Can we mitigate diglossia? The power of the teacher, the parents, and the school

1. Can we mitigate diglossia? The power of the teacher, the parents, and the school to create target language environments Kim Potowski The University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies This presentation is available online at: potowski.org/CATWI

2. Thank you Rosa Molina, Executive Director, Two-Way CABE

3. Points to explore • What is diglossia? What evidence do we have of diglossia in dual immersion classrooms? And why does it matter? Codeswitching in dual immersion classrooms: Linguistic transgression or support for learning? • What do teachers say about encouraging target language use? What do they suggest teachers, parents, and the school can do to mitigate diglossia?

4. What is diglossia? di = two glossa = language • The use of two markedly different varieties of a language in different social situations. • One is called the formal variety (“High” or H). Regarded as prestigious, associated with the language of law and government, etc. Needs to be learned at school. • The other variety is colloquial or vernacular (“Low” or L). Widely used but less prestigious. Everyone learns this at home.

5. Classic examples of diglossia

6. Classic examples of diglossia X X X X X

7. “Diglossia” applied to other contexts • The definition of diglossia was extended. In addition to describing two related varieties of the same language, it can describe two different languages. • People now talk about, for example, Spanish and English existing in a diglossic relationship in some U.S. communities.

8. Jump to immersion Tarone & Swain: Noticed that immersion students increasingly avoid using the target language in peer interactions after 4th or 5th grade. WHY? Look to diglossia for an answer…

9. Tarone & Swain (1995) Immersion classrooms become increasingly diglossic over time: • The L2 serving official/academic functions (“High”) • English serving informal social functions (“Low”).

10. Why might this be? • In immersion classrooms, children learn the L2 for purely academic purposes. They do not receive input in non-academic language styles. • As children get older, they have greater need for establishing identity through play, competition, positioning themselves within the peer group, arguing, insulting, etc. This is naturally carried out in the shared, native L1. • Thus, the non-English language is used only for talking with adults and for academic work.

11. Tarone & Swain (1995) • In fact, use of formal (“High”) speech styles – in this case, Spanish – in peer interactions can mark the speaker as a nonmember, or a “lame.” (Labov 1972, referring to African Americans who didn’t speak like the rest of their community). • Carranza (1997): There is a “feeling of pretense when two people communicate in one language, knowing that both can be more effective in another.”

12. Tarone & Swain (1995) Educators may need to accept diglossia rather than struggle to get students to use the L2 in informal contexts. We don’t teach them informal peer language in their L1… should we pressure ourselves to do so in the L2?

13. Studies of diglossia: One-way immersion Broner (2000): Fortune (2001):

14. What about dual immersion? Significant portion of native Spanish speakers  Greater overall Spanish use? Particularly in social/informal domains, because these students receive that kind of input at home?

15. Inter-American Magnet SchoolChicago, IL • Founded by parents in 1975 • 80-20 model, PreK-8th grade • Morning vs. afternoon language split

16. What I wanted to know: #1: How much Spanish do students use during Spanish classes? When, with whom, for what purposes? #2: What are students’ levels of Spanish proficiency upon graduating 8th grade?

17. Focal students • First language (L1) Spanish = Carolina, Matt • First language (L1) English = Melissa, Otto • All academically successful, all participated in both languages

18. Year 1: Fifth grade (1999-2000) • Eight months of classroom observation, 53 hours of classroom recordings • Many hours of observations in cafeteria, playground, music/gym/computers, etc. • Local School Council meetings, Parent Advisory Committee meetings, dances, dinners, etc.

19. Table 1, Overall Spanish use during Spanish language arts and social studies

20. Table 2, Individual student language use 67% 47% 64% 47% 33% 53% 36% 53% 100% 100% 100% 100% Being a home Spanish speaker did not lead to greater use of Spanish in the classroom. Gender appeared more correlated with classroom Spanish use than did L1.

21. Table 3, Student language use by addressee 82% 18% 100% 32% 68% 100%

22. Table 4, Student language use by topic 68% 32% 100% 43% 57% 100% 17% 70% 100%

23. Table 5, Student language use by topic Even if L1 Spanish speakers have informal Spanish skills – would they use them?

24. Examples of social talk, 5th grade • Informal speech: Crabby, gimme, I don’t wanna, cool, dude, boogers, whatever. • Fighting/teasing/sarcasm: I dare you, Wow finally!, You like her/No I don’t, Stop kicking me!, Fine, be like that. • Popular culture/TV: “Who wants to be a millionaire,” Pokemon, Sony Playstation.

25. Year 2: Eighth grade • Five months of observations, 48 hours of classroom observations • 20 hours of classroom recordings in Spanish Language Arts and Spanish Social Studies • Formal measures of Spanish proficiency • All 52 students in 2003 graduating class

26. 8th grade results • Very little Spanish used during Spanish language arts & social studies classes • Math and science taught in English • Students received approximately only 20% of their weekly instruction in Spanish.

27. Table 5, Eighth grade current eventsAll student turns directed publicly to teacher and classmates

28. Conclusions • Spanish use overall: Less than what is “officially” expected. • Definite diglossia by addressee and topic. • Considerable drop from 5th to 8th grade.  Supports Tarone & Swain’s idea of increasing importance of social identity negotiation. • Heritage Spanish speakers did not increase the amount of Spanish use.

29. Social language in Spanish? • Tarone & Swain (1995): Immersion classrooms become increasingly diglossic over time; educators may need to accept this fact rather than struggle to get students to use the L2 more often and in informal contexts. • Young people distance themselves from adults in speech, clothes, music… • Is it desirable, or even possible, to get students to carry out social talk in the minority language? Should we just be happy with academic language?

