This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 LicenseBilingualism: language differences in the classroom
Although monolingual speakers often do not realize it, the majority of children around the world are bilingual,
meaning that they understand and use two languages (Meyers-Scotton, 2005). Even in the United States, which is a
relatively monolingual society, more than 47 million people speak a language other than English at home, and
about 10 million of these people were children or youths in public schools (United States Department of Commerce,
2003). The large majority of bilingual students (75 per cent) are Hispanic, but the rest represent more than a
hundred different language groups from around the world. In larger communities throughout the United States, it
is therefore common for a single classroom to contain students from several language backgrounds at once.
In classrooms as in other social settings, bilingualism exists in different forms and degrees. At one extreme are
students who speak both English and another language fluently; at the other extreme are those who speak only
limited versions of both languages. In between are students who speak their home (or heritage) language much
better than English, as well as others who have partially lost their heritage language in the process of learning
English (Tse, 2001). Commonly, too, a student may speak a language satisfactorily, but be challenged by reading or
writing it—though even this pattern has individual exceptions. Whatever the case, each bilingual student poses
unique challenges to teachers.
Balanced or fluent bilingualism
The student who speaks both languages fluently has a definite cognitive advantage. As you might suspect and as
research has confirmed, a fully fluent bilingual student is in a better position than usual to express concepts or
ideas in more than one way, and to be aware of doing so (Jimenez, et al. 1995; Francis, 2006). The question: “What
if a dog were called a cat?” is less likely to confuse even a very young bilingual child. Nor will the follow-up
question: “Could the ‘cat’ meow?” confuse them. Such skill in reflecting on language is a form of metacognition,
which I discussed in Chapter 2 and defined as using language as an object of thought. Metacognition can be helpful
for a variety of academic purposes, such as writing stories and essays, or interpreting complex text materials.
Unbalanced bilingualism
Unfortunately, the bilingualism of many students is “unbalanced” in the sense that they are either still learning
English, or else they have lost some earlier ability to use their original, heritage language—or occasionally a bit of
both. The first sort of student—sometimes called an English language learner (ELL) or limited English learner
(LEL)—has received the greatest attention and concern from educators, since English is the dominant language of
instruction and skill and obviously helps prepare a student for life in American society. ELL students essentially
present teachers with this dilemma: how to respect the original language and culture of the student while also
helping the student to join more fully in the mainstream—i.e. English-speaking—culture? Programs to address this
question have ranged from total immersion in English from a young age (the “sink or swim” approach) to phasing
in English over a period of several years (sometimes called an additive approach to bilingual education). In general,
evaluations of bilingual programs have favored the more additive approaches (Beykont, 2002). Both languages are
developed and supported, and students ideally become able to use either language permanently, though often for
different situations or purposes. A student may end up using English in the classroom or at work, for example, but
continue using Spanish at home or with friends, even though he or she is perfectly capable of speaking English with
them.
Educational Psychology 76 A Global Text