Dual Language Bilingual Education Placement Practices: Educator Discourses About Emergent Bilingual Students in Two Program Types

ABSTRACT

This article explores the placement practices of students into different educational programs in PreK–first grade, including two bilingual education programs and an ESL “mainstream” classroom. We then examine the discourse practices of four third-grade teachers and the school principal. Our findings suggest that initial program placement resulted in a perception that students were tracked by ability, and educator discourses on student ability reflected long-term consequences of these initial placement practices. We conclude with both theoretical implications and practical suggestions for the development of equitable dual language bilingual education program implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual education
• discourses
• dual language
• emergent bilingual
• placement practices
• tracking

Notes

¹ We use the term emergent bilingual in place of English language learner in order to put emphasis on the resources these students bring rather than the deficits they manifest (García & Kleifgen, 2010)

² We use OWDL in place of DBE throughout the article because it was the term used by educators in this context.

³ We recognize that these terms are imperfect. In reality, the students entering both “OWDL” and “TWDL” programs are on differing points of the bilingual continua.

⁴ Texas state law requires bilingual instruction if there are 20+ students at a grade level who share a non-English primary language; if numbers are lower, an ESL program is required. This is typically satisfied by asking a mainstream teacher to gain ESL certification/endorsement. Parents always have the option to “deny” bilingual (or ESL) services.

⁵ All names are pseudonyms.