Educating Bilingual and Bicultural Students: Policies That Work

Introduction

Educators and educational institutions must work to adapt educational policies and practices to include collaborative and interactive procedures so that bilingual and bicultural students receive the tools necessary to achieve throughout their lives. Only through interaction and collaboration among students, teachers, parents, and community members will bicultural and bilingual students develop an identity and realize their true potential. Schools that neglect to infuse their curricula and educational environments with interactive and collaborative policies fail both their students and society at large.

For centuries, researchers and educators have debated the significance that bilingualism and biculturalism have on student achievement in schools. Early studies suggested that bilingual and bicultural students were less able to realize significant cognitive development than monolingual students. Researchers have since debunked these theories in favor of more comprehensive research suggesting that bilingualism may have a positive effect on student achievement if addressed properly from an educational standpoint.

Unfortunately, bilingual and bicultural students still face many challenges in the modern classroom. Most students' needs, despite a growing population of minority students, are not addressed adequately. This is due largely to a lack of acceptable cultural representation and understanding among teachers and educators, and to inadequate ESL and bilingual programs designed to address the unique challenges bicultural students face. Bilingual and bicultural students whose needs are not met in the classroom often fail to achieve their true potential, fail to develop into contributing members of society, and fail to develop cognitively and linguistically.

For bilingual and bicultural students to realize significant cognitive and linguistic development, learning policies and procedures must be designed in a manner that fosters collaboration between students, teachers, educators, community members, and parents. Educators must develop policies and curricula that actively engage and embrace the cultural differences students bring in a collaborative and culturally meaningful manner. Teachers also have an obligation to adopt multicultural learning methods in traditional classroom settings, not simply in ESL classrooms.

Understanding Bilingual Education and ESL

Bilingual and ESL educational programs vary from state to state and classroom to classroom within the United States. Part of student achievement — or lack thereof — may largely result from the variance in the quality of language programs available today. Ovando, Collier, and Combs (2003) note that it is important to understand how most bilingual and ESL programs are structured in order to understand what policies and practices are necessary to improve them. The authors confirm that there are many different forms of ESL and bilingual programs in the U.S. The most basic forms, according to Ovando, Collier, and Combs, include: (1) "continued development of the student's primary language," (2) "acquisition of the second language (English)," and (3) "instruction in content using both" (p. 4).

Many programs also include "historical and cultural components associated with the languages used" because there is, as Ovando et al. (2003) note, an "inseparable connection between language and culture" (p. 4). Instruction should be "tailored to meet individual students' academic proficiency and educational background," as well as offer students opportunities to develop both their native and second language (p. 5). However, many programs are "not well equipped to handle such diversity," and thus monolingual instruction becomes the emphasis, with an ESL component added (p. 5).

Early studies suggesting that bilingualism may negatively impact a student's cognitive and linguistic capability did not take into consideration the lack of consistency within the ESL classroom. Most of these studies made sweeping assumptions that failed to consider the distinct needs of bilingual students.

Cognitive and Linguistic Development in Bicultural Students

For bicultural and bilingual students to succeed in the classroom and realize significant achievement throughout their lives, classroom policies and curricula must be developed that actively engage students in a collaborative, culturally significant, and interactive manner. Multiple studies now confirm this assumption. Ovando and his colleagues are among a growing body of researchers and theorists who confirm that cognitive and linguistic development in bicultural students can only occur when culture is incorporated as part of the learning environment.

Teachers have an obligation to "build relationships with students that help them actively learn and collaborate in the classroom in a manner that fully embraces their cultural diversity and contributions" (Garcia, p. 2). These ideas are supported clearly by Ovando (2003) as well. Teachers are significant influencers in children's lives. When teachers are willing to engage students, take an active interest in student learning, and set aside preconceived notions or biases regarding student achievement, they are more likely to support cognitive and linguistic development. If teachers attempt to ignore culture and teach in a traditional manner, students are less likely to achieve. Students are also more willing to build supportive and productive relationships with educators in an environment where they feel welcomed and encouraged to do so.

Ovando et al. (2003) state that students with a close connection to their cultural heritage — often referred to as "language minority students" — continue to grow in a classroom setting and develop both cognitively and linguistically (p. 6). Students who are disconnected from their historical and cultural heritage, however, are more likely to experience confusion and isolation and less likely to succeed.

Teachers must recognize this need and help students embrace their cultural heritage. Part of this need stems from the growing representation of minority students in the classroom. In recent years, minority representation in U.S. society has increased substantially, with minority groups growing "faster than whites" (Ovando et al., p. 6). The percentage of students of color is expected to continue to rise, which will intensify the shortage of "well-prepared teachers" equipped to handle the needs of bilingual and bicultural students (Ovando et al., p. 6).

Because of this trend, it is vital that states acknowledge their responsibility to prepare classrooms and teachers to adequately address the needs of this community. These needs include helping students recognize the close connections to their bilingual and bicultural heritage while also helping them acclimate to the broader environment. Even though the majority of teachers currently serving students represent a limited demographic, studies confirm that culturally diverse student populations will soon outnumber white teachers. Teachers therefore have an obligation to recognize this trend and adopt practices that embrace a multicultural learning environment.

Ovando et al. (2003) portray culture as an underpinning of learning and teaching. They describe culture as interactive — a product of one's past and present experiences and processes. Culture allows students to create, visualize, and shape their present and future, and is three-dimensional in nature. Language acquisition, according to Ovando, occurs within a prism with four distinct dimensions: linguistic, sociocultural, cognitive, and academic processes (p. 89).

In earlier eras, researchers believed bilingualism was harmful to a student's cognitive and linguistic development; many believed it "hampered children's development of intelligence" and even led to "psychological confusion" (Takakuwa, p. 1). Early studies suggested that bilingual children scored lower on key measurements of verbal intelligence, even though no difference existed with respect to nonverbal intelligence (Takakuwa, 2000).

Such studies illustrate how bilingual students have been underserved for generations. Most of these early studies did not involve adequate methodological controls. Today, educators understand that most bilingual and bicultural students do have the ability to develop cognitively and may even surpass their non-bilingual peers. Cognitive development is the result of multiple thought processes and does not differ from child to child based on linguistic background alone, provided that strategies are adopted that enable students to draw on their skills in both languages (Takakuwa, 2000). In fact, some studies suggest that bilingual students are more capable of developing cognitively than monolingual students. Most current studies affirm that bilingualism has a positive effect on a child's cognitive development (Takakuwa, 2000).