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ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER BORDER CROSSERS IN HIGH SCHOOL: A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY

Michele Mar, Ph.D.1

GLORIA ANZALDUA

“The new Mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity. She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She learns to juggle culture” (Anzaldua, 1987/1999, p. 101).

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NICOLE- A BORDER CROSSER AT SUNNYVALE

“I have changed. I feel more confident about myself. I now speak one more language than before, and now I really want to go to college to help myself and my parents. I have more friends.”

Nicole, 11th grade, Sunnyvale Senior High School

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INTRODUCTION

Border Crossing

Experiences

Identity Changes

Multilingual Experiences 4

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

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English Language Learners’ voices in Sunnyvale Senior High School are not being heard from educators, which in turn affects the ELLs’ educational experiences. Therefore it is of utmost importance that educators value and promote ELLs’ linguistic, cultural, and academic identities through mediation.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

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This case study sought to explore and describe the educational experiences of English Language Learners. This study allows educators to hear the ELL voices as they crossed educational borders and constructed meanings as they participated in the ESOL program and content area classes at Sunnyvale Senior High School.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Respect for ELLs’

Languages, Voices, and

Cultures

Social Justice

Respect for

Diversity

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SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY

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Vygotsky

LantolfJohnson

BORDER CROSSING PEDAGOGY

Giroux AnzalduaVera and

de los Santos

Urrieta and

Mendez Benavide

z

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CULTURAL IDENTITIES

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Norton

Pavlenko and

Lantolf

Pavlenko and

Blackledge

DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION

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Cummins Dewey

He, Phillion, Chan, and Xu

Wong Fillmore

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Three research questions guided this study: What are the factors found in a

multicultural high school that mediate the ELLs’ border crossing identities?

How does crossing educational borders mediate the ELLs’ bicultural, biliterate, and bilingual identities?

How does participation in an ESOL program in a multicultural high school assist in the development of border crossing identities?

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CASE STUDY AS DEFINED BY STAKE AND MERRIAM

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Deep Understanding

Merriam, 1998; Stake,

2005

Rich and Thick DescriptionMerriam,

1998; Stake, 2005

Bounded CaseStake, 2005

CASE STUDY FEATURES

Interviews ELLs ESOL Teacher Content Area Teachers Principal

Observations ELL Participants in ESOL Class

Reflective journal kept by researcher Artifacts

Grade Reports FCAT and CELLA Test Scores

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SETTING AT SUNNYVALE HIGH SCHOOL Demographics 2009-2010 School Year

30% African American 30% Hispanic 27% White, Non-Hispanic 3% Asian, Indian, and Multiracial 17% Gifted 6% English Language Learners 36% Free/reduced lunch Total of 3,300 students registered for 2009-2010

school year 150 ESL students (Levels 1-4 ) were registered

for 2009-2010 school year

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ESOL CLASSROOM

• 11th graders• 48 students• ESOL Levels 1-4• Russian, French,

Latin American, Haitian, and Brazilian students

• Mrs. Rodriguez 4th Period 16

METHOD

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Flyers

Demographic Questionnaires

Observations of ELLs in ESOL

Class

Three Interviews of ELLs and One interview with

Teachers

Parental Consent Forms

THREE INTERVIEWS WITH ELL PARTICIPANTS

Life in previous school in native country

School life while learning English in Sunnyvale

Identity changes after moving to Sunnyvale

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DATA ANALYSIS

Observations

Transcribed Interviews

Artifacts from participants

Journal Entries

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PROCESSES TO ENSURE VALID AND RELIABLE RESULTS

Triangulation

Ongoing Examination of Researcher

Bias

Member checking

Ongoing observation

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TRUSTWORTHINESS

Credibility Dependability

Transferability Confirmability

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DESCRIPTIONS OF ELL PARTICIPANTSName Country Languages Grades FCATChristina Brazil Portuguese

EnglishD Failed Both

Nicole Haiti French/CreoleSpanishEnglish

B Passed Both

Claudia Cuba SpanishEnglish

B Failed Both

Vincent France FrenchCreoleEnglishSpanish

D Failed Both

Pedro Honduras SpanishEnglish

A Passed Math/Failed Reading

Vladimir Israel Hebrew Russian/GeorgianFlemishFrench/English Spanish

A Passed Math/Failed Reading

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EMERGING THEMES

Nine themes emerged from intense data analysis from June 2010 to September 2010 Themes emerged from 50 codes

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LEARNING NOT ONLY ENGLISH, BUT MULTIPLE LANGUAGES AT SUNNYVALE

The ELLs encounter students from around the world, who speak many different languages: Russian Haitian Creole French Spanish Hebrew Portuguese

Students cross many borders at Sunnyvale

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FIGHTING OBSTACLES: IDENTITY CHANGE AND SURVIVAL AT SUNNYVALE

Participants reconstruct their lives to fit in Learned skills to survive They learned to mediate their learning Higher grades and future college entrance Passing the FCAT and CELLA Tests Learn English (BICS and CALP) to complete

academic classes at Sunnyvale Multiple Identities at Sunnyvale

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STARTING OVER: TRANSFORMATION OF LIVES AFTER ENTERING SUNNYVALE

Missed loved ones and friends from countries they left

Learned to adapt to new system of education Mediated their learning of English

ESOL classes Content area classes

Socializing Lunch Media Center

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DIFFICULTIES AT THE BOUNDARIES: OVERCOMING STRUGGLES AND BARRIERS WHILE CROSSING BORDERS