31. Social language in Spanish? • Caldas (2006): None of the students used French with each other at his daughters’ immersion school: “Began to soberly assess the limits of a school immersion program, especially when it comes up against adolescence in America.” Even if tremendous effort is exerted to preserve a minority language, if that language is not cherished by the adolescent’s peer group, s/he will likely not speak it.” • Monolingual peers in Quebec  French abilities. • Great credit to the immersion school for strengthening their French writing and grammar.

32. Ideas • Teach them social language? Which variety? What about “bad” words? • How to make Spanish “cool”? • Virtual pals with monolingual peers in Latin America.

33. Increasing Spanish in “H” contexts • Strong language arts curriculum • Monolingual relationships with teachers • Reflect Spanish in important assessments  Raise expectations for Spanish production. • Pull-out Spanish classes? • Activities that increase the status of Spanish – carnival games, contests, spelling bees, writing contests, etc.

34. Codeswitching Cloud, Genesee & Hamayan (2000). There is a difference between: Problems with lexical retrieval: Lack of linguistic knowledge Code-switching: When two languages are mixed for pragmatic & social reasons. “Borrowing a word/phrase from English keeps communication flowing. But code-switching should be avoided in dual immersion classrooms because:”

35. Cloud, Genesee & Hamayan (2000): Students’ languages are still developing  Probably code switching because it is easier and not because they are controlling the two languages for social reasons. Better for students in the long term if the two languages are kept as separate as possible Clear expectations of when and where to use each language.

36. When claiming that code-switching is “easier” for students, these authors are probably referring to lexical gaps. But my data showed… Lexical gaps constituted only 25% the codeswitching in the corpus. Therefore, the majority of students’ code-switching fulfilled other functions.

37. They recommend…. That teachers can encourage monolingual production, without shaming students, by repeating what a student says in the target language and expanding on it. Student: I have the picture… Teacher: Tengo la foto… However, in my observations… This practice does not always push students to generate a greater amount of output (nor more accurate output) in Spanish.

38. Competing views of teacher codeswitching: Macaro (2001) • L2 can only be learned through the L2; exclusive use of the L2 provides a “virtual reality” classroom mirroring that of the L1 learner. • L2 can only be learned through L2, but (a) is an unattainable ideal. One should use as much L2 as possible, but each L1 use constitutes a “sin.” • There is some value in L1 use; might enhance learning more than by sticking to the L2. Supported by theories in cognitive processing, sociocultural development, naturalistic codeswitching.

39. Macaro (2001) “Even if a teacher was able to maintain 100% L2 use, how would they know that their learners could not have learned better through, say 5% L1 use?” Optimal use of codeswitching involves a judgment about the possible detrimental effects of: * Not drawing learners’ attention to aspects of their L1 * Not conveying important information because it’s too complex in the L2 * L2 input modification rather than activating L1 connections. “There is virtually no research demonstrating that staying in the L2 vs. switching to the L1 in specific circumstances leads to better learning.”

40. Big questions: When do we sacrifice a content point for insisting on use of the target language? How do we do this effectively and in a principled fashion?

41. One final thought: Nichols & Colon (2000) Evidence that allowing students to speak and write in code-switched language lead to greater academic quality. In dual immersion contexts, the best approach may be for teachers to: * Use the minority language almost exclusively, but allowing for principled uses of L1. * Insist that students do the same, allowing the types of code-switching that move the lesson forward and those that promote learning.

42. Teachers’ voices: Walker & Tedick (2000) Studied beliefs of immersion educators about how to integrate language and content. Three themes: 1) “Primacy of content”: Primary accountability was for content only. Not enough time to focus on language in any systematic way, or, belief that language was being attended to through the focus on content. Suggestion: Learn about Spanish structure and second language acquisition and teaching; incorporate explicit language learning goals into the curriculum.

43. Teachers’ voices: Walker & Tedick (2000) 2) “Language use expectations”: That students “had a right to speak and understand messages in either language.” Suggestion: Insist on sustained separation of the languages. (Some teachers may wish to accept a certain amount of codeswitching, depending on function & context.)

44. Teachers’ voices: Walker & Tedick (2000) 3) “Overreliance on input”: Belief that students needed only to listen & have grammar points explained to them in order to learn the language. Suggestions: Elicit more output from the students by designing tasks that require target language use; create grammar posters; require students to attend to the feedback they receive on their output. Harley (1989): Contextualized & interesting lessons focusing on preterite/imperfect distinction in French.

45. Conclude with notes from: Interviews with three dual immersion teachers in three different dual immersion schools in Chicago. LaVan (2001): “Help! They’re using too much English!”

46. What can teachers do? • Establish routines. • Examine usefulness of “fines” or other external motivators. • Students listen to each other more than to adults. • Model social language with each other. • Create desire. Story of Andrew. • Be responsive to students’ abilities: • Monolingual strategies (insist on Spanish) • Struggling: Recast in Spanish, require repetition.

47. What can teachers do? • Talk frequently with the students about the dual language mission; the advantages of bilingualism. “They think it’s cool that I didn’t learn Spanish until I was 26 and they are 16 years ahead of me.” • “You have to keep moving, monitoring, you can’t turn your back. They need to know you’re always around.” • Create Spanish “leaders” at each table. “Go to [student] to learn how to say forest.” • Learn about Spanish linguistic structure and second language acquisition.

48. Online course for dual language and immersion educators, University of Minnesota, Fall 2010: Foundations of Dual Language and Immersion Education (3 credits) http://www.cehd.umn.edu/CI/Programs/college/Certificates/foundation.html

49. What can schools do? • Pressure publishers for more interesting content in Spanish. • Support periods of study abroad for teachers and students.

50. What works for you? • Acute lack of research on language use in dual immersion classrooms. • Action research, dialogue.