Getting to Know STARTALK Languages and Cultures

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Getting to Know STARTALK Languages and Cultures

• Shuhan Wang Conceptual Framework with Chinese
  examples
• Alwiya Omar Swahili
• Iran Amin Persian
• Vijay Gambhir Hindi Urdu
• Iamn Hashen Arabic
• Rubab Qureshi Urdu
• Discussions

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An Ecological System Approach to
ExpandingSTARTLK Language Fields in the US

• Shuhan C. Wang, Ph.D.
• STARTALK TL/SV Meeting
• May 8, 2009
• Washington, D. C.

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Language Ecological Perspective

• Language environment
• Historical and contemporary
• Macro and micro
• Language evolution
• The variety of the language being selected
• The corpus of the language
• The development of the language in the host
  environment
• Effects of efforts endangerment or spread

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Why is an Historical Perspective on Environment
Central?

• Language education does not occur in a
  socio-cultural vacuum
• A newly introduced variety (of language) needs to
  grow in a nurturing environment
• A historical perspective enables us to understand
  deeply the present phenomenon in a larger context
  
• Language is not simply a linguistic issue it is
  often an identity and emotional issue

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Individual Biliteracy Resource Eco-System
Language Environment Heritage and Dominant
Discourses-in-Contact

Heritage Discourses
Dominant Discourses
Language Evolution Biliteracy in Development
Biliteracy in Use
Human Capital Cultural Capital Social Capital
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A System View of the Language Field (Wang 2009)
Heritage Communities
Learners
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Some Factors in the Macro Environment

• Economic and political relations between the home
  and host countries
• Public attitude towards that language and people
  who use it
• Legislative efforts
• Economic context of the host environment
• National security concerns
• Funding support
• Translation into educational programs

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Some Factors in the Micro Environment for an
immigrant group

• Who are they? How educated are they?
• What do they look like, including skin color?
• What language do they speak?
• What are their religions and cultural practices?
• In what condition did they come? For what
  purpose?
• In what number did they come?
• When did they come? How long have they been here?
• Where do they live? Are they socially integrated
  or isolated?
• To whom do they pledge allegiance?

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Language Evolution Which Variety to
Grow/Teach?

• Socio-political environmental factors
• Linguistic implications
• Identity and relational issues
• Teachers competence and comfort level
  identities
• Parental and communitys goals
• Heritage communitys identities
• Students goals, motivations, interests, and
  identities
• Materials

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Language Evolution The Corpus of Chinese
Language

• Divergence of Mandarin since 1949
• --Phonology Standard vs. Taiwan varieties
• --Semantics e.g., contemporary words reflecting
  scientific
• technological innovations cultural
  references political
• experiences and movements
• --Syntax common expressions
• --Writing system simplified vs traditional
  Chinese characters
• e.g., ? vs. ? ? vs. ?
• --Phonetic system Hanyu pinyin vs phonetic
  symbols
• --Style and Cultural Index
• Other Dialects

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Implications for Teaching and Learning a Language

• Lexicon, syntax, content, perspectives, genres,
  voices, styles, and
• cultural references and usages
• Curriculum design
• Material and textbook development and selection
• Assessment

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Language Evolution the Status of a Language in
the US Educational Policy

• Home language under bilingual education and NCLB
  from the US perspective
• Heritage language from the Chinese groups
  perspective
• Foreign language/World language

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Market Economic Status of Chinese If Chinese
Were Stores

• Home Language No market value (in schools)
• Heritage Language Neighborhood mom and pop shops
• Foreign Language
• --Prior to 2000 Neiman Marcusonly for the
  elites
• --After 2004/05 Costcoan upscale wholesaler
• (Adapted from H. Tonkin, personal communication,
  2000)

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Educational System K-16 Articulation
Heritage Communities
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Sociological Codes of Languages in the US
Educational Policies and Practices in the K-12
Context
NCLB
English Only
English Literacy Policy Home Language Heritage
Language
Foreign/ World Language Education
English Speakers
English Plus
(Wang, 2007 Evans Hornburger, 2005)
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Language Evolution for IndividualsBiliteracy in
Development

• Heritage Discourses and Dominant Discourses
  co-exist in the language environment
• The heritage/new language develops in the
  language/Discourse-in-contact environment
• Individuals must negotiate or internalize both
  discourses in order to turn them into personal
  biliteracy capital reservoir

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Build Biliteracy Capital Reservoir via Continua
of Biliteracy (Wang, 2004 also see Hornberger,
1989 Hornberger Skilton-Sylvester, 2000)

• Continua of Context (micro to macro, oral to
  literate, monolingual to bilingual)
• Continua of Media (linguistic structures,
  orthographic systems, individuals exposures
  to the languages)
• Continua of Content (minority to majority
  perspectives and genres, vernacular to literary
  use, contextualized to decontextualized texts)
• Continua of Development (receptive to productive
  skills, oral to writing, L1 to L2)

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Sociolinguistic Deconstruction of a