VOICES IN TRANSITION:
An Interdisciplinary Approach to English-Language Development
[PDF version]

 Suzanne Langford
University of Redlands

Duan Kellum
Redlands East Valley High School

Yvette Lane
University of Redlands

Caitlin Coulter
University of Redlands
U.S.A.

Introduction
Education, Equity, Language
Language, Content, and Literacy
Voice and Story
Story and the Arts
Endnote
Author’s Note
References
Appendices
Author’s  Biographical Sketch
Citing This Source in APA Style
 

Introduction

Multicultural education is usually associated with the use of pedagogically and culturally appropriate strategies for diverse learners. However, increasing attention is being focused on the relationships among education, multicultural education, and linguistic diversity issues (Banks, J., 2004; Coelho, 2004). This is because “between 1979 and 2003, the number of school-age children (ages 5–17) who spoke a language other than English at home grew from 3.8 to 9.9 million, or from 9 to 19 percent of all children in the age group”  (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). Therefore, it is imperative that strategies for diverse learners include those that address linguistic diversity. Because such strategies focus on language and communication, there is a natural link to both literacy instruction and learning experiences.

This article provides a theoretical rationale for suggested instructional strategies, materials, resources, and content standards that meet multicultural, linguistic and academic needs of English-language learners. Sustaining and affirming English-language learners’ “voice,” while bridging language, literacy content, and the arts, is discussed along with descriptions of various strategies, materials, and resources. This approach also supports secondary content area and English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers’ planning and implementation of an interdisciplinary approach to English-language development. For example, relevant strategies, materials, resources, and content are accessed from English language arts, English-language development, the arts, and the social sciences (including selected content area standards) and integrated in culturally meaningful ways for immigrant and refugee students and their families.

Education, Equity, Language

In the United States, educational equity is a significant issue. We depend on the public school system to facilitate the development of an educated society that consists of economically and socially productive citizens.  Education is a primary determinant of wages, and higher levels of education may result in increased income.  In addition to elevating an individual’s earning potential, education can also produce a series of external benefits such as improved health and mortality rates, more civic participation, and overall economic growth (Belfield, 2000).  According to Horace Mann (1868), “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of the conditions of men, - the balance wheel of the social machinery” (p. 669).  Traditionally, public education has been perceived to increase equal opportunity.  However, because of the presence of racism and discrimination in our society, all individuals are not afforded equal educational opportunities.  As a result, there are educational inequalities and gaps in scholastic achievement.  As the diversity of our country and our schools increases (McBrien, 2005), it is critical to address these inequities and work towards equal educational opportunities for all students.  Students who are recent immigrants are particularly insightful about these issues. Ana, a Vietnamese tenth grade high school student currently learning English, was given the opportunity to write on the topic of immigration in her ESL classroom. She brings a powerful voice to the table:

I’m a immigration.  So know how it feels. People from other country come to U.S. to get a better life or maybe they have too . . .  after you get to U.S. it hard to find a job too cause not a lot of people like immigration.  So you have to look for a job . . .it alot of people who is prejedic.  they all make fun of you . . .laugh at you.  So on my opions.  all the imigrant should stay to-gether . . . .(A. Xuan, personal communication, October 6, 2005)

Ana’s insights reflect the implications of marginalization, racism, discrimination, or all three. Because educational equity “lies at the heart of the modern multicultural education movement in the United States” (Davidman & Davidman, 1997), multicultural education is one way to address these issues and begin to resolve related educational inequalities. Although there are varying definitions and dimensions of multicultural education (Sleeter & Grant 1987; Banks, 1991; Banks, 2004; Banks and Banks, 2004; Banks, C., 2004; Nieto, 2004), from its conception, multicultural education has sought to achieve equal educational opportunity for students of different backgrounds and circumstances (Neito, 2005). 

