LINGUIST List 25.2238
Wed
May 21 2014
Review: Applied
Linguistics: Abello-Contesse et al.
(2013)
Editor for this issue:
Rajiv Rao <rajivlinguistlist.org>
Date: 03-Feb-2014
From: Olivia Amzallag
<oliviaamzallag
yahoo.com>
Subject: Bilingual and
Multilingual Education in the 21st Century
E-mail this message to a
friend
Discuss this
message
Book announced at
http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-4308.html
EDITOR: Christián Abello-Contesse
EDITOR: Paul M Chandler
EDITOR: María Dolores López-Jiménez
EDITOR: Rubrén Chacón-Beltrán
TITLE: Bilingual and Multilingual Education in
the 21st Century
SUBTITLE: Building on Experience
SERIES TITLE: Bilingual Education and
Bilingualism
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2013
REVIEWER: Olivia L Amzallag, University at
Albany, State University of New York
SUMMARY
This collection of essays, edited by Christian
Abello-Contesse, Paul M. Chandler, María
Dolores López-Jiménez, and Rubén
Chacón-Beltrán, is a comprehensive overview of
bilingual education (henceforth BE) addressing
current issues and research on a variety of
related contexts. As a collective, the essays
provide some historical background of BE
internationally; however, they focus on the
most recent work in the field. The fourteen
contributions are divided into four parts, all
under the thematic umbrella of personal
experiences in BE, as the subtitle of the
collection ‘Building on Experience’ suggests.
Part 1, ‘Lessons from Accumulated Experience in
Bilingual and Multicultural Education’,
provides background information on BE through
research-based insights into the field. Part 2,
‘Issues in Language Use in Classrooms’,
explores current issues facing language
education from a classroom perspective, and
Part 3, ‘Participant Perspectives on Bilingual
Education Experiences’, provides additional
perspective from various classroom participants
such as instructors and teaching assistants.
Finally, Part 4, ‘The Language Needs of
Bilingual and Multilingual Students’, examines
two specific non-traditional student groups in
BE programs.
The Introduction and Overview section provides
information on the collection as a whole.
Originally a culmination of two components,
chapters are divided between contributing
scholars from various European, North American,
and Latin American universities, and a
collection of papers whose authors are related
by professional affiliation as a select group
of applied linguists based at the University of
Seville in Spain in 1995. This section also
provides a brief description of each essay, and
a short summary of the relationship between the
four parts of this volume: Part One, setting BE
in its current context; Part Two, centering on
controversial issues in BE; Part Three,
exploring aspects of human resources as related
to BE; and Part Four, dealing with
non-monolingual students in monolingual
educational models.
Part 1, ‘Lessons from Accumulated Experience in
Bilingual and Multicultural Education’,
provides a historical context for current
issues facing BE. In ‘Bilingual and
Multilingual Education: An Overview of the
Field’ (Chapter 1), Christian Abello-Contesse
situates BE as a broad term that encompasses
many linguistic and pedagogical phenomena,
resulting in a deeper understanding of the
nuances in BE. The author describes four
specific instances of BE implemented
internationally to: a) maintain a minority
language; b) learn how to use a majority
language; c) learn to read and write in a
majority language; and d) learn an
international or prestigious non-native
language. The author also explores the
essential principles of content-based
instruction (henceforth CBI): a dual focus on
content and language instruction, cognitively
demanding content, thoughtfully sequenced
language components, the second language (L2)
as the principle language for in-class
communication, simultaneous improvement of two
disciplines, and the applicability of the
content model to a wide range of topics. The
author then raises the following six concerns
with the current state of BE: the degree of CBI
implementation, the manner of CBI integration,
skills encouraged through BE, classroom
language distribution, level of instructors’ L2
proficiency, and culture in BE. In ‘Insights
into Bilingual Education From Research on
Immersion Programs in Canada’ (Chapter 2), Fred
Genesee contributes a historical perspective of
BE through a discussion of Canadian immersion
programs dating back to 1965. He briefly
describes the various models of immersion
education (i.e., early immersion alternatives/
early total immersion, early double immersion,
delayed immersion and late immersion) and looks
at empirical evidence to evaluate their
effectiveness. He then turns his attention to
general research conducted on immersion
programs, considering the effectiveness of
content-based language instruction in several
contexts. In ‘Bilingual Education in Colombia:
The Teaching and Learning of Languages and
Academic Content Area Knowledge’ (Chapter 3),
Anne-Marie de Mejía discusses content and
language integrated learning (henceforth CLIL)
in Latin America. She describes the various
types of bilingual schools in Colombia:
international bilingual schools, national
bilingual schools, and schools with an
intensified English foreign language program.
