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This article mentions that there are an increasing number of bilingual students in rural communities, especially those who speak Spanish. Southwest DuBois County School has developed the Dual language program. In this program, 50% of their instruction is in English and 50% of their instruction in Spanish. This helps emergent bilinguals because they can develop both languages at the same time. And use the first language to help them continue learning the second language. Based on my fieldwork observation, I have seen this teaching method in PS.24. I saw that the teacher used to speak in Spanish first and then repeat her words in English. And I also saw that on the PowerPoint, the left side of the lesson was in English and the right side was in Spanish. She explains the content in Spanish and then asks the students to repeat after her in English. This teaching method not only values students’ home language and culture, but also promotes academic success.

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Teaching Bilingual Learners in Rural Schools - EdSurge News

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By developing a program with 50/50 language instruction and 50/50 student enrollment, students are able to not only learn both their native and target…

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According to the article, in order for emergent bilingual to participate in classroom activities, some teachers will use "equity sticks", meaning that these sticks have students' names on them. When a teacher asks a student a question, a stick will be randomly drawn out and the selected student need to answer the question. But doing so creates an environment of tension and panic for the emergent bilingual. It also takes away their motivation to participate. As a student, I had a similar experience. When I came to the U.S., my English was not so good and I was afraid of being asked to answer questions. One time my teacher said that she got us named sticks to answer questions for whoever was called. I was afraid that she would ask questions I didn’t know and that my classmates would make fun of my accent. During the reading, she then drew the stick and called on me to answer the question, and I didn't know how to answer that question. The class waited a long time for my answer, but eventually I still didn’t know how to answer the question. Then she called other students to help me. Every time if the teacher randomly calls on someone to answer a question, it makes me nervous and scared.

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Empowering Emergent Bilingual Learners | Renaissance

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Discover how Renaissance solutions will help you to better understand and build on your emergent bilingual students’ assets this school year.

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Thinking beyond language: Empowering emergent bilingual learners

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In this article, teachers are provided with five steps to establish a positive and nurturing learning environment for emergent bilingual students. One of the steps mentions "Let students use their home language for specific activities." As an emerging bilingual student, when I immigrated to the United States in the sixth grade, I didn't speak much English. And my teacher uses this step. In her classroom, she allowed me to answer questions in Mandarin if I wasn't quite able to express myself in English, and someone would translate for me. I think this helped me a lot because I was afraid that I wouldn't know how to express my thoughts in English when the teacher called on me to answer the question. My teacher saw my confusion and said that in her classroom I could use my home language to answer the question. It makes me feel comfortable in her classroom. I enjoyed participating and expressing my ideas in her class.

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Empowering emergent bilinguals in K-12 - SmartBrief

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Teachers can bridge two worlds, one learner at a time, by helping emergent bilinguals with differentiation and belonging, Jose Viana writes.

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The article argues that teaching early literacy skills in a language that students already know becomes the foundation of a second language. I agree with this view because I think that by teaching in a language that the students can speak, they can better understand the new knowledge they are learning. And by the level of reading and spelling students have mastered in their first language can reflect on how much or how fast they can progress when learning a second language. As a student who immigrated to the United States, I had a similar experience. At school there was a program that helped me improve my English, and since the teacher only spoke English, I couldn’t communicate with her a lot of the time. But when she was teaching me English, she provided me with pictures and translations to help me know what the words meant. I think this helps me because I know what the word means in my home language, I just don’t know what it means in English.

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The Inspiring Journey of Bilingual Students

One of the most rewarding roles for educators is supporting one or more of the 4.9 million English Learners in US schools on their academic journey (Mitchell, 2020). While they speak more than 400 languages collectively, as of 2018, approximately 80% speak the following three: Spanish (75.2%), Arabic (2.7%), and Chinese (2.0%) (OELA, 2019).

First languages of English Learners

When we refer to students as "English Learners," however, our frame of reference is what a student lacks rather than what the student brings, essentially placing a spotlight on what is considered their deficits rather than their assets. Words matter. For this reason, a new term is beginning to replace "English Learner" and other previously-used terms- Emergent Bilingual. Much more than a simple change in words, the term Emergent Bilinguals reflects not only a shift in perspective but acknowledges that students who come to school with a home language other than English are Emerging Bilinguals.

And just like all students, those who come to school speaking a language or languages other than English bring language, knowledge, skills, culture, and life experience on which to build. Also like all students, supporting Emergent Bilinguals on their journey requires building on their assets and guiding them to the college or career of their dreams. What is well supported by the research is that the most powerful way to guide Emergent Bilinguals to success is through the development of biliteracy.

Building on Emergent Bilingual students' assets

Because "biliteracy is an achievement that rests primarily on language processing at all levels, from elemental sounds to the most overarching structures of text" (Castles et al., 2018; Seidenberg, 2017), teaching early literacy skills in the language students already know becomes the foundation on which the second language is built. The home language is, in fact, a significant educational resource for Emergent Bilinguals (Garcia & Kleifgen, 2018).

According to Sparks et al. (2008), whose study examined the ability of first-language (L1) reading and spelling skills to predict later second-language (L2) reading and spelling skills, the best predictor of second-language decoding skill was a measure of first-language decoding. The best predictors of second-language spelling were first-language spelling and first-language phonological awareness. The best predictor of second-language comprehension was a measure of first-language comprehension.

The findings further suggest that even several years after students learn to read and spell their first language, word decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension skills transfer from the first language to the second language. So, research is clear that first-language reading positively affects second-language achievement in reading and spelling.