As teachers and students explore and implement culturally diverse strategies in the classroom, it is essential to continuously evaluate whether these practices encompass all groups and individuals.  For example, approaches to multicultural education place particular emphasis on issues surrounding race and ethnicity.  However, the dialogue is expanding (Ramsey & Williams, 2003; Neito, 2005) and linguistic diversity is a topic that is currently receiving increased attention.  Because language and culture are integral, language and multicultural education are naturally linked; since language affects how and what we learn, it becomes a critical component of multicultural education (Nieto, 2004). In addition, the culturally based prior knowledge and experience of students must not be separated from their developing acquisition of English language, literacy, and content. Their cultural capital must be valued, recognized and tied to new learning (Nieto, 2004; Vogt and Shearer, 2003). Conversely, when learners’ background knowledge and experience is not honored, instruction can be damaging and inequitable (McBrien, 2005). Five important ways to recognize and value English-language learners’ cultural capital in ESL and content area classrooms include having them: (a) trace their roots or journeys onto a world map, (b) interview each other to discover how, when, and why their ancestors immigrated, (c) create slogans to display in the classroom that support language learning, (d) utilize multilingual reading material, and (e) learn and actively use phrases in each others’ languages. 

Language, Content, and Literacy

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush expanded the federal government's role in public education by signing into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which aims to ensure that all children have the opportunity to achieve academic success (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.). For secondary teachers, academic success is delineated by content standards that guide subject matter instruction. The debate continues about methods and approaches for educating language minority students and the speed of their learning English and academic content. However, a skills-based approach to English-language development and content achievement in which students learn skills prior to, or apart from, content learning, is problematic because language and content development are connected and cannot be considered in isolation from one other (Mohan, 1990). When standards and content area learning relate to a meaningful and culturally relevant interdisciplinary theme, there is a positive relationship to student achievement (Cummins, 1989). For example, teachers might weave standards together from English-language development, English language arts, social sciences, and visual arts to teach an integrated curriculum that includes key subject matter concepts (see Appendix A). Unfortunately, such a curriculum is also challenging for many middle and high school teachers who do not have the skill or the will to develop both language and content for English-language learners (Gunderson, 1985; Langer & Applebee, 1987; Penfield, 1987). Nevertheless, for students to achieve either language proficiency or core content knowledge, subject matter instruction must align language, content, and thinking objectives (Mohan, 1990). Infusing thinking objectives (e.g., inferential, critical, and creative thinking) into the curriculum means linking literacy to language and content instruction using an approach that provides opportunities for students to respond meaningfully and in authentic ways to multiple texts.

Popular approaches to content area literacy, which primarily focus on the development of English proficiency, include Sheltered Instruction (SI), Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) (Coelho, 2004), or the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2004). These approaches provide comprehensible input about subject matter concepts while making connections to students’ prior knowledge and experiences (Vogt & Shearer, 2003). Specific developmental goals, standards, and benchmarks to guide teachers relative to students’ English proficiency are provided through state departments of education or Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL, 2005). 

A balanced approach to literacy instruction involves using major language processes (reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing) in order to access information, gain knowledge, achieve learning goals, and actively facilitate thinking skills. Research consistently suggests that the language arts are interrelated (Gavelek, Raphael, Biondo, & Wang, 2000). This is because coordinating the instruction of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing is what develops language skills in a cohesive way. For example, when students read or listen to text, discuss it, and then tell or write their own version for sharing or reading aloud, the instructional approach to language arts is interrelated. This is especially important for English-language learners because they have opportunities to see, read, hear, write, and think about words and concepts in their new language. When students read and respond orally and in writing to multiple texts in the classroom, they also have opportunities to engage in higher levels of inferential, critical, or creative thinking (Fisher, 2005; Morrow & Gambrell, 2000). When the focus is on personal response and real-world connections to the text, students demonstrate an impressive range of literate behaviors including critical reading, attention to ideas and voices of others, negotiated leadership, the ability to draw on a variety of resources to clarify or agree on text interpretation, and the exploration of societal inequalities (Fisher, 2005; Coady, & Escamilla, 2005; Morrow & Gambrell, 2000). These are some of the important skills that adolescents need in order to develop multiple literacies, as well as comprehend content that varies by type (Roe, Stoodt-Hill, and Burns, 2004). For example, students with multiple literacies develop various strategies through a variety of media such as textbooks, magazines, text messaging, historical documents, Web resources, novels, blogs, editorials, and Internet search engines.  Helping students develop multiple literacies enables them to address key content area concepts (e.g., democracy, equity, liberty, global citizenship, immigration, short story, personal journey, and cultural identity) from a variety of perspectives. This is important for students to maintain cultural, linguistic, and experiential ties to their learning.

