Cognition and efficacy of bilingual education

1. Cognition and efficacy of bilingual education

2. Module map • Some additive benefits (cognition) • Cognitive theories and models • Efficacy of bilingual education • Assessment and placement of bilinguals

3. Part 1 Benefits

4. Explore • Look on the interwebs for 2 minutes to try to find any and all benefits of bilingualism. Make a note of what you find (and where you find it) • Compare your list with a partner

5. benefits • Employment advantage • Positive transfer between two languages • Increased attention to linguistic structures (having to sort through multiple linguistic systems) • Physical changes in the brain (increased gray matter) but the affects of this are currently unknown. (147) • Divergent thinking (148) • Delays the onset of normal decline in cognition with age, dementia (157). • Communication sensitivity (157).

6. History of cognitive research Detrimental Neutral Additive

7. Elizabeth Peal and Wallace Lambert’s The Relation of Bilingualism to Intelligence (1962) A bilingual child is: […] a youngster whose wider experiences in two cultures have given him advantages which a monolingual does not enjoy. Intellectually his experience with two language systems seems to have left him with a mental flexibility, a superiority in concept formation, a more diversified set of mental abilities […] There is no question about the fact that he is superior intellectually. […] In contrast, a monolingual appears to have a more unitary structure of intelligence which he must use for all types of intellectual tasks (Peal and Lambert 1962:20) What does baker mention about this study?

8. The experiment • Subjects: number, age, gender, class, proficiency • Two groups of 110 ten-year old fourth-graders from six middle-class French schools in Montreal with a gender ration of six boys to four girls: ‘balanced’ French-English bilinguals and French monolinguals • Testing instruments: verbal and non-verbal IQ tests language tasks and self-rating • Results: Bilinguals scored higher than monolinguals on 15 out of 18 measures; no significant difference on the remaining three measures.

9. Some concerns of the study • Generalizability from the 110 students • Balanced bilingual students were selected • Does bilingualism positively affect IQ or does IQ positively affect bilingualism? • Control for socioeconomic but not sociocultural

10. How the brain stores and processes two languages • Independently: Separate storage systems • Interdependently: Shared storage systems • Kroll and De Groot (1997) suggest that the lexical representations are separate and the conceptual information is shared.

12. Write down as many uses you can think of for this object (1 minute)balanced vs. non-balanced Bilingual vs. monolingual

13. Divergent thinking • “The divergent thinker will tend to produce not only many different answers, but also some that may be fairly original” (148). • “The research findings largely suggest that bilinguals are superior to monolinguals on divergent thinking tests.

14. Bilingualism vs dementia • Bialystok (2009) found that in a sample of 184 individuals, half bilinguals and half monolinguals, the bilinguals showed signs of dementia four years later than the monolinguals (Avg age 71.4 vs. 75.5). Other studies claim 4.5 year difference.

15. Communication sensitivity • Reference study described on p. 157. Students were asked to describe a board and dice game to two of their classmates, one of the listeners was blindfolded. • Bilingual children tended to be more attentive to the blindfolded classmate by providing more detailed instructions for that student

16. Some limitations to findings • Balanced bilinguals may differ greatly from non-balanced bilinguals • There are always extraneous variables (particularly in the social sciences) • Some of the research is yet to be corroborated

17. Part 2 Theories and Models

18. The balance theory • Bilinguals will either have half developed two languages or something like 75% developed in one language and only 25% developed in the other. Full competency in one language and partial in another (or full) doesn’t seem possible. • May seem like a logical theory but what about the millions of children who grow up bilingual throughout the world without any sort of linguistic disadvantage?

19. Iceberg theory • Lexical representations may be separate (as evidenced by the two emerging icebergs and through language production) • Conceptual ideas are shared and are stored together. • Chomsky’s idea of surface structure and deep structure (there’s a fork in the road vs. I like food/I adore food)

20. Sapir-whorf hypothesis (linguistic determinism) “A main point of debate in the discussion of linguistic relativity is the correlation between language and thought. The strongest form of correlation is linguistic determinism, which would hold that language entirely determines the range of possible cognitive processes of an individual. ”

21. Thresholds theory Helps to conceptualize and understand that bilingual education is not a magical quick fix formula. It must be applied over time like a healing salve until benefits become evident.

22. Developmental interdependence hypothesis • The idea that there is positive language transfer from one language to another.