As for the relationship between first-language and second-language reading comprehension, the findings by Sparks et al. also show that first-language reading comprehension in elementary school from grades 1-5 was a significant predictor of second-language reading comprehension skill several years later in grade 10. They also point to the fact that as learners of English in the US read more difficult texts in their first language, not only do their decoding skills improve, but they enhance their vocabulary as they are exposed to increasingly difficult texts, leading to higher levels of reading and comprehension.

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Thinking beyond language: Empowering Emergent Bilingual learners

Get best practices for identifying and building on the language assets that students bring to the classroom.

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Focusing on Spanish and English biliteracy

For Emergent Bilinguals whose dominant language is Spanish, there is an additional way in which Spanish first-language reading contributes to second-language English reading. This is due to cognates-words in both languages that mean the same thing and are spelled in a similar manner.

For example, adquirir/demostrar and acquire/demonstrate are Spanish-English cognates. Although these examples meet both criteria, adquirir/demostrar are everyday words in Spanish, while acquire/demonstrate are academic words in English, suggesting that Spanish-speaking students may have a "cognate advantage" in comprehending English academic texts (Lubliner & Hiebert, 2011). According to Butvilofsky et al. (2017), it has been well established that bilingual approaches are the most effective approaches to teaching reading to Spanish/English-speaking children.

The research supporting the important contribution that first-language reading makes to reading English is strong. What is even stronger is the generalizable longitudinal research by Collier & Thomas (2017) conducted in 36 school districts in 16 US states, with over 7.5 million student records analyzed, following English learners (of all language backgrounds) in grades K-12.

In fact, in English achievement, Emergent Bilinguals in two-way immersion programs performed at grade level (50th NCE) by grade 5, while those in one-way immersion programs performed at grade level (50th NCE) by grade 7. Continuing the development of first-language literacy significantly influences their high achievement in English compared to students receiving little or no primary language support, as shown in the graphic below (Collier & Thomas, 2004).

English Learners' achievement by program type

The research clearly shows a need to shift the way we think about our Emergent Bilinguals, and the tools and data educators use to serve them. Our mindset should evolve from pointing out gaps in knowledge or skills in English to recognizing and celebrating the knowledge and skills students have in their home language, and the ways these can be used to promote learning.

Strategies to support Emerging Bilingual students

Children come to school with a variety of language backgrounds and experiences. Renaissance recognizes this diversity and designs assessment, practice, and instruction tools to support Emergent Bilinguals at each English Language Proficiency level-whether the instruction is English-only or dual language. The following strategies highlight children with varying levels of language development as examples of students that you may have in your own classrooms. Reflect on what your students know and learn about how Renaissance can help.

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Providing authentic assessment with Star CBM Lectura

See how the new Star CBM Lectura for grades K-6 truly reflects students' literacy development in Spanish.

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References

Butvilofsky, S., Hopewell, S., Escamilla, K., & Sparrow, W. (2017). Shifting deficit paradigms of Latino Emerging Bilingual students' literacy achievement: Documenting biliterate trajectories. Journal of Latinos and Education, 16:2, 85-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2016.1205987

Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19:1, 5-51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618772271

Collier, V.P., & Thomas, W.P. (2004). The astounding effectiveness of dual language education for all. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2:1, 1-20.

Collier, V.P., & Thomas, W.P. (2017). Validating the power of bilingual schooling: Thirty-two years of large-scale, longitudinal research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 203-217. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190517000034

Garcia, O., & Kleifgen, J. (2018). Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, programs and practices for English Learners. (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

Lubliner, S., & Hiebert, E.H. (2011). An analysis of English-Spanish cognates as a source of general academic language. Bilingual Research Journal, 34:1, 76-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2011.568589

Mitchell, C. (2020, February 18). The nation's English Learner population has surged: 3 things to know. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-nations-english-learner-population-has-surged-3-things-to-know/2020/02

Seidenberg, M. (2017). Language at the speed of sight: How we read, why so many can't, and what can be done about it. New York: Basic Books.

Sparks, R.L., Patton, J., Ganschow, L., Humbach, N., & Javorsky, J. (2008). Early first-language reading and spelling skills predict later second-language reading and spelling skills. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100:1, 162-174. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.1.162

U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Learner Acquisition. (2019). English Learners: Top Languages Spoken by English Learners (ELs) in the United States.

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One of the most rewarding roles for educators is supporting one or more of the 4.9 million English Learners in US schools on their academic journey (Mitchell, 2020). While they speak more than 400 languages collectively, as of 2018, approximately 80% speak the following three: Spanish (75.2%), Arabic (2.7%), and Chinese (2.0%) (OELA, 2019).

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This article states that we should respect students' cultural backgrounds, and students with multiple languages should not be regarded as deficits. On the contrary, we should encourage students to learn English and continue to develop their home language. Lexia English can help emergent bilinguals learn English and continue to develop their native language. The characters in Lexia English are the same age as the emergent bilinguals, they are all from different countries, they are bilingual, and they share their cultural backgrounds. Although the core content of Lexia English is in English, students can hear the task instructions in their home language. I think Lexia English is a very good language program. The characters’ backgrounds are similar to emergent bilinguals, which resonates with them. And the characters will teach them how to learn English by using their home language to support them. This promotes emergent bilinguals participation and affirms their identities.

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Providing Mirrors and Windows for Emergent Bilinguals

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Words matter. Bilingualism and multi-lingualism are superpowers. But the US education system has not always had that view. Traditionally, not speaking English has been seen as a deficit, and accented English has been considered imperfect English. This approach has made emergent bilinguals and multilingual students less confident and has reinforced stereotypes that lead to inequality. There is a rich cultural background to every student’s heritage, including the languages they speak. We must elevate and honor these students because they hold the superpower of bilingualism. Today, most state policies refer to students with a first language other than English as English