It is important to note that, although the acquisition of English for content learning is the eventual goal, school settings that de-emphasize rapid English-language acquisition and acculturation appear to be the best settings for linguistically and culturally diverse students (McBrien, 2005). Coady and Escamilla (2005) found that English-language learners succeed academically when the student’s learning, background, and culture are simultaneously linked. With this approach, students also develop and recognize positive self-beliefs, peer support, teacher support, parental support, and pride in parents. In contrast, extensive research shows that students from schools that promote rapid acculturation are negatively affected by issues of “discrimination, cultural dissonance, and the reception that refugees receive from their host society” (McBrien, 2005, p. 344).  It is possible that rapid acculturation may disconnect learners from their cultural capital, as well as integrated and balanced literacy instruction, because it focuses instead on an approach emphasizing mandated English-language skills and content acquisition (McBrien, 2005).

Five literacy strategies reflective of a balanced approach to instruction, are particularly effective for helping secondary English-language learners develop English proficiency while supporting their achievement of multiple literacies, thinking skills, and various content area standards. These strategies are: Total Physical Response-Storytelling (TPR-S), Double-Entry Journal, Say Something, Concept Circles, and Literature Circles (see Appendix B for a full description of each strategy). These strategies are effective because they support students’ connections to prior knowledge, their facility with word knowledge and vocabulary development, and they scaffold students’ comprehension in multiple ways (i.e., listening, speaking, writing, and reading). 

Voice and Story

Traditional in-school literacy goals and objectives for English-language learners, including those students who develop multiple literacies, are generally content-area specific and the expectation is to achieve content area standards and pass high stakes achievement tests.  Alternatively, students need to acquire English so they have an “audible” voice (Ball, 2006; Coady & Escamilla, 2005) with which to articulate their thoughts, feelings, and actions in the world and in relation to the subject matter content they are learning. However, voice is not language-dependent; it arises when useful information is internalized, thinking broadens, and personal perspectives emerge (Ball, 2006). Empowered with their new language, negotiating as intermediaries for their families or communities, or interpreting their new culture for themselves, students can speak, be heard, and define themselves as social beings (Darder, 1991). Before students’ voices become audible, they are often projected through their instructors, counselors, or other bilingual confidants who serve as intermediaries for those in linguistic transition. Students at various levels of English-language proficiency rely on intermediaries due to their varied language abilities. English-language learners with little or no command of English often receive “survival vocabulary.” This consists of words, phrases, and questions that allow them to address basic needs: “My name is_____,” “I would like a drink,” and “I’m hungry.” Regardless of the level of English-language proficiency, it is difficult to be heard, be it a basic need or an insight about a new culture, with a limited means of expression. To be without a voice is to be without power; teachers of ESL and content areas must focus on giving voice to those students who remain voiceless in their classrooms (Cummins, 1989; McElroy-Johnson, 1993; Ball, 2006).

Cuauthemoc is an eleventh grader in an urban ESL classroom in which English-language development, literacy, and content area instruction are integrated. Although his English-language proficiency is still limited, he is encouraged by his teacher to read and explore others’ immigration and refugee experiences in a variety of print and non-print texts (e.g., textbook, novels, film, music lyrics, and poetry). He and his classmates also participate as writers, engaging daily in some phase of the writing process (i.e., prewrite, write, revise, edit, or publish). Cuauthemoc uses his voice in both English and his first language, Spanish, to discuss the meaning of social equality with his peers. Below, in a daily journal entry, he writes with passion about discrimination, dissonance, and government and contributes a strong voice to the growing debate about the reception of those coming to America seeking a better life:

I think immigration is the way of the people that doesn’t have a good life or abetter chois to grow up and to risk their dreams while in their own countries doesn’t have choice to become a beter person, they find in the immigration their exit out to their problems, but immigration wont stop because people still being stoled by their governors and they are in poverty.  they will keep boking for something better for their families, even the things they have to do to use their dreams, even the death they have to pace their needs are strongers. (C.Diego, personal communication, October,6 2005)

