Guest Post: A Multilingual Vision for American Education

A school system that supports students’ language development will offer support at many different levels and to many audiences, so I've broken up my vision into sections that reflect some of the key policy levers and actors who could use them to make U.S. schools more effective and multilingual.

Teaching and Learning

At the classroom level, class sizes would be much smaller—no more than 22 students per class. Teaching dual language learners (DLLs) requires more individual attention than teaching a class of English proficient (EP) students. The class make-up would also reflect a diversity that would enhance language learning. By this, I mean that there would be a linguistic mix that would include dual language learners and English proficient. At least one-third of the seats would be set aside for both DLLs and EP students.

At the school level, teachers would receive additional time to plan for content, skills and language objectives. Teachers in team-teaching or side-by-side models who share two groups of students would receive more time to assess students, analyze data, plan instruction, write report cards and meet with parents. English as a second language (ESL) teachers would develop a newcomer curriculum for students who arrive later than kindergarten or first grade and need to acquire very basic social language in English. ESL teachers would teach this curriculum in small groups, preferably before or after school, without pulling students away from their content-specific instruction. Instead of translating a curriculum that was meant for English proficient students, teachers would create a thematic, integrated curriculum that would enhance students’ academic language in addition to their mastery of content and skills.

Administrators would allocate funding for native language resources in a way that is equitable instead of flatly equal. That is, since resources in languages other than English are often far more expensive, programs that use them will need commensurate resources. Administrators would also have bilingual teachers and curricular experts review resources before purchasing. Should those resources not exist, teachers would also receive more planning time to create resources that match the current standards, with more time allotted to teachers working with complex content in the upper grades. Administrators would create vertical teams to design and review students’ language growth across grade levels and subject areas. These vertical teams would examine student data and meet several times a year to improve instruction for language learners and help identify students who might need additional services. Principals would provide targeted professional development to address the needs of dual language learners and their teachers. These professional learning experiences would be long-term and intensive in the first three years of program creation. Principals would recognize that some professional development is not suitable for teachers of dual language learners.

At the district level, district leaders would allocate funding to enforce those smaller class sizes, provide newcomer ESL classes, increase native language resources, address the need for additional planning time, and diversify professional development to recognize DLL-specific needs. Districts would also create district-wide dual-immersion programs/schools rather than school-zoned programs to increase the catchment area and diversity of the student population. However, before implementing a dual-immersion model across the district, districts would encourage school leaders and teachers to take a closer look at their student populations, teacher qualifications, and resource availability in order to determine the best programmatic design based on these variables and available research. District leaders would organize and participate in long-term professional learning workshops designed to increase awareness of related research and best practices. Districts would also coordinate visits by school leaders and teachers of successful programs within and outside of the district to inform their practice.

At the state and federal level, policies would make dual-immersion education a higher priority. There would be increased funding to support the implementation of the measures presented above. State and federal legislation would also give dual language learners at least three years to increase their proficiency in English before requiring states to test them in English Language Arts. State and federal policies and agencies would increase pathways to bilingual teacher education programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and would also develop online options. Teacher education programs would be more practice-based and less research-centric. State and federal legislation regarding minimum instruction in English would be more flexible to allow for 90-10 dual-immersion models (when 90 percent of the instructional time dedicated to the native language).

A Preschool-16 Continuum

Since DLLs take at least seven years to acquire a second language, schools would not be divided along traditional lines of grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Instead, districts and states would create preschool-5 and 6-12 schools that work in close collaboration. Far more dual-immersion programs would be offered in the preschool years to develop DLLs’ language abilities in their native tongue first. These preschools would be housed in the K-5 schools to ensure a continuum of language growth and to connect families.

This would be a big shift. Right now, most districts offer less than 30 percent of core subject instruction in the native language past fifth grade. In an ideal school system, at least 50 percent of core subject instruction would be in the native language throughout middle and high school. Furthermore, at least three core subject areas would be taught either solely in the native language or partly in English and partly in the native language to advance cross-academic language development.

In a better system, the “testing out” of DLLs of English as a second language services at the elementary level would not reduce the offering of dual-immersion programs at the middle and high school levels. In fact, districts and states would increase the offering and quality of secondary school dual-immersion programs while also opening doors to late dual-immersion for dual language learners who arrive in the upper, middle and high school grades.

To broaden access to first generation college students, districts and states would plan dual-immersion programs from preschool-16, collaborating with universities to provide a bilingual education into and throughout college. At the college level, students would not be limited to literature classes in the native language, but have access to a range of classes across disciplines (business, law, medicine, education, social sciences, engineering, biology, and more) to again heighten their mastery of subject-specific language.

Parent and Community Relations

There would be substantial efforts made to increase communities’ awareness of the benefits and advantages of a bilingual education. Federal, state and district agencies would support these efforts by coordinating with grassroots, community-based organizations. Communication in families’ native languages would be offered systematically and advertising would be multilingual. Finally, these efforts would be made across language boundaries to spread a wider net and capture the interest of families of DLLs and EP students.

So that’s one vision of a multilingual education system. It would be a dramatic shift from how we do things now and a considerable improvement for dual language learners and English Proficient students alike.

Marie Bouteillon is the founder of Creative Bilingual Solutions. For more information on Bouteillon's background and expertise, read her recent EdCentral interview. 

--Note: This post is part of New America’s Dual Language Learners National Work Group. Click here for more information on this team’s work."