Teaching & Learning Guide for: Multilingualism in Educational Contexts: Identities and Ideologies

Author’s Introduction This Teaching and Learning Guide is intended to provide instructors of courses in Sociolinguistics some guidance in incorporating the topic of multilingualism in educational contexts into their syllabi. Although schools the world over are increasingly serving multilingual populations, awareness of this reality has not, in many cases, sifted through to public consciousness, and incorporation of this topic into the sociolinguistic curriculum is a crucial step in addressing this gap in awareness. The incidence of multilingualism in educational contexts has increased greatly in the last few decades in a number of critical ways. First, while multilingualism has long been the norm in educational settings in places such as India and some countries of Africa, widespread multilingualism has only recently begun to be seen as a factor in education in many parts of the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Second, in addition to there being more regions of the world that have multilingual populations of schoolchildren, the demographics of these populations are also changing. There are increasing numbers of middle class professionals moving to countries in which immigrants were previously overwhelmingly citizens of poor countries who came to work unskilled jobs. Third, not only have different patterns of immigration led to a broader range of regions and social groups becoming multilingual, but the ability to speak more than one language is increasingly seen as desirable for those who stay put. Bilingual education or intensive language study for the children of majority language populations is gaining popularity in Europe, the United States, and Asia. What this amounts to is that multilingualism in schools is becoming more common, and the situations in which it occurs are as varied as the languages involved. This article addresses the social issues of language ideologies and identity construction in this context. Key readings Caldas‐Coulthard, Carmnen Rosa and Amelia Maria Fernandes Alves. 2008. ‘Mongrel selves’: identity change, displacement and multi‐positioning. Identity trouble: critical discourses and contested identities , ed. by Carmen Rosa Caldas‐Coulthard and Rick Iedema, 120–42. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. This article offers an important viewpoint about the idea of the ‘third space’ created by bicultural and bilingual speakers and immigrants in particular. The authors note that people in the ‘third space’ are positioned this way, by themselves and others, because they are often not viewed as full members of their adopted culture and as émigrés are seen as no longer belonging in their culture of origin. This is a highly relevant aspect of multilingualism in all contexts. Cummins, Jim. 2001. Negotiating identities: education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd edition). Los Angeles, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education. Chapter 1: Identities and Empowerment. The lasting message of this chapter is that educators are not trapped within discriminatory frameworks, but have the power to shape their students’ experiences. This text is based on the idea (pervasive in the social sciences) that ideologies and identities are constructed, and that this theoretical position can be applied in classroom contexts to enact change in educational practices. De Meija, Anne‐Marie. 2002. Power, prestige and bilingualism: international perspectives on elite bilingual education . Chapter 4: Teaching and learning in elite bilingual classrooms . Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. De Meija provides a clear defense of the use of bilingual discourse in the classroom for both teachers and students. The position here flies in the face of the implicit position of ‘bilingualism through monolingualism’ which is often the philosophy in multilingual educational settings, that is, that languages should remain strictly separate and speakers should act like monolinguals in each language. De Meija endorses the use of two languages as a linguistic strategy for teaching and learning. Fitts, Shanan. 2006. Reconstructing the status quo: linguistic interaction in a dual‐language school. Bilingual Research Journal 29.337–65. This article addresses how language ideologies are tacit in institutional structure and how students and teachers conform to, and occasionally resist, the hegemony of normative monolingualism. For example, although the school is intended to create a bilingual student body, the children are at times asked to identify their (one) native language, and ‘bilingual’ becomes code for ‘Latino/a’. Further, bilingualism is assumed to be enacted by speaking one language at a time, thus negating the importance of mixed language speech in identity construction. Heller, Monica. 1999. Linguistic minorities and modernity: a sociolinguistic ethnography . Chapter 4: Being bilingual . New York, NY: Longman. This chapter of the ethnography of a French‐language school in Toronto, Ontario, discusses the linguistic behavior of different segments of the student population, vividly portraying the how the uses and statuses of English and different varieties of French are used by the students not just to construct their own social identities but to promote and resist specific language ideologies. Although proficiency in French is necessary to be successful, it is only a particular kind of French which gives a speaker access to cultural capital and academic success. Links http://www.unavarra.es/tel2l/eng/MBELinks.htm Tel2l stand for Teacher Education by Learning in 2 Languages, and this site includes an introduction to the basics of bilingual education as well as overviews of bilingual programs in the U.S.A., Canada, Germany, France, England, Wales, and Luxemburg. http://www.cal.org/index.html The Center for Applied Linguistics website with links to pages on English Language Learners, including but not limited to a page on two‐way immersion in the United States ( http://www.cal.org/jsp/TWI/SchoolListings.jsp ) http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/Eurydice This site is for ‘the information network about education in Europe’, and has links to various reports about education, including such things as ‘Integrating Immigrant Children Into Schools in Europe’ and ‘Content and Integrated Learning at Schools in Europe’ (this deals with teaching certain subjects in a foreign language, called Bilingualer Fachsachunterricht in German). http://www.thomasandcollier.com/index.htm This link provides access to research by Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier on educational issues, including bilingual education, in the United States. http://www.id21.org/insights/insights‐ed05/insightsEdn5.pdf

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