MULTILINGUALISM, MULTICULTURALIS

M, & MBEJennifer M. Worden

Harvard Graduate School of Education

February 11, 2011

Agenda for today

What we think we know The U.S. Case

Doubly Damned (neuromyths)Problems of Definition & Identity

MBE, Policy, and the big question

Scaffolding, and the Transfer of Knowledge across Generations

The Social Construction of Mind

Vygotsky (1896-1934)

Social Learning Theory

We are essentially

social beings

Tomasello (1999) builds on this tradition, including connecting biology and culture.

Language as a cultural tool

Bi- or Multilingualism is now the norm for large percentages of the global population, with estimates that as much as 2/3 of the world population speak at least two languages (Baker, 2006).

Kovelman, I., Baker, S.A., and Pettito, L.A. (2008). Bilingual and Monolingual Brains Compared: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation of Syntactic Processing and a Possible “Neural Signature” of Bilingualism. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 20(1): 153–169.

What we think we know about Bilinguals/Multilinguals Overall, meta-cognitive skills and meta-linguistic abilities tend

to be more complex in bilinguals (Bialystok, 1988; Bialystok, 2001;

Cromdal, 1999; Kotz, 2001;Ransdell, 2006).

Bilinguals are able to draw on greater meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive resources to transfer skills to other areas, in particular literacy.

These and other advantages appear to transfer beyond linguistic competence to other cognitive areas such as attention and memory (Bialystok, et al.,2009).

There is some evidence that the process of learning a second or third language increases and extends neuro-plasticity, allowing for increased cognitive flexibility and memory retention that extends across domains (Kovelman, et al., 2007, 2008; MacSwan & Rolstad, 2005; Mechelli, et al., 2004; Moreno, et al., 2008; Rodriguez-Fornells, et al., 2002).  

The Flip Side

There do appear to be some disadvantages to bilingualism , most notably in terms of vocabulary development (Bialystok, et al., 2009).

What happens outside of the laboratory?In schools and familiesInfluences on identity and cultural

competenceCitizenship and civic participation

Shift and Maintenance

Studies seem to indicate that once language shift has begun, it is incredibly hard to reverse (e.g., Fishman, 2001)

In the U.S., historically and currently, we expect to see shift from the mother tongue to English as the preferred/dominant language with formal schooling (Bayley, et al, 1996) and total loss of productive abilities in the mother tongue in the 2nd generation (Portes & Hao, 1998)***

The U.S. Case

Doubly Damned

Neuromyth One: Critical periodsWhat does this mean for what “we” expect

ELLs to be able to do in school? Neuromyth Two: Cognitive Load Limits

How does this affect overall attitudes towards bilingual language development?

Definitions Matter

Confound between ELL & BilingualsEducationSESPrior linguistic experience

SO WHAT?