Welcome to my collection of resources, experiences, and advice for launching and growing a quality two-way immersion bilingual program. I am deeply committed to bilingualism and biliteracy for every child and firmly believe that this approach is key for preparing traditionally underserved English Language Learners for short and long term academic, cognitive, and sociocultural success. My personal mission as an educator is to do everything I can to close the achievement gap and to provide every student with an excellent college prep education--particularly ELLs. If you're looking to launch something similar, or simply want ideas and resources for your bilingual classroom, I want to help in any way I can!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Determining Students' Dominant Language

There's a lot of terminology flying around when talking about second language learning...native language, primary language, home language, mother tongue, L1, etc.  We decided that we would call a child's strongest and (usually) native language their dominant language.   This can be different from what's in our student information system as the home language or primary language, since those terms refer to what parents designate on the state required home language survey completed during initial registration.  Since some Spanish-speaking parents come in with negative perceptions of bilingual education, a few occasionally mark English as the home language even though their child is more proficient in Spanish.  We also have English-dominant parents who have marked Spanish as the home language (often because some Spanish is spoken in the home even though it's not spoken as often as English) because this can sometimes help qualify children for PK programs--while, in fact, it sometimes turns out that the child is stronger in English.  So, as you can see, if we went simply with the parent-reported home language, then we'd be doing some children a disservice and providing them with initial guided reading instruction in the wrong language.

So, at IDEA Mission we have a more thorough way of identifying childrens' dominant language.  When the child first enrolls, we administer the Pre-LAS (Kinder) or LAS Links (Grades 1 up) in both English and Spanish.  This is a standardized language assessment that gives both a raw (varies) and scale (1 - 5) score in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and overall proficiency (the Pre-LAS assesses listening and speaking only).  Some other districts use different state-approved language assessments such as the Woodcock-Muñoz.  Here's a list of all TEA approved tests.

We also ask each parent to complete a more extensive Family & Language Background Survey (English or Spanish).  If a child has transferred from another district, we also have information included in their previous records to help us make a decision.

During each student's initial LPAC (Language Proficiency Assessment Committee) meeting, we review their LAS scores in both languages, the parent responses on the Family & Language Background Survey, previous school records (if applicable), and any additional teacher observations.  About 90% of the time, this data alone makes it very clear which language is the child's dominant language.  We then assign their dominant language accordingly.  This helps us balance classrooms to have an equal (or as close as possible) number of English and Spanish dominant students, to provide initial small group guided reading instruction in their dominant language (Kinder & 1st Grades), to know which language they will take their district and state required K/1 benchmark literacy assessments in, etc.  If, after reviewing this data, it's unclear which language is the student's strongest, we'll gather more data--we'll call parents on the phone to ask additional questions, look at more student work, compare reading levels and other student achievement data in both languages.  We want to make sure we make the right dominant language assignment for every child, so we leave no stone unturned and we make no guesses.  It definitely takes some time initially, but it is well worth making the correct identification.  This does mean that we occasionally have a non-LEP student whose dominant language is actually Spanish and LEP students whose dominant language is actually English--not often, but it has happened in our unique bilingual community.

Now, the LPAC process is required by the state for every English Language Learner (LEP--Limited English Proficient student), but at IDEA Mission we go through the LPAC process for every single child since every student on our campus is a second language learner--either in English or in Spanish.  Every parent must sign a program acknowledgement form, verifying that they are aware that their child is in a two-way immersion bilingual program.  This also serves as the permission form required by the state for bilingual program placement, but notice that there is no parent denial option.  Every student who chooses to come to IDEA Mission chooses to be a part of our two-way program.

Just a side note...we sometimes hear people refer to a child's dominant language as his/her "language of instruction."  The language of instruction is actually whatever language they're being instructed in at a given time.  For example, one week the math language of instruction might be in English while the next week it could be in Spanish.  The language of instruction changes.  A child's dominant language does not, though the goal is for every student to eventually be fully proficient in both his/her dominant language as well as in their second language--this is true bilingualism and biliteracy!

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