23. Part 3 Efficacy

24. Write down as many uses you can think of for this object (1 minute) Straw

25. Varying results • Why do different researchers find different answers to the same questions? • Extraneous variables • Experimental method • Bias/political agenda

26. Various levels of efficacy • Individual Child • Classroom level • School level • Beyond school (model level)

27. How to measure effectiveness • How do we measure success in bilingual education? • Think/write, pair, share to come up with a list of some clear measures of success for bilingual education. From the Book • Basic skills • Literacy • Curricular gains in math, science, etc. as evidenced by assessments • Non cognitive outcomes • Dropout rate • Attendance • Attitude • Tolerance • Employment • Self-image Our List • Creativity • Curiosity/interest • Linguistic confidence • Cultural/society connections • Parent involvement • Academic skills • Stress level

28. Baker & de kanter (1983)

29. Implications of the baker de kanter study • Lau Remedies and Regulations (1975, 1980) • The importance of meta analysis vs. narrative integration (the former being strengthened by statistical analysis to account for extraneous variables. • The amazing way in which politics can take the same set of findings to support two different conclusions

30. One program to rule them all “The key issue is not finding a program that works for all children and all localities, but rather finding a set of program components that works for the children in the community of interest, given the goals, demographics, and resources of that community” (August & Hakuta, 1997).

31. And yet, we try anyway – Dual language • Effectiveness of Dual Language programs • Yes, it seems to be effective according to a plethora of studies. • Thomas and Collier described DL programs in the following order (with the most effective being number 1) • Two-way bilingual education • Late-exit transitional • Early exit transition • ESL pull-out

32. More trying - immersion • Effectiveness of Immersion programs • Second language learning: Yes, but important to note that potential or understanding does not necessarily equate to performance (lack of opportunities to use the SL outside the school setting) • First language learning: Yes, but development may lag in the first few years when compared to mainstream programs, this gap is closed after six years of schooling (and they have second language proficiency) • Other curricular areas: Some concern when learning content that requires higher level processing (math, science, etc.) when proficiency in the 2nd language is not fully developed. However, other findings indicated that these areas do not suffer because of bilingual education (mixed results)

33. Public poll vs. expert opinion • Now that we’ve heard some expert opinions, let’s do a public poll. Text someone in your phone to ask them the following question; “Random question: do you think that bilingual education works?” (or some variation of this question that the class comes up with) Gather results and post here!

34. Public poll vs. expert opinion “Random question: do you think that bilingual education works?” (or some variation of this question that the class comes up with) • Why would it not? • I would thing it would be great. I wished I had learned Spanish. • I think the right way will work out and benefit the students. • Yes, without a doubt. • Yes (formal?) • Yes. • Yes, I wish it was Saturday. • Annie’s brother says “yes.”

35. Part 4 Assessment

36. 3 important factors • 1st language proficiency • 2nd language proficiency • Existence (or not) of physical, learning, or behavioral difficulty But why?

37. Formative vs. summative • “A key element of assessment with language minority children is that there needs to be early identification, assessment, and intervention. • Formative Assessments vs. Summative Assessments

38. Esl vs. special ed. • What is the difference? (you teach me) • Are there problems with grouping these two populations? What are they?

39. Key concepts • Assessment in stronger language: Activity - 3-8 grade math tests!!! • Multiple assessments that range in format, including teachers’ evaluations/comments: Activity – How high can you jump? • Test scores – more than just a number, longitude and latitude • Cultural bias in questions – Good Times clip (1970’s) • Spanish words for “bus” • Washback- negative and positive, flood of true false questions or holistic approach?

40. accommodations • Simpler English instructions (all instructions should be simple?) • Use of bilingual dictionary/glossary • Small group or individual administration • Extra time to complete • Oral administration (read aloud) • Oral response in students’ language • May all be best guest scenarios to “level the playing field.”

41. Criterion vs. norm referenced tests • Criteria benchmarks (as outlined in the curriculum for example) vs. percentage compared to performance of others.

42. Other assessments • RIOT – review all information available, interview teachers, friends, and family, observe student in multiple contexts, and test school and home languages • Portfolio

43. Root of the problem? • Minority discrimination • Acceptance of multilingual/multicultural populations • The test may have part of the blame, but even the best test may be flawed when these underlying problems exist.