LINGUIST List 26.1459
Tue Mar 17 2015
Review: Applied Ling; Socioling: Weber (2014)
Editor for this issue: Sara Couture <saralinguistlist.org>
Date: 26-Oct-2014
From: Jason Sarkozi <jtlolac
gmail.com>
Subject: Flexible Multilingual Education
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AUTHOR: Jean-Jacques Weber
TITLE: Flexible Multilingual Education
SUBTITLE: Putting Children's Needs First
SERIES TITLE: New Perspectives on Language and Education
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2014
REVIEWER: Jason Steve Sarkozi, Central Michigan University
Review's Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry
SUMMARY
This book is a good resource for readers, especially education policy makers, teachers, and parents, seeking an extensive comparative study on cases of multilingual education success and failure. The author challenges traditional, fixed (subtractive) multilingual education, which, he argues, often prioritizes the need of maintaining (or revitalizing) the minority language over children’s non-linguistic educational needs. Praise is given, instead, to flexible (additive) multilingual language-in-education policies which build upon the resources in children’s linguistic inventories, a theme that echoes throughout the chapters of this book. The overall aim, however, is to explore some of the most promising ways of moving towards the goal of educational equity by highlighting the most effective policies in multilingual education and scrutinizing the medium of instruction.
The introductory chapter begins with the author distinguishing between additive and subtractive programs, then contrasting these traditional approaches to the study of bi-/multilingual education with the more innovative approach, which focuses on identifying whether a program strives to adopt the four key principles underlying multilingual education identified by Jong (as cited on p. 3): (1) striving for educational equity; (2) structuring for integration; (3) affirming identities; and (4) promoting additive bi-/multilingualism. The introduction concludes with a contrastive analysis of fixed and flexible multilingual education systems and a criticism of mother tongue education in which the linguistic reality of the children often becomes simplified by ignoring non-standard language varieties and downplaying the importance of access to local and global languages for all students.
After the introductory chapter, the book is divided into two parts. Part 1 is concerned with the overarching issues of language varieties in education (Chapter 2), access to high-quality language teaching and learning (Chapter 3), and language policy and planning (Chapter 4). Part 2 further discusses the topic of language-in-education policies by looking at issues according to country and/or region: The USA (Chapter 5), Hong Kong and China (Chapter 6), Singapore (Chapter 7), South Africa (Chapter 8), Luxembourg (Chapter 9), and Three Autonomous Communities of Spain: Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia. Chapter 11 recapitulates the major themes of the book and offers concluding remarks.
In Chapter 2, Weber discusses issues of language variation by referencing indigenous minority languages, immigrant minority languages, pidgins and creoles, and societal majority languages. First, he examines the debates surrounding the standardization of indigenous minority language, i.e. Quechua, Breton, and Corsican. He then turns his attention toward immigrant minority languages, especially concerning the marginalization of Cypriot Turkish, Sylheti, Swiss German, and Cypriot Greek and their communities. Third, he focuses on Seychellois Creole, Hawai’i Creole English, and Nigerian Pidgin English and their status as being non-standard varieties, as perceived even by their own speakers. Finally, Weber concludes that teachers should build on the home variety in the classroom, even if it is negatively valued in society,and use it to scaffold students’ learning, thus aiding them in meeting academic standards.
Polarization of linguistic communities and languages in conflict are key themes in this book. Thus, in Chapter 3, the author discusses the issue of access to high-quality language teaching and learning by examining the education systems of Francophone Canada, Wales, New Zealand, and Malaysia. In Francophone Canada, restrictive language policies favoring French over English have exacerbated tensions in the region, and the use of standard French in schools marginalizes speakers of still-stigmatized Canadian French vernaculars and those of immigrant varieties, namely immigrants from Haiti and Somalia who also have less access to opportunities to learn and practice English. In the case of Wales, the author touches on the issue of choice versus compulsion concerning Welsh and English in Welsh-medium schools, in which a majority of subjects are taught in Welsh and the rest in English. Consequently, code-switching becomes widespread in these schools, and studies show that students have rebelled against conservative norms established by educators which promote the use of “pure” Welsh. In the case of New Zealand, providing students high-quality access to both English and Maori, as opposed to the right to be educated in either language, is discussed, as well as the successful revitalization of Maori. The author closes with the need for “safetalk” practices (e.g. code-switching to scaffold students’ learning) and more effective, equitable learning in the Malaysian education system. The overall thesis of this chapter is that the needs of students, immigrant and native-born alike, are often overlooked in bi-/multilingual education.
In Chapter 4, from a social perspective, Weber asks the question: What makes and what breaks a good language-in-education policy? First, relying on findings from case studies carried out in places such as Zimbabwe, India, and Ecuador, he argues that in societies where English, for example, is a lingua franca so-called “good” policies are informed by both-and (both local languages and English) rather than either-or (English or local language) language-in-education policies which lead to students’ proficiency in both dominant global and local indigenous languages. He also claims to have demonstrated how social factors like emigration or institutional ideologies can weaken “good” policies, e.g. France’s one nation-one language ideology that denigrates migrant languages like Arabic. Finally, examining Australia and Japan, Weber depicts how political and economic policies can result in the opening of a nation to multilingual influence (e.g., Japan’s Japanese with English abilities plan) or the closing of a nation (e.g., Australia’s English-only programs) .