She examines a monolingual bias in favor of the
foreign language and demonstrates a need for
more accessible bilingual school initiatives,
as the majority of successful foreign language
initiatives in Colombia are currently found in
exclusive private institutions. In
‘Perspectives and Lessons from the Challenge of
CLIL Experiences’ (Chapter 4), Carmen
Pérez-Vidal provides a comprehensive overview
of CLIL in Europe, including a discussion of
the linguistic policies leading to CLIL
initiatives, and their various successes, with
an emphasis on the Spanish language. She argues
that CLIL alone is insufficient for effective
language acquisition, utilizing the Barcelona
Study Abroad and Language Acquisition (SALA)
project’s data, contrasting CLIL, study abroad
experiences, and formal instruction to support
her argument.
Part 2, ‘Issues in Language Use in Classrooms’,
explores current issues facing language
education from a classroom perspective. In
‘From Bilingualism to Multilingualism: Basque,
Spanish and English in Higher Education’
(Chapter 5), Jason Cenoz and Xabier Etxague
discuss BE in university instruction, noting
how English is increasingly becoming an
instructional language in certain parts of
Europe. They also explore minority languages,
with a focus on several specific BE initiatives
in university programs in the Basque language,
and provide a discussion of the challenges
facing these initiatives. The authors argue in
favor of multilingual education, and support
its effectiveness through these examples. In
‘100 Bilingual Lessons: Distributing Two
Languages in Classrooms’ (Chapter 6) Gwyn
Lewis, Bryn Jones, and Colin Baker describe the
various models of language division in
bilingual schools, as collected from 100
lessons observed in the following types of
elementary and secondary Welsh schools:
monolingual use of one language (L1 Welsh),
monolingual use of one language (L2 Welsh),
monolingual use of one language in mixed L1/L2
classrooms, translanguaging, translation (whole
class), translation of subject-related
terminology, translation for L2 learners,
combinations of concurrent two-language use,
and teacher responses to student’s language.
The authors raise several issues related to
multiple language use in classrooms by
exploring translanguaging and translation. In
‘Native Language Influence in Teaching
Subject-matter Content Through English in
Spanish Tertiary Education’ (Chapter 7), Elena
Domìnguez Romero and Jorge Braga Riera focus on
English as an emerging instructional language
in Spanish universities, concentrating on
issues related to a lack of instructor training
and English language proficiency. The authors
explore the instructors’ linguistic influence
on the classroom and on the students, finding
evidence of non-target-like linguistic
features. In ‘From Diglossia to Transglossia:
Bilingual and Multilingual Classrooms in the 21
Century’ (Chapter 8) Ofelia Garcìa explores the
multilingual classroom, with a focus on New
York State. She notes the presence of
translanguaging in seemingly diglossic
classroom models (a two-way bilingual
kindergarten, an English-only third/fourth
grade, a fifth grade two-way bilingual
classroom, high schools for emergent
bilinguals), pointing out that functional
distribution models of language in the
classroom are contrary to the reality of fluid
language use in practice.
Part 3, ‘Participant Perspectives on Bilingual
Education Experiences’, focuses on the human
component of BE. In ‘The Students’ Views on
their Experience in a Spanish-English Bilingual
Education Program in Spain’ (Chapter 9), Marìa
Dolores Pérez Murillo documents a 3-year
attitudinal survey project with 382 students
attending bilingual schools in Spain. Achieving
her goal to gain insight into students’ outlook
on their BE, she reports predominantly positive
student attitudes. In ‘The Use of Native
Assistants as Language-and-Cultural Resources
in Andalusia’s Bilingual Schools’ (Chapter 10),
Nicole Tobin and Christian Abello-Contesse give
an overview of BE and CLIL programs in Spain at
the elementary and secondary levels, which is
followed by a discussion of the Multilingualism
Promotion Program, where native speaking
teaching assistants serve as cultural and
linguistic representatives in the classroom.
