Implementing Educational Language Policy in Arizona: Legal, Historical and Current Practices in SEI (Bilingual Education & Bilingualism, 86, Band 86) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847697445 ISBN 13: 9781847697448

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

This volume is a unique contribution to the study of language policy and education for English Learners because it focuses on the decade long implementation of "English Only" in Arizona. How this policy influences teacher preparation and classroom practice is the central topic of this volume. Scholars and researchers present their latest findings and concerns regarding the impact that a restrictive language policy has on critical areas for English Learners and diverse students. If a student's language is sanctioned, do they feel welcome in the classroom? If teachers are only taught about subtractive language policy, will they be able to be tolerant of linguistic diversity in their classrooms? The implications of the chapters suggest that Arizona's version of Structured English Immersion may actually limit English Learners' access to English.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

M. Beatriz Arias is an Associate Professor of English Education in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. She has edited several books and published scholarly articles on Latino students and educational policy, and has focused her research on equity issues for English Learners and Latino students and teachers. She has served as a Court Appointed Monitor for a Federal Court Judge in San Jose California; and in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles school desegregation cases, she has participated as a Court Appointed expert.

Christian Faltis is the Dolly and David Fiddyment Chair in Teacher Education and Professor of Language, Literacy and Culture in the School of Education at University of California, Davis. He has authored numerous books and scholarly writing on bilingual education and Latino students. His most recent book is Education, immigrant students, refugee students, and English learners (2010, with Guadalupe Valdés). He is Editor of Teacher Education Quarterly, and Editor of Review of Research in Education, Vol. 37.

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Implementing Educational Language Policy in Arizona

Legal, Historical and Current Practices in SEI

By M. Beatriz Arias, Christian Faltis

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2012 M. Beatriz Arias, Christian Faltis and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-744-8

Contents

Contributors, 
Foreword: From Restrictive SEI to Imagining Better Terrence Wiley, 
Introduction, 
Part 1: Language Policy in Arizona, 
1 Language Policy and Teacher Preparation: The Implications of a Restrictive Language Policy on Teacher Preparation M. Beatriz Arias, 
2 Research-based Reform in Arizona: Whose Evidence Counts for Applying the Castañeda Test to Structured English Immersion Models? Christian Faltis and M. Beatriz Arias, 
3 SLA Research and Arizona's Structured English Immersion Policies Michael H. Long and H.D. Adamson, 
Part 2: Implementing SEI in Arizona, 
4 Everything on Its Head: How Arizona's Structured English Immersion Policy Re-invents Theory and Practice Mary Carol Combs, 
5 Teachers' Sheltered English Immersion Views and Practices Wayne E. Wright and Koyin Sung, 
6 Review of 'Research Summary and Bibliography for Structured English Immersion Programs' of the Arizona English Language Learners Task Force Stephen Krashen, Jeff MacSwan and Kellie Rolstad, 
Part 3: Arizona Teacher Preparation for SEI, 
7 'They're Just Confused': SEI as Policy into Practice Sarah Catherine K. Moore, 
8 Implementing Structured English Immersion in Teacher Preparation in Arizona Nancy J. Murri, Amy Markos and Alexandria Estrella-Silva, 
9 The Politics of Preservice Teachers Kate Olson, 

CHAPTER 1

Language Policy and Teacher Preparation: The Implications of a Restrictive Language Policy on Teacher Preparation

M. Beatriz Arias

The sanctions against mother-tongue instruction in the English-only states of Arizona, California and Massachusetts, have brought renewed interest to the study of language education policy (LEP). Several authors have looked at how these policies influence students, classrooms and language minority communities (Crawford, 1997; Stritikus & Garcia, 2003; Wiley, 2002; Wright, 2005). Other studies have reported on the impact of restrictive language policies on educational programs (Combs et al., 2005; de Jong et al., 2005; Garcia & Curry-Rodriguez, 2000). According to Christ 'hardly any research has been conducted thus far on language policy in teacher education' (Christ, 1997: 234). This chapter addresses this need by providing an opportunity to examine how a restrictive language policy becomes reified in teacher preparation. In this case study, I suggest that the Structured English Immersion (SEI) curriculum mandated for all teachers in Arizona reflects an English-only orientation, promotes a limited understanding of English learners, second language acquisition and LEP. The context of this study is embedded in teacher preparation as mandated by the State of Arizona (ADE, 2007, 2009). There are two SEI policies in effect in Arizona: (1) there is an instructional SEI model that prescribes the content and time allocated to learning English in the K-12 classroom, and (2) there is the SEI curriculum, which is required for all Arizona colleges of education as part of teacher preparation.

This study is situated within a framework that recognizes that LEP is dynamic, and refers to 'affecting decisions people make about languages and their uses in society in the specific context of education, school and universities' (Shohamy, 2006: 77). These decisions are part of a sociocultural and sociopolitical process. As McCarty has noted, LEP is a sociocultural process: 'Language policies both reflect and reproduce the distribution of power within the larger society' (McCarty, 1972: 72) and Tollefson and Tsui ask us to regard debates around language of instruction policy situated in their sociopolitical contexts, 'which are inseparable from their historical contexts' (Tollefson & Tsui, 2004: 3). This dynamic conception of LEP extends at every level of implementation so that while there may be a clearly articulated policy at one end, 'educators are at the epicenter of this dynamic process, acting on their agency to change the various language education policies they must translate into practice' (Menken & Garcia, 2010). As we review the implementation of the restrictive language policy in Arizona, we hope to attend to the space where educator agency, both at the university and classroom level, mediate policy implementation.

The focus of this study is the content of a state-mandated teacher preparation curriculum for the SEI required of all Arizona educational personnel. I contrast the implementation of restrictive language policies with the need to inform teachers of their role as the primary agents of language policy. This chapter examines how a restrictive language policy becomes enacted and embedded in a state-required teacher endorsement and looks for opportunities for implementation and ideological space as conceptualized by Hornberger (2002).

The growth of language minority communities across the country, coupled with the fact that most teachers will encounter English language learners (ELLs) in their classrooms, makes it imperative that teacher educators develop awareness of issues of LEP. Teachers need to understand how their attitudes, dispositions and knowledge of language policy issues can inform, enrich and enhance their practice. As many have noted, teachers are the primary constructors and implementers of language policy (de Jong, 2008; Ricento & Hornberger, 1996), teachers are on the front line of helping students bridge new languages. Yet in many ways, teachers are viewed as 'instruments of the state' (Wiley, 2008: 232) whose role is to implement policy rather than critique it. As Wiley has noted, with specific reference to language minority populations, teachers are asked to 'implement policies that either promote, accommodate or restrict languages' (Wiley, 2008: 230). Shohamy also refers to teachers as the 'main agents through whom the ideology is spread and turns from political statement about LEP to de facto practices of language learning. Wiley has also noted that teacher education programs need to inform teachers about ways in which they may become conflicted by, and complicit in, promoting policies that disadvantage or discriminate against language minority children' (Shohamy, 2006: 233).

LEP is also a state policy (Corson, 1999). We know that the state policy plays a critical role in the socialization of teachers. State policy sets the tone for acceptance and recognition of minority languages. At issue is how a state's restrictive language policy influences teacher preparation through the articulation and requirement of prescriptive instructional practices.

This chapter begins with a framework for understanding the relationship between types of language policies and teacher preparation. This is followed by a summary of the literature on what teachers of ELLs need to know and how language policy is part of this schema. A content analysis of the SEI curriculum required for all Arizona educators is contrasted with the essential components for ELL teacher preparation cited in the literature. The requirements for the SEI endorsement are critiqued for under preparing teachers in the sociopolitical dimensions of language, and failing to provide 'ideological clarity' regarding issues of power and language. The SEI endorsement promotes linguicism,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847697445
• ISBN 13: 9781847697448
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 210
• Herausgeber: Arias M. Beatriz, Faltis Christian J.
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland