Dual language pedagogy: asymmetry compensation.

Abstract

In a dual language classroom situated in a largely English-speaking school, the teacher in this study struggled to preserve the symmetry implied in the ideal form of the program design; that is, that the minority language (Spanish) would be as present and robust in the classroom as the majority language (English).

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Research and context

In the 1998-99 school year Larson Elementary (1), a K-5 school in a small eastern city in the US, implemented its first experimental dual language program, beginning with two kindergarten classrooms. Larson's Dual Language Program was not school-wide, but was housed within a school that used predominantly English instruction. Through classroom observation over the course of the school year (where I videotaped, audio-taped, and recorded fieldnotes) as well as periodic interviews with the teacher where she reflected on her challenges and pedagogical approaches, I studied the classroom of Dana, a native of Argentina who was fluently bilingual and had been teaching in a transitional bilingual classroom at Larson for several years. Dana and the other Kindergarten teacher (Marli) had the only dual language classrooms this year, although the program was designed to increase by one year every year until there was a dual language option that spanned the grade levels of the school (2).

Dana described a successful dual language approach as one of "designing instructional activities to promote desired interactions among the children." (1/6/98) (3). In this sense she allied herself with the general philosophy behind dual language methodology, which relies on social interaction among learners of both languages (Christian, 1994; Lambert, 1990). In interviews, Dana revealed that she advocated learning a language "in a contextual sense," a learning context she contrasted with the traditional classroom in which students may take Spanish for years but never be able to hold a conversation in Spanish. This theory is aligned with the dual language program design of teaching a language by teaching in that language, rather than teaching that language (Christian, 1994; De Jong, 2002). In this sense the program design relies upon the concept of immersion in a language, specifically immersion in both English and Spanish.

The cooperative and interactive nature of the dual language model holds a great deal of potential for empowering minority language speakers and their languages (Clark, Flores, Riojas-Cortez, & Smith, 2002; Romero, 1999). Nevertheless, particularly concerning the Spanish immersion element of the program, some studies indicate that this immersion is artificial and tends to fall short of the ideal (Collins, 1993). Potential risks to the ideal implementation of a dual language program can be asymmetry of language use and proficiency (Collins, 1998); (Amrein & Pena, 2000), lack of administrative support for teachers (Riojas Clark, 1995), and the higher status enjoyed by English in the broader American society (Shannon, 1995; Vald6s, 1997) (4).

Dana was very critical of the school administration, and seemed to become increasingly frustrated as the year progressed. In a letter she mailed me in November of the following year she wrote; "I still feel that there is little support for the dual language program and there is a general poor understanding of what they are doing, or where they are going, by both the staff and the administration" (10/25/99). Dana's criticism of her peers and administrators does not seem to me a separate issue from the broader issue of English hegemony in American society. Social criticism of power structures may be directed at the closest, concrete source of power (Foucault, 1982).

The asymmetry observed and some strategies for redressing it

Despite the frustration and sense of helpless and isolation she expressed, Dana did respond in several concrete ways to these constraints she perceived in the broader school environment. Dana perceived that the overall balance of Spanish and English significantly favored English, and described this as "inevitable" (2/3/99). She told me that even though her schedule was designed in theory to devote approximately half of her classroom time to Spanish, in practice the Spanish time was truncated by interruptions, specials and occasional auditorium events, all of which were in English (2/3/99). My classroom observations verify Dana's perception of this constraint. The class had three specials each week; Physical Education, art/music, and library, which were taught outside the classroom by other teachers, and taught entirely in English. Lunch and recess took place in the school cafeteria and on the school playground, common areas where English predominated. Similarly, auditorium events, loudspeaker interruptions and occasional visits from other school employees generally took place in English out of necessity, due to the fact that most of the members of the broader school community, teachers, administrators, and children alike, were monolingual English speakers. The principal, for example, commented to me that she did not know any Spanish, but would like to learn (11/13/97).

Dana compensated for this language asymmetry in several ways. At times Dana unexpectedly changed her daily schedule, and reported to me these changes were attempts to compensate for sudden changes in the school schedule. For example, one morning I entered at 9:00 am during Spanish time and saw that the children were engaged in English Language Arts. Dan explained that the children were to participate in a school-wide activity in the auditorium this morning, which would necessarily take place in English, and so she had decided to reverse the languages, moving Spanish Time to the afternoon just for this day (10/22/98).

Aside from this daily compensatory flexibility, Dana compensated further by attempting to speak Spanish with all children, both English and Spanish natives, during school-sponsored yet nonacademic activities outside the classroom, such as recess and school trips. I never observed these times, but she reported to me that she tried to speak Spanish as much as she could on the playground as well as during field trips when she accompanied her children. This strategy went beyond simply adding more time in Spanish, but had political significance. Dana told me that speaking in Spanish during these nonacademic times was important to developing students' perceptions of Spanish as a valid and valuable language outside the classroom "They're realizing that it's not just language learning, academic language, Spanish. That it's play Spanish. That it's going outside Spanish. And going to the city to do something Spanish" (5/20/99).