This program is implemented to develop
students’ intercultural competence. The authors
explore a case study involving participants in
the program with a focus on how the assistant
was used in the classroom, with results
supporting frequent inefficient use of the
teaching assistant’s time. In,
‘Student-teachers and Teacher-educators
Experience New Roles in Pre-service Bilingual
Teacher Education in Brazil’ (Chapter 11),
Fernanda Liberali notes a lack of effective
bilingual teacher training in Brazil, and
discusses the Multicultural Education Project,
a socio-cultural project geared at pre-service
bilingual teachers, requiring them to reflect
on their teaching practice in a directed peer
group. Activities were designed to transform
participants’ perceptions by creating new
realities, moving them towards a more central
participatory role. The author reports on the
findings from this case study and discusses a
variety of the program’s issues and strengths.
In ‘Potential Drawbacks and Actual Benefits of
CLIL Initiatives in Public Secondary Schools.’
(Chapter 12), Miguel Garcìa López and Anthony
Bruton contrast two perspectives of CLIL,
providing a comprehensive overview of the
issues as supported through research, along
with a discussion of the actual observed
practices of CLIL initiatives in schools.
Although discrepancies in CLIL models were
voiced, the results indicate overall successes
in achieving bilingualism when programs are
adopted voluntarily.
Part 4, ‘The Language Needs of Bilingual and
Multilingual Students’, examines two specific
non-traditional students in BE programs. In
‘International School Students: Developing
their Bilingual Potential’ (Chapter 13),
Maurice Carder focuses on International Schools
where English is the predominant instructional
language, drawing attention to the limited
opportunity for the study of mother tongue
languages. He cites examples to support the
importance of maintaining mother tongue
proficiency. In ‘Heritage Spanish Speakers in
School Settings: Are their Needs Being Met?’
(Chapter 14), Jaime Espinoza Moore and Emilia
Alonso Marks explore the subject of heritage
speakers of Spanish in language classes
designed for monolingual learners by surveying
Spanish teachers in an Ohio school district.
Results of this survey indicate the need for
awareness and training to meet heritage speaker
needs.
EVALUATION
This collection contains observer opinions and
insights into BE, thus demonstrating diverse
viewpoints, attitudes, practices, and issues.
Although many languages appear in discussions
throughout the volume, the essays are largely
focused on English as a foreign language,
readily accepting it as the lingua franca.
Several perspectives are presented, with some
conflicting viewpoints across essays. Topics
cover a wide range of subjects in diverse
settings, with a focus on the bilingual
classroom, and progressing from wider to
narrower concepts.
Engaging with this collection necessitates some
familiarity with the subject of education or
language acquisition, as the historical
background provided is insufficient to
contextualize all of the topics covered.
Rather, due to the chosen format and style,
this volume provides a current perspective of
BE, and appears not to be intended as a
holistic view of the field, since the focus is
on specific instances of BE in a few select
countries. Although organized into four parts,
the volume’s thematic cohesion is fragile due
to the vast range of topics and large quantity
of essays. Conversely, across these four parts
of the collection, CIL and CLIL emerge as
reoccurring themes. With frequent discussion of
these topics, and with an occasional overlap in
information, the collection contributes a
healthy understanding of content learning. This
frequency also provides a deeper understanding
of the importance of the topic to the field of
BE across national educational models. By
engaging with the sheer variety of perspectives
and initiatives in BE contained in this volume,
this contribution delivers a wealth of
information and provides the reader with a
thorough grasp of BE and the options available
to professional educators.
Though this collection addresses an
international audience, the essays focus
predominantly on Europe and South America, with
fewer North American contributors.
Nevertheless, it is an exceptional resource for
those seeking research topics in BE, and raises
several questions at the forefront of the
field, thus providing concrete topics for
discussion. The volume achieved it’s purpose of
drawing on experiences in BE to highlight
current issues in BE and is significant for
those seeking to further their understanding of
recent international research, and for those
seeking trends in bilingual and multilingual
pedagogy. Well-suited as a textbook for
language students, applied linguists and
language educators alike, the volume provides
valuable current state of BE.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Olivia Amzallag is an Applied Linguist
specializing in foreign language teaching
methods, instruction, and curriculum design.
With over a dozen years of classroom
experience, she encourages innovative
curriculums with a focus on community building
and student connection to the subject through
communicative teaching methods. Her current
research in French language acquisition studies
the aural comprehension of object pronouns,
broadening the understanding of paucity of
exposure to problematic forms, demonstrating
the impact of avoidance during instruction in
SLA.
Page Updated: 21-May-2014