‘More than being in a class’: adolescents’ ethnolinguistic insights in a two-way dual-language program

Abstract

Much of the debate regarding outcomes of various types of dual-language programs has focused on linguistic and academic results, and with good reason: improving the educational outcomes of language minorities and supporting societal multilingualism are vital goals. More rarely explored, however, are these programs’ ethnolinguistic outcomes: the ways in which they provide students with insights into themselves, language, language learning processes and others. This study uses interview and audio data to examine ways in which adolescents reported learning about themselves, language and its learning and others through participation in an extracurricular high school program for Spanish-dominant English language learners (ELLs) and English-dominant Spanish language learners (SLLs). Findings suggest the program provided opportunities for adolescents’ recognition and ratification of peer ethnolinguistic identities, understanding of language-in-use as an ethnolinguistic phenomenon, awareness of language learning through language-in-use and appreciation of students’ own and others’ ethnolinguistic resources. Patterns of learning were largely consonant with students’ sociolinguistic positioning in schools as language minority or majority speakers. Implications for research and educational practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• two-way immersion
• dual-language education
• sociolinguistic analysis

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the LAB students and teachers for helping to bring this project to life and for sharing their experiences with us. We are also grateful to anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

Supplemental Data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

¹Tedick, Christian, and Fortune (2011) describe immersion education, also known as dual-language education, as being comprised of one-way (foreign language) programs, two-way (bilingual) programs, developmental/maintenance bilingual education, and indigenous language immersion. They define two-way, or TWI (two-way immersion) programs as ‘bringing together language minority and language majority learners to be instructed in and to learn each others’ languages…and work toward immersion goals of additive bi/multilingualism and bi/multiliteracy, academic achievement, and cross-cultural understanding’ (2). Although our program was shorter in duration and more extracurricular in nature than many TWI programs at the high school level, the two-way dual-language label most closely reflects our program’s characteristics (described later in the article). When reporting others’ research, we maintain the terminology used by those authors with the knowledge that program characteristics vary widely (Torres-Guzman et al. 2005).

²Although not focusing specifically on secondary programs, Lindholm-Leary (2001) also contends that well-implemented two-way programs can enhance ethnic minority children's self-esteem and motivation.

³Relevant outcomes in studies described earlier in the article and used in the deductive coding process include identity development, cultural sensitivity and social connections, among others.

Additional information

Funding

This work was sponsored by Youth-Nex, the UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development.