Story, whether written or in the oral tradition, has long been an effective communication tool because it is a medium that easily weaves language, literacy, and culture together. The use of story in the classroom can help English-language learners like Cuauthemoc develop voice, as well as proficiency, in a new language. Stories facilitate the application of language in multiple and overlapping ways (e.g., speaking, listening, asking and answering questions, reading, writing, thinking, and viewing non-print text) for purposes of obtaining and transmitting knowledge and experience. Freire (1987) claimed that students must be given the opportunity to develop literacy based on their own reality and that creating and defining the “word” is just as empowering as knowing the word.  Students who are recent immigrants and refugees have important words, journeys, and consciousness to define as they traverse cultural and linguistic transitions. Literacy “is one of the major vehicles by which ‘oppressed’ people are able to participate in the socio-historical transformation of their society” (p. 157).  However, obtaining and transmitting knowledge and experience in the ESL classroom is an intimate process. Consider the writing of Osi, an eleventh grader from Mexico, whose classroom provides a safe and supportive learning environment for storytelling:

When you say immigration you think in alot of things like different languagos, coyotes the people who bring you to u.s..  You also think in death. The people who died trying to come to U.S. Mexicans are the most we have in u.s. than other Latin race.  You think in discrimination because alot of immigrants are descrimited just for the color of their skin. You also think in people running away from the migra.  You think in the border that divides Mexico from u.s. (O. Montana, personal communication, October, 6 2005)           

Osi’s border story is one he knows from personal experience, and it is not an easy story to tell. To connect life experience with English language, literacy (e.g., write, speak, read, and share with others), and content (e.g., social science standards), the students and teacher must deconstruct barriers that include language, discrimination, and cultural dissonance (McBrien, 2005) so that two-way communication can occur. Osi can talk with passion about borders because his story is valued and integrated with the curriculum in his classroom, and as a result the barriers to communication are deconstructed.  Both student and teacher need to be willing and able to give and receive information. This kind of knowledge exchange often comes packaged as personal narratives, which are personal journeys, both real and figurative, and provide the student with an opportunity to develop language, literacy, and content, and to affirm their voice.

Story and the Arts

Diaz-Rico and Weed (2006) suggest that although the visual and performing arts are often used as a medium for English-language learners to illustrate their understanding of concepts in various content areas, arts lessons in themselves help students develop language skills. The arts can also provide opportunities for students to maintain meaningful connections and develop culturally and linguistically appropriate techniques to project voice and identity, which can be particularly effective when combined with elements of story. Such means of expression might include spoken word, hip-hop, graffiti art, sculpture, painting, filmmaking, dance, music, book making, graphic arts, textile art, or drama. By identifying with imaginary characters through drama or role-play, students can develop English-language skills and understand a variety of social situations and experiences. This type of critical thinking is central to the development of literacy (Morrow & Gambrell, 2000). The goal is to be in someone else’s shoes to feel, see, speak, and understand the world from a perspective different from one’s own. By seeing, speaking, doing, and being the text, students go beyond the words to internalize and develop a critical understanding of the meaning behind and beyond the text. Drama also provides English-language learners with important insights relative to nonverbal aspects of English-language processes. The effectiveness of incorporating dramatic activities into the ESL language arts curriculum has been documented (Worthman, 2002; Ferree 2001 O'Day, 2001) and is based in part, on the Total Physical Response (TPR) immersion approach to teaching second languages (Asher, 1977). This approach, which emphasizes active learning, does not rely on textbooks or writing. Cantoni (1999) developed the Total Physical Response-Storytelling (TPR-S) (see Appendix B) approach to teaching second languages. In this methodology, students learn vocabulary that is incorporated into stories that they “hear, watch, act out, retell, revise, write, and rewrite. Subsequent stories introduce additional vocabulary in meaningful texts” (Cantoni, 1999, p. 1.). 