She also reported that she only explicitly taught the children to count in Spanish. This came up one day when she pointed out to me that she saw Ian (English-speaker) counting to himself in Spanish. She told me that she's not worried, because "they'll pick up the English" (10/6/99), illustrating her conviction that the prevalence of English in the broader environment of these children required her to emphasize Spanish.

Despite the imbalance in favor of English, Dana maintained the 50-50 morning/afternoon language split in her classroom, as described in the dual language program proposal accepted by the District, until February, when a school-wide scheduling change shifted the balance even further in favor of English. In the beginning of February Dana reported to me that because of some problems they were having in the lunch room, the Kindergarten classes would have to go to lunch at 11:00 instead of 11:30, effectively shortening the morning Spanish Time by half and hour (2/1/99). Dana compensated by adding a half hour of Spanish time to the English afternoon schedule. She described for me a conflict this decision created between her and Marli (the other dual-language Kindergarten teacher) and Andrea (the principal). According to Dana, Marli decided not to compensate for the reduction in Spanish Time. Further, Dana also told me that Andrea supported Marli's decision and opposed Dana's adjustment, arguing that, in Dana's words, she was "overemphasizing Spanish" (2/3/99).

While Dana's decision to increase her instructional time in Spanish was not supported by the Larson administration, this practice of allocating more time to the minority language is common in dual language classroom design. While some divide the languages equally, as in the case of Larson, others devote the majority of instructional time to the minority language. Especially in the lower grades, some programs allocate 80% to 90% of instructional time to the majority language, progressively phasing in more English in the later grades. Interestingly, there is a regional pattern to language allocation. In California, the majority of programs favor the minority language; in Texas there are roughly equal numbers of programs favoring minority language and allocating languages equally, and in New York the majority of programs allocate equal time to languages (Howard & Sugarman, 2001). Dana's decision to increase Spanish time might have been supported had she been teaching in a different school.

As far as interruptions were concerned, there was little Dana could do to prevent them. I recorded 3 intercom interruptions during Spanish Time, all in English (11/17/99, 4/12/99, 4/18/99). Dana always responded in English, even during Spanish Time, and this may be because the speaker, calling from the school office, was a monolingual English-speaker (5). However, as the following segments illustrate, Dana immediately switched back to Spanish after the interruptions. In the first example, Dana has just told the children to clean up their areas in preparation to go downstairs to eat lunch, and is directing children individually when the intercom interrupts. It is Andrea, the principal, asking Dana in English if she is preparing to bring the children to lunch:

   Dana tells the children, in Spanish, "Estoy esperando que todas las
   mesas esten limpias. El banquito va con las gallinas. Ahorralos en
   tu canasto. Gracias. No tires las tijeras, que la gente se lastima
   asi." (I'm waiting for all the tables to be clean. The little stool
   goes with the hens. Put those away in your basket. Thank-you. Don't
   throw scissors, people get hurt that way). At this point the
   principal's voice, in English, cuts in over the intercom, "Mrs.
   Simone?" Dana answers in English, "Yes?" Andrea asks, "Are you on
   your way down?" Dana responds, this time in Spanish, "Si." Andrea
   continues, this time mixing in some Spanish, "Ah, OK. Si, si (Yes,
   yes). Thank you. Gracias (Thank-you)." Dana responds, in English,
   "It's five after, only!" (11/17/99) (6).

In this example, the interruption takes place mostly in English, as Andrea does not speak Spanish. Nevertheless, Andrea's attempt to use a couple of basic Spanish words indicates that she respects the Spanish Time rule and is simply unable to participate fully in Spanish. As soon as Dana responds to Andrea in English, a child calls out a comment in English which directly relates to the English intercom exchange. But Dana, who had stepped outside her own "Spanish only" policy to communicate with the monolingual English principal, immediately returns to speaking in Spanish to the children:

   A child's voice calls out in English, apparently in response to what
   she heard over the intercom, "It's time to go downstairs!" Dana
   continues to give instructions for cleaning up in Spanish, "[??]A
   ver, quien esta listo? iCuantas tareas! La primera mesa que este
   lista es la primera mesa que va a ponerse en linea." (Let's see,
   who's ready. The first table that's ready is the first table that's
   going to get in line) (11/17/99).

