among EAL EALSTs and SENCos agreed that there was no difference in or lower prevalence of SEN among EAL pupils in their experience. “I don't feel that there is any higher percentage of children having SEN who are EAL.” (EALST E) “I would have said that the incidence actually that I've come across means that they're lower than the main part of the population” (EALST I)

Perceptions of SEN among EAL One specific SEN that specialist teachers noticed less frequency among EAL pupils was with ASD. “Em…well personally in this school we haven't got any autistic children, we haven't got any children with Down's, which we have in our other populations…” (SENCo J) “… when I spoke to a couple of my colleagues, the teachers who support me in my role, they've said that they have never seen Autistic Spectrum in Bengali children, but, we've got a suspected child in year one at the moment, with suspected Autistic Spectrum Disorder-” (SENCO A)

Perceptions of SEN among EAL EAL specialist teachers made similar observations. “…just trying to think now, the only one that I- that I haven't seen in this school…is autism...em, Asperger's, I've never known, never had to cross link with my role in the SEN to discuss anybody as having that” (EALST B) Conversely, some interviewees had noted ASD among EAL populations. “…we have had autism, well we think it was within the autism em range, but that wasn't that common, it's got to be said.” (EALST G)

Discussion • Disproportionality: lower rates than expected rather than over-representation; • ASD in Bengali and Indian populations • Social constructionism – EAL not SEN/ALN; • SENCos with less experience appeared much more cautious about placing EAL pupils on SEN register.

SEN and bilingualism • No observed link either direction between bilingualism and literacy difficulties; • No link exists? • Different methods appropriate? • Bialystok (2008) noted that possible differences in language development among bilinguals that could have been predicted by theory were similarly not borne out in studies; • However, unexpected connection made between ASD and particular ethnic groups.

Disproportionality Source: DCSF (2007) Schools and pupils in England.

Social constructionism • EALSTs against categorising pupils with EAL under SEN or ALN. • SENCos expressed more support for normative testing. • SENCos with less experience were less likely to place pupils with EAL on SEN register.

Theory supported

Multidisciplinary collaboration Knowledge of L2 development Awareness of cultural differences

Differentiation for EAL Teacher training Good role models of English Misdiagnosis Confounding common EAL errors Current strategies and interventions Caution against malpractice Multi-sensory approaches Encourage-ment of L1 Home support Application of monolingual norms Omission of EAL status in reports Additional support Maximising existing resources Greater home language education BTA for every language? Solutions Increased knowledge Reliance on bilingual support staff Enough BTAs? Raising awareness of EAL issues Adequate training? Training, e.g. on SEN for EAL staff Availability of specialist Ed Psych Better assessment for every child

Questions... • Bilingualism and SEN: an emerging paradigm? • The central deficit hypothesis vs. the e.g. script dependent hypothesis in biliteracy. • Dissociation in dyslexia between languages : Wydell & Butterworth (1999) – case of Japanese/English dyslexic; • Dyslexia presenting differently between languages (Karanth, 1992) – Kannada and Hindi scripts.

Further studies • An examination of disproportionality among Indian and Bengali populations in the U.K. • Bilingualism and literacy difficulties: • cognitive psychological experiments • examination of LEAs’ SEN registers • A survey of experiences of SEN among pupils with EAL across authorities with high/low rates of EAL and varying levels of EAL support.

Conflict (macrosocial) Humanism Structuralism Interpretivism Positivism Order (microsocial) Bursztyn (2007) Quantitative Qualitative Future Studies Evidence based interventions The current study

Bilingualism and Special Educational Needs: an interpretive analysis of specialist teachers’ phenomenologies