As the first chapter in Part 2, Chapter 5 examines how, since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind policy of 2001 under the Bush Administration, the US mainstream system of education underserves language minority students because of its mandatory high-stakes English testing for all children. This chapter is divided into three parts by minority group, i.e., African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. After summarizing the debate on whether Ebonics is a language or a dialect, Weber considers how Standard English can be taught by harnessing (instead of denigrating) the vernacular and explaining to students which variety is appropriate in which contexts. He notes the importance of implementing language-in-education policies that build on students’ knowledge of AAE to lead them toward mastery of Standard English, but recognizes that such policies will fail unless there are also social changes, i.e. improving social conditions for those who are trapped in the cycle of poverty and unemployment. Next, the author focuses the attitudes toward both their home language and English of Native American students’, namely speakers of Navajo, discussing the possibility of successful flexible bilingual programs that foster language maintenance and revitalization of the home language, as well as academic success in English. Finally, Weber discusses the English-only movement, especially its implementation in Arizona, and its negative effects on Latino students, specifically the (social and academic) segregation that English Language Learners experience as a result of the four-hour a day English Language Development block in which focus is on language forms and discrete skills, e.g. phonology and vocabulary, at the expense of academic content, such as math or science. He exemplifies how Latino students are further disenfranchised by the development of dual language (Spanish-English) education programs that tend to be available only in middle- and lower-middle-class areas of urban cities.
In Chapter 6, Weber focuses on language and education in Hong Kong and language-in-education policies and issues in mainland China. He recounts how the increasing demand for English-medium schools created a social divide in which English-medium instruction, whose students scored higher on university entrance exams, is reserved for the elite. Thus, Chinese(Cantonese)-medium instruction was forced on the large majority of Hong Kongers, and as a result they scored lower on the same exams. However, policies implemented in 2010 have allowed more flexibility to offer both Chinese and English as media of instruction. Still, Weber points out that there is a need for schools to adopt bilingual strategies, such as code-switching, to scaffold language learning. Just as in Hong Kong, the author highlights the increasing demand for English in mainland China, and describes how majority group students (Han) are expected to develop proficiency in both Mandarin and English, whereas minority language students are being transitioned from the minority-language medium in the early years to the eventual Chinese medium. Weber suggests introducing more flexible dual language or partial immersion programs informed by both-and (both minority languages and Mandarin) logic as well as high-quality access to English.
In Chapter 7, the author explores how the role of English and Mandarin as global languages and processes of globalization act as catalysts for the changing policies of language-in-education in Singapore. Weber evaluates the cases of home languages shifting to English, especially among speakers of Chinese, Tamil, and, to a lesser extent, Malay due to failed language policies that ignored non-standard home languages. He also discusses Singlish (Singaporean English) and its perception on the part of the language policy makers as a non-standard variety of English. Despite the government’s attempts to eradicate Singlish, code-switching between Singlish and more standard varieties of English is practiced by people from all social classes, since a large percentage of the population identifies with it (and possibly another local language). Also, Weber describes the (recent) spread of Mandarin due to in-migration from mainland China, which could possibly have contributed to a social divide where the elite use English (or Singlish) and the Chinese majority community use mostly Mandarin. He concludes the chapter by suggesting that, in light of the increasing diversity, Singapore adopt a flexible bilingual system in which students learn English and another language of their choice (instead of a language assigned to them according to their perceived mother tongue based on family background).
In Chapter 8, Weber argues in favor of a flexible system of additive multilingual education in post-apartheid South Africa which builds on children’s complex linguistic repertoires and gives them access to English, indigenous languages, and urban vernaculars. He points out that, despite South Africa’s move from a highly fixed and restrictive system of Bantu education to a much more flexible bi/multilingual one, urban vernaculars are spreading quickly. Thus, he recommends an even greater degree of flexibility in the system, one which incorporates urban dialects, which tend to be different from the standard varieties of African languages, in the curriculum. He also suggests that pedagogies be more flexible, allowing teachers to build on children’s multilingual repertoires by using scaffolding strategies and even code-switching.
Chapter 9 centers on the language politics and linguistic realities regarding Luxembourgish, a small language spoken in Luxembourg, on which the author himself has carried out a number of studies. The main points in this chapter are as follows: Luxembourgish, and to a certain extent, Portuguese are used as the languages of integration in preschool education at the expense of French (one of the three national languages). Given that German is also a national language (and the language in which basic literacy skills are taught), speakers of Romance languages, such as French and Portuguese, are often given extra instruction in German and often denied access to English. Thus, Weber suggests that students be provided greater access to English and French through a more flexible system which would allow for better educational and professional opportunities.