Seedfolks (Fleischman, 1997) is an especially meaningful multicultural novel to use with the Total Physical Response-Storytelling (TPR-S) strategy (Cantoni, 1999) at the secondary level. Students can hear, watch, act out, and retell many excerpts that are relevant to their knowledge and experiences as immigrants and adolescents, as well as learn new vocabulary. The story begins with Kim, a young Vietnamese immigrant who plants her deceased fathers’ precious lima bean seeds in a vacant city lot. The resultant community garden eventually brings her culturally, ethnically, and linguistically mixed neighbors together in a multi-voiced story about hope and transformation. The following passage from the novel illustrates how students might use TPR-S to develop literal, inferential, and creative meaning of the text through multiple readings, retellings, role plays, and rewrites. In this excerpt, Kim longs for her fathers’ acknowledgement:  

I stood before our family altar. It was dawn. No one else in the apartment was awake. I stared at my father’s photograph – his face stern, lips latched tight, his eyes peering permanently to the right. I was nine years old and still hoped that perhaps his eyes might move. Might notice me. (p.1)

Students may have had experiences with death, a stern parent, longing for some form of acknowledgement, hope, or any multitude of emotions that Kim is portraying as she stares at her father’s photograph prior to planting his seeds in a bare patch of American soil. As students discuss, retell, act out, and perhaps rewrite Kim’s scene before the family altar, they use new English vocabulary to relate to the novel. The possibilities for combining literature, the visual and performing arts, and story to support English-language development, literacy, and voice are limited only by the creativity of students and teachers. (See Appendix C for additional materials and resources related to Seedfolks).

If, as Wink (1997) suggests, voice “is the use of language to paint a picture of one’s reality, one’s experiences and one’s world” (p. 58), then it becomes the responsibility of every ESL and content area teacher first to acknowledge their students’ voices, and second to provide them with multiple opportunities in which to voice their realities in a variety of story contexts (Ball, 2006).

When students’ voices and their stories are central to the English-language development curriculum, teachers are disposed to organize instruction that reflects an interdisciplinary approach to content area learning. This means that content, strategies, materials, resources, and standards from more than one discipline (e.g., English language arts, social sciences, and the arts) are used to examine a core theme or experience that is relevant and meaningful to learners. Print and non-print materials and resources constitute a large part of the literacy context for this type of an instructional approach. In addition to novels like Seedfolks (Fleischman, 1997), short stories, poetry, web resources, music, films, documentaries, historic documents, international government data, photographs, newscasts, speeches, and invited guests all lend richness and clarity to the teaching and learning process (see Appendix C for specific examples of materials and resources). When authentic, culturally appropriate, and topical materials and resources are aligned with an integrated curriculum, teachers can create a wide variety of learning experiences. For example, students exploring multiple multicultural poems and short stories might recognize and understand a range of literary devices (such as figurative language or imagery) that relate to their cultural and linguistic knowledge and experience. On a different level, students might use international government data and various online sources to analyze the immigration and integration of multiple cultures and how each contributes to a global economy. The arts might offer a different form of communication for cross-cultural or universal themes, addressing diverse social issues from musical or historical documents and documentaries.  Curriculum that fosters an integral approach to English-language development, literacy, and content area learning is crucial, because it values and recognizes all students’ interests and cultural capital and facilitates the development of an educated society.

Endnote

 1.      Quotes from students throughout the text appear as originally written by English language learners.

Author’s Note

We would like to thank Ana Xuan, Cuauthemoc Diego, and Osi Montana (whose names we have changed) for lending us their voices.  The students are all English-language learners in the classroom of the second author.

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Appendix A

 Content Standards of California: English Language Arts, Visual Arts, and Social Science/History

Appendix A provides examples of content standards from English language arts, social sciences (history), and visual arts that might be accessed to teach an integrated curriculum that includes key concepts such as democracy, equity, liberty, global citizenship, cultural identity, personal journey, or autobiographical narrative (Note: English-language development standards [Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking, Grades 9-12] are selected relative to learners’ English-language proficiency).

Appendix B

Five Literacy Strategies

The five literacy strategies described below are effective for helping secondary English-language learners develop English proficiency while supporting their achievement of multiple literacies, thinking skills and various content area standards (e.g., English language arts, history, and visual arts). These strategies (Total Physical Response-Storytelling (TPR-S), Double-Entry Journal, Say Something, Concept Circles, and Literature Circles) are effective  because they support students’ connections to prior knowledge; word knowledge; vocabulary development and comprehension (listening, speaking, writing and reading). 

 Appendix C

List of Resources

Materials and resources provide a large part of the learning context for an interdisciplinary approach to content area learning. With authentic, culturally appropriate, and topical materials and resources, aligned with an integrated curriculum, teachers can create a wide variety of learning experiences. Exemplary books, Web resources, music, and films are provided.