In this post, I summarize a long book chapter by Wiley (2022), on a 60-year-long political campaign against bi/multilingual education in the U.S. that has a lot of money behind it. Prof. Wiley was President of the Center for Applied Linguistics from 2010-2017. He traces the anti-immigration sentiment from the immigration policy of the 1960sContinue reading “Well-funded lobbyists in the U.S. take resources away from bi/multilingual education”
Category Archives: lit review
Canadian French Immersion: What did it actually achieve, and to what extent can those findings be generalized?
From December 2022 to December 2023, I will attempt to summarize and comment on the practical implications of 13 classic books about bi/multilingual education that continue to be relevant in the field. The first is Merrill Swain and Sharon Lapkin’s book about Canadian French immersion, Evaluating Bilingual Education: A Canadian Case Study (1981). This bookContinue reading “Canadian French Immersion: What did it actually achieve, and to what extent can those findings be generalized?”
What’s it like to grow up bilingual from birth?
In this week’s post, I summarize a book chapter by Fred Genesee, a leader in the field of “simultaneous bilingualism,” or bilingualism of kids who are raised bilingual from birth (compared to “sequential bilingualism,” or kids who only start to become bilingual when they start school). Genesee shares some generally known knowledge about simultaneous bilingualism,Continue reading “What’s it like to grow up bilingual from birth?”
Translanguaging and transformative pedagogy (Part 2): Jim Cummins writes about “Teachers as knowledge generators”
In Part 1, I discussed how Jim Cummins defines “transformative pedagogy” (Cummins, 2000) as collaborative relations of power between teachers and students, policymakers, curriculum designers, administrators, parents, communities, and academic researchers when they combine social justice with genuine concern for learning. In this post, I summarize Cummins’ (2021) more recent book chapter on what translanguagingContinue reading “Translanguaging and transformative pedagogy (Part 2): Jim Cummins writes about “Teachers as knowledge generators””
Translanguaging and transformative pedagogy (Part 1): Jim Cummins defines “transformative pedagogy”
Welcome to the two-part series about translanguaging (TL) and transformative pedagogy (TP)! In this post, I summarize Jim Cummins’ (2000) book chapter on what transformative pedagogy is—a no bullshit piece, and despite most of the examples being from the U.S., the principles are important for teachers to know, at any level of education, anywhere inContinue reading “Translanguaging and transformative pedagogy (Part 1): Jim Cummins defines “transformative pedagogy””
What does “judicious” use of students’ “own language” in language classrooms look like, practically speaking?
Graham Hall and Guy Cook are two experts on “own language use” in language teaching and learning who wrote a state-of-the-art article about this subject in 2013 that answers the above million-dollar question. In this week’s post, I summarize that article’s six sections: (1) what academic and societal trends have led to more support forContinue reading “What does “judicious” use of students’ “own language” in language classrooms look like, practically speaking?”
Once again, what are “translanguaging” and “code-switching” (within and beyond the classroom)?
The purpose of this definition post is to explain (1) the difference between translanguaging and code-switching as sociolinguistic phenomena, or phenomena observed by sociolinguists (people who study language use in interaction), and (2) how translanguaging/code-switching are understood in classroom pedagogy, which is different from how they are understood as sociolinguistic phenomena. The first question isContinue reading “Once again, what are “translanguaging” and “code-switching” (within and beyond the classroom)?”
Translanguaging in language immersion classrooms: To what extent can it be done?
In this week’s post, I summarize an article about the extent to which translanguaging/code-switching/first language (L1) use is appropriate for language immersion classrooms (Ballinger, Lyster, Sterzuk, & Genesee, 2017). The article is by Canadian scholars—as the early immersion research from French immersion in Canada is often cited today by proponents of other types of immersion,Continue reading “Translanguaging in language immersion classrooms: To what extent can it be done?”
The ideal syllabus for an MATESOL course on grammar pedagogy
The idea for this post came to me on the spur of the moment, based on a question a friend asked me on facebook. If you’re teaching an MATESOL course just on grammar pedagogy, what would you put in it? And I thought, wow, that’s an exciting puzzle! The field is just so HUGE! WhatContinue reading “The ideal syllabus for an MATESOL course on grammar pedagogy”
Chinese-English bilingual education in China: A critical analysis of research
Chinese-English bilingual education is on the rise in China, particularly at the university level, with some trials in K-12 education in the form of (i) bilingual private schools and (ii) experimental public schools in socioeconomically elite areas. In this post, I summarize an article about this educational trend by Prof. Guangwei Hu, a Hong KongContinue reading “Chinese-English bilingual education in China: A critical analysis of research”
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