Passing state mandated tests FCAT CELLA

Adapting at Sunnyvale New teachers New language of instruction

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REACHING OUT AND NETWORKING: FINDING INNOVATIVE AND CREATIVE WAYS TO MEDIATE LEARNING AT SUNNYVALE

Mediate learning from Peers, Teachers, and Artifacts ESOL Courses

Mrs. Rodriguez Ms. Sanchez

Content Area Classes Sports at Sunnyvale

Vladimir Vincent

ESE courses in Math Claudia

Religion Pedro Claudia

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COPING WITH LONELINESS: SEPARATION FROM PARENTS AND LOVED ONES

ELL participants experienced separation Family Parents Friends

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MAKING CONNECTIONS: I WANT TO BE WITH STUDENTS LIKE MYSELF AT SUNNYVALE

Advanced Placement Classes Nicole

ESOL Literature Class Many students from other countries

ESE Math course Claudia

Mediation from friends who share similar languages: Vladimir Pedro Vincent Nicole Christina

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GAINING A NEW VOICE: FROM INVISIBLE TO VISIBLE

Increased Confidence Translation

Parents Peers

Better grades Better Communication in English Continued learning of native languages

Vincent Vladimir Pedro Christina Nicole

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THE BALANCING ACT: CROSSING BORDERS WHILE MAINTAINING CULTURES AND LANGUAGES

Spanish with parents and family members Pedro Claudia

Creole with parents and friends Vincent Nicole

Maintains culture and religion Vladimir Pedro

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RESEARCH QUESTION ONE

What are the factors found in a multicultural high school that mediate the ELLs’ border crossing identities? Language learning occurred through social interactions in

ESOL and content area classes ELLs attempted border crossings and reconstructed their

lives at Sunnyvale Participants found ingenious ways to mediate their

learning at Sunnyvale ESOL teacher, Mrs. Rodriguez, was the bridge between

students and Sunnyvale Provided each student with a more experienced mentor

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RESEARCH QUESTION TWO

How does crossing educational borders mediate the ELLs’ bicultural, biliterate, and bilingual identities? Through mediation

Peer Teacher Tutor Self mediation

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RESEARCH QUESTION THREE

How does participation in an ESOL program in a multicultural high school assist in the development of border crossing identities?

Allowed participants to maintain their cultures and languages Vincent-learned Creole, English and Spanish

Vladimir-maintained five languages and learned Spanish and English

Pedro and Claudia maintained Spanish while learning English

Nicole maintained French and Creole while learning Spanish and English

Christina maintained Portuguese while learning English

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IMPLICATION FOR THEORY

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Mediation

Multilingual Experiences

Border Crossing

Experiences

RECOMMENDATIONS

Develop Professional Learning Communities to assist ELLs at Sunnyvale Senior High School

ESOL Coach in every school in the district All teachers could incorporate more

cooperative learning activities: Group activities Project based learning Discussions Debates Simulations

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ESOL PROGRAMS AT SUNNYVALE

Need to be additive and not subtractive (Valenzuela, 1999)

Need to be transformative Need to be communicative

Tasks should use authentic language that reflects language use in real life contexts

Differentiate the instruction to meet both BICS and CALP (Cummins, 2007)

Knowing that academic language does not occur for seven years, change the importance of FCAT for students who are here less than seven years

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TRANSFORMING HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Equality and equity in curriculum (Cummins, 2007)

Instead of lower level tracking, ELLs need more Honors and Advanced Placement classes Equal access to higher level classes

All schools with English Language Learners should have an ESOL Coach, not just a Reading Coach

FCAT test is not the end all

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NEW LANGUAGE CLASSES

More chances to continue to learn native languages for ELLs

In addition, have native English students learn other languages from peers at Sunnyvale French AP and Spanish AP are available at

Sunnyvale More Advanced Placement classes are needed in a

variety of languages Sunnyvale needs the following language classes:

Portuguese Russian Mandarin Hebrew Creole

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AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS

Peer groups should be formed to learn English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Creole, Hebrew and Mandarin. These clubs could be facilitated by the students

who speak these native languages after school for community service hours

Book clubs could also be offered in which all students could read novels about Border Crossers

Language and Book Clubs could be facilitated by ESOL Coach in the Media Center, which is open every day until 6:00 p.m.

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NEW VOICES IN READING AND SOCIAL STUDIES COURSES FOR ALL STUDENTS

Advocate for authors in ESOL Literature class who have also “crossed borders”: Edwidge Danticat: Breath, Eyes, Memory Esmeralda Santiago: Almost a Woman and When

I was a Puerto Rican Victor Martinez: Parrot in the Oven Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior Julia Alvarez: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their

Accents

These books could be read after school or during Reading and/or Social Studies classes

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FUTURE RESEARCH

More qualitative studies More mixed method studies Future study:

How does the use of multilingual languages affect identity change in high schools?

Ethnographic study in which ELLs would be interviewed over their four years in high school

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REFERENCES

Anzaldua, G. (1987/1999). Borderlands/La Frontera: The new mestiza (2nd Ed.). San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.

Cummins, J. (2007). Language, power, and pedagogy: Bilingual students caught in the crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Giroux, H. A. (1993). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. NY: Routledge.

Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change. NY: Pearson.

Pavlenko, A., & Lantolf, J. P. (2000). “Second Language Learning as Participation and the Re (construction) of Selves.” In Sociocultural theory and second language learning, edited by James P. Lantolf, 155-177. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S. Mexican youth and politics of caring. Albany, NY: State University Press.

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