Chapter 10 examines three autonomous communities of Spain: Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia. In Catalonia, Weber explains how Catalan has come the language of integration in preschool and primary school. However, Weber stresses that, because of the high influx of immigrants from other Castilian-only speaking autonomous communities and Latin America, due to its socio-economic reputation as being a highly developed and economically successful community, Catalonia needs to prioritize the necessities and interests of all students by moving toward a more flexible system of multilingual education. Galicia and the Basque Country, as the author specifies, have more flexible education systems that offer a choice of medium of instruction. Nonetheless, the discourse on language-in-education is still one of either-or logic and does not account for student’s multilingual inventories and heteroglossic practices, e.g. code-switching. Weber also concludes that, given the ongoing conflict surrounding “choice,” the real focus should be on “access” to local and global languages for all students, including children of immigrants.
As a conclusion, in Chapter 11, Weber summarizes the key points in seven themes: 1) the importance of access and of using non-standard varieties in education; 2) building on students’ actual home resources; 3) moving from mother tongue education towards flexible multilingual education; 4) the darker side of mother tongue education; 5) moving towards flexible multilingual pedagogies; 6) difficulties in implementing flexible multilingual education; and 7) flexible multilingual education for all.
EVALUATION
In Chapter 2, Weber concludes that teachers should build on the home variety, whether negatively valued in society or not, in the classroom and use it to scaffold students’ learning. However, I will mention two underlying assumptions pertaining to this argument: 1) the teacher is part of the marginalized language community and 2) a teacher who is not part of the particular speech community has access to resources in that variety and knows how to implement them in teaching. Using the example of African American English (AAE, as the author refers to it), unless a teacher grew up in a community where AAE is spoken, he or she may find it difficult to build on it. However, those readers who seek out this book looking for classroom applications will not find them here. Because his focus is on language in education, the author recognizes the weaknesses of the book insofar as it does not take into account “other important social factors that influence the quality of education, such as educational infrastructures, the financial resources of schools, the availability and quality of teachers and of teaching materials, parents’ involvement in their children’s schooling or the families’ social milieu.” (p. 5). Thus, he does not offer any suggestions on how to apply his recommendations.
It is apparent that Weber spent a considerable amount of time and effort in researching the various studies included in this book. In a portion of Chapter 5 which considers dual language education, he cites work carried out by Rubinstein Avila in an English-Portuguese dual language school in Massachusetts ( p. 82), and by Palmer in a Spanish-English dual ‘strand’ program in California ( p. 83). The latter study explores the question of why African-American students seem to be excluded from dual language strand programs. The discussion points out several assumptions by teachers, such as that African-American students would not be interested in these programs or that these programs might not be appropriate for them because of their need for remedial courses. However, Weber fails to include the study that Potowski (2007) did on a dual (Spanish-English) immersion school in Chicago in which one of her four focal students, Otto, self-identified as African American. Potowski followed the four students from fifth to eighth grade, concluding that Otto’s scores indicated that he lacked general fluency in Spanish, not because of his ethnic background, but rather because of his problematic participation habits that did not give him the spotlight during Spanish lessons. Although the purpose of her study was not to compare the ethnic background of the informants, one might ask how ethnic background played a role in the development of their L2 identity. Also pertinent to Weber’s survey of dual language programs is the lack of pressure from the teachers on the students to perform in Spanish that Potowski (2007) witnessed. She compared classes in this dual immersion school to typical foreign language classrooms “in which students produce very little of the target language and all important communication takes place in English” (Potowski, 2007: 199). Weber suggests that dual language education needs to become more flexible (in terms of linguistic variation) and more inclusive (of all students), yet he fails to provide examples of how a dual language school’s flexible linguistic policies might lead to “graduates […not achieving] the school’s stated goals of balanced bilingualism” as Potowski (2007: 201) concludes in her study.
This book is an important addition to studies on multilingual education. One of its main strengths is its comprehensiveness and comparative nature. The layout of each chapter facilitates reading and subsection titles provide easy transition from one idea to the next. Unique to Part 2 of this book, Weber ends each chapter with a “Lesson to be Learnt from country/region” section in which he briefly summarizes the main points that can be learned from the so-called experiences of each country/region, e.g. educational policies, linguistic realities, etc. I found these summaries to be quite useful as I read through the chapters. The bullet points made it easy to refer back to a previous chapter and compare “lessons” from other chapters. Given the wide-ranging content in this book and its painstaking descriptiveness, I would recommend its inclusion in the recommended readings portion of syllabi for both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses and seminars on multilingual education.
It is undoubtedly a fact that our societies are being molded by globalization and that our children’s linguistic needs are often neglected by education policy makers and other stakeholders. However, Weber, with this book, provides an invaluable guide to the most promising ways of advancing toward his goal of granting access to high-quality education to all children.
REFERENCES
Potowski, K. (2007). “Language and identity in a dual immersion school.” Buffalo, NY:Multilingual Matters.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Jason Steve Sarkozi is an instructor in the English Language Institute at Central Michigan University, where he is also pursuing his MA in TESOL. His current research interests lie on the hairbreadth boundary between sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology where he explores language as a way of creating cultural worlds through a variety of cultural practices and natural occurring phenomena, such as language variation and language attitudes, language and identity, language in interaction and cross-cultural communication, all within bi/multilingual, immigrant communities in the Spanish-, English-, Japanese- and Portuguese-speaking worlds.
Page Updated: 17-Mar-2015