Similarly, in another intercom interruption I recorded later in the year, Dana is speaking in Spanish, and the interruption is in English (actually, it is the principal again), and Dana returns immediately to speaking in Spanish after the announcement. In this case, the announcement is generally addressed to all teachers, and does not require Dana to respond. Again, the children are cleaning up and getting ready to go downstairs but Dana is kneeling next to Jamaica (English-speaker), painstakingly trying to get her to translate a comment she just made in English into Spanish:

   Dana, kneeling next to Jamaica, says, "Jamaica, dime algo. Dime.
   [??]Puedes decir esto conmigo? 'Estamos haciendo la comida.'"
   (Jamaica, tell me something. Tell me. Can you say this with me? "We
   are making the dinner") Jamaica's response is barely audible, and
   Dana repeats, "haciendo" (making) and Jamiaca repeats it. Then Dana
   repeats "la comida" and Jamaica quietly repeats it (4/12/99).

Just as Dana finally gets Jamaica to repeat her phrase in Spanish, Andrea's voice comes over the intercom in English, interrupting Dana's Spanish sentence:

   Finally satisfied, Dana turns to the whole group and begins, "Saben
   que, muchachitos...." (You know, my little ones ...) At this point
   Andrea's voice comes over the intercom in English, "Teachers, please
   excuse this interruption ..." (4/12/99).

Andrea's announcement is to inform the teachers that the playground is extremely muddy and to ask them to bring the children inside for indoor recess after lunch. The irony, of course, is that the announcement comes just after Dana has been painstakingly trying to convince Jamiaca, an English-speaker extremely reluctant to speak Spanish, to repeat a simple phrase in Spanish. Nevertheless, as soon as the announcement is finished, Dana launches into Spanish as if the interruption had never occurred, hustling the children to leave their areas and line up:

   "Vamos a ir abajo a corner. Cuando volvamos, vamos a seguir
   limpiando" (We are going down to eat. When we come back we're
   going to keep cleaning) (4/12/99).

The third intercom interruption I recorded is perhaps the most inopportune, as Dana has just finished scolding Rashid (English-speaker) for speaking English when the English-speaking voice breaks in. Further, the interruption in this case seems rather unneccessary, as it is a request for information that doesn't seem immediately urgent. Dana is sitting at a table with Rashid and Khamil (English-speakers), directing them in the completion of a project involving Spanish letters:

   Dana stops her explanation and says to Rashid in a sharp voice,
   "Mira, Rashid, [??]por que sigues tu hablando de eso en ingles? Si
   tu vas a hablar conmigo en ingles ... (Look, Rashid, why do you keep
   talking about this in English? If you are going to talk with me in
   English ...) (4/19/99).

While Dana is speaking a voice (this time not the principal's) comes over the intercom, in English:

   A voice calls out, "Mrs. Simone?" Dana answers in English, "Yes?"
   The voice continues, "The number you gave for Kathleen, is it a new
   number?" Dana responds, "No, it's her old number." At this point a
   girl asks Dana, in English, "What do I have to do?" Dana responds in
   Spanish, "Tu alfabeto." (Your alphabet) Then she begins saying the
   names of the letters in Spanish, "A,B,C,D,E,F ..." (4/19/99).

In these three cases, we can extrapolate that Dana's strategy is to minimize the amount of English she must speak during official Spanish time, ignoring English interruptions that do not explicitly require an answer, and immediately returning to Spanish (and demanding that the children do so as well) when an English response is required.

Implications

Based on my observation of the over-representation of English in Dana's dual language classroom and her strategies for redressing this asymmetry, I offer the following recommendations for dual language program design and implementation:

* Asymmetry is inherent in a dual language program, meaning that the degree of immersion in the minority language is compromised by structural factors that limit minority language availability in the classroom. Therefore, I recommend a program design that provides more instructional time in the minority language, at least in the earlier grades.

* Teachers should carefully monitor daily events that compromise the minority language and be flexible enough to compensate on a daily basis by adding Spanish instructional time.

* Teachers should be absolutely committed to speaking the minority language during its designated time, despite interruptions by intercom or through classroom visits that take place in English.

* Administrators, other teachers, and parents should be informed of the difficulty of maintaining an adequate level of minority language instruction in the class, so that strategies to compensate for language asymmetry are not viewed as over-representation of the minority language.

Notes

(1) The name of the school and the name of all participants in the study are pseudonyms.

(2) This partial housing of a dual language program within a school is sometimes referred to as a "strand within a school."

(3) Interview quotes are referenced by date of interview.

(4) In this paper I will focus on systemic asymmetry; that is, asymmetry that arises from the prevalence of English in the broader social milieu. Dana's comments did suggest that she views English hegemony as a broader problem rooted in the higher status of English than Spanish in American society.

(5) As far as I know, all administrators in the school were monolingual English-speakers, although the principal had told me in the beginning of the year that she planned to hire a Spanish-speaking secretary.

(6) Segments describing classroom activity will be set off as extended quotes in this fashion, even if the statement is relatively brief, to clearly distinguish it from the body of the text. Also, these segments are in the present tense, to emphasize the narrative aspect of the segment, and are referenced with the observation date.

References

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Renee Hayes teaches in the School of Education at the University of Delaware.