Integrating Multilingual Students into College Classrooms: Practical Advice for Faculty - Softcover

Hafernik, Johnnie Johnson; Wiant, Fredel M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847698190 ISBN 13: 9781847698193

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

This book is a practical, informative and concise guide for college and university faculty across all disciplines who are dealing with today's diverse student body: an increasingly ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse group. It helps staff to understand multilingual students and offers advice on how to help them to succeed.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Johnnie Johnson Hafernik is professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Language at the University of San Francisco. Her research interests include applied linguistics, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), curriculum design, and issues of ethics and social justice in language education. She is the co-author of two books: Dilemmas in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: 40 Cases with Dorothy S. Messerschmitt and Ethical Issues for ESL Faculty: Social Justice in Practice with Dorothy S. Messerschmitt and Stephanie Vandrick.

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Integrating Multilingual Students into College Classrooms

Practical Advice for Faculty

By Johnnie Johnson Hafernik, Fredel M. Wiant

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2012 Johnnie Johnson Hafernik and Fredel M. Wiant
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-819-3

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Introduction, 
Part 1: The Context, 
1 Our Students, 
2 Constructing Classrooms Where Students Can Succeed, 
Part 2: Understanding and Addressing Language Skills, 
3 Speaking, 
4 Listening, 
5 Reading, 
6 Writing, 
7 Working in Groups, 
8 Assessment, 
Epilogue: Outside the Ivory Tower, 
References, 
Glossary, 
Appendix: Sample Rubrics and Other Evaluation Tools, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Our Students

In order to break down compartments now existing within the profession, [we] must begin to see the 'new' student population not as a special group destined to disappear quickly into the mainstream but as a population that will significantly change the character of the entire student community in this country. Tomorrow's mainstream student group will be made up of what we consider today to be 'diverse' students. Guadalupe Valdés (2006: 64–65)

There are, as of the time of writing, 723,277 international students enrolled in United States colleges and universities (Institute of International Education, 2011). This does not include students who are US citizens or permanent residents and whose native language is not English, nor does it include students who may speak one language at home and a second language at school. These students are described by a number of labels and served by a veritable alphabet soup of programs. We realize that categorizing students, however it is done, is at least problematic, if not controversial. We do not wish to essentialize students and seek instead to recognize each as an individual. Nonetheless, certain categories can be helpful in understanding the distinctive linguistic and cultural issues that arise among our students.

Demographics of Multilingual Students

International students

As we noted above, there are currently over 700,000 students who are classified as international students – those who are studying here on student visas and intend to return to their country of origin when their studies are completed – currently enrolled in US educational institutions, including community colleges and technical schools. This represents 3.5% of total college enrollment in the US (Institute of International Education, 2011). Roughly half are undergraduates and half are graduate students, with a much smaller number of non-degree seeking students. The Institute of International Education (IIE), which conducts an annual census of international students in the US, notes that of these, approximately half come from just five countries – China, India, South Korea, Canada and Taiwan. Of particular note is the significant increase in the number of students reporting China as their country of origin – a 29.8% increase in the one-year period 2008/9 to 2009/10 (IIE, 2010) and a 23.5% increase from 2009/2010 to 2010/2011 (IIE, 2011). Duke University reported that the number of matriculated students from China increased in three years from 8% to 30%, and Carleton College reported that 'In the past few years, the number of annual applications from China has grown to 300 from 50 or 60 most years' (Jaschik, 2009). In 2010/2011, the country with the greatest increase over the previous year was Saudi Arabia (43.6%) (IIE, 2010). At the same time, there has been a significant decline (-14.3% in 2010/2011) in the number of Japanese students studying in the US (IIE, 2011).

Other countries that show a large number of international students include Germany and France (20%), Japan, Canada and New Zealand (13%), and Malaysia, Singapore and China (12%) (IIE, 2010). While each of the countries defines international student somewhat differently, the common factor is that the student is not a citizen and has traveled to that country with the express purpose of gaining an education. All these statistics highlight the fact that students on campuses in many countries are becoming more diverse, with increasing numbers of international students.

'Parachute kids'

A subset of international students are those who have attended high school, and sometimes middle school, at a boarding school in the US or another English-speaking country. These students are sometimes called 'parachute kids' in that they have been dropped or 'parachuted' into the educational boarding school system so that they do not live with their families on a full-time basis. Like all international students, they study on student visas and are not permanent residents. Often, after completing high school, they continue their education in the US. These students have often studied English in their native countries before coming to the US, but the English instruction may have been uneven and/or sporadic. In addition, those who attended boarding schools with large numbers of international students may have had little opportunity to interact with native English speakers. International students who graduate from US high schools generally take the SAT or ACT test rather than a TOEFL, IELTS or other standardized English test to gain admission to a US postsecondary institution.

Standardized tests, however, may be poor indicators of these students' English abilities because the students may be conversationally proficient in English but weak in academic English skills. Typically they do better on the math portions of standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT than the verbal sections. They may share some characteristics with native speakers in that they have absorbed American culture from movies, music, television, fashion or other influences, so they are often Americanized, yet they lack the academic skills needed to do college-level reading, writing, listening or even speaking. These students often escape our notice because of their apparent fluency, leaving us to wonder why they are having so much difficulty in the classroom.

Generation 1.5 students

The demographic data for international students does not account for all the multilingual students that may be in our classrooms. There are a number of other categories into which our students may fall, including a number of categories that pertain to US multilingual students. One significant and growing subset of multilingual students is that group generally referred to as Generation 1.5 (Gen 1.5), often a label of convenience. Defining these students and their backgrounds is difficult, as Harklau et al. (1999) and many others have noted. Harklau et al. (1999: 4–5) argue that definitions based on single characteristics are problematic. Common definitions include (a) a generational or resident status definition (when did they and/or their parents arrive in the US); (b) an educational experience definition (how many years of US education have they had and was their schooling interrupted); or (c) an affiliational definition (what do they identify as their native language). Harklau and her co-authors conclude 'In all, the picture that emerges ... is of a tremendously diverse student population along continua of language proficiency, language affiliation, and academic literacy backgrounds' (Harklau et al., 1999: 5). Nonetheless, a typical feature of these students is that they speak their parents' native language in the home...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1847698190
• ISBN 13: 9781847698193
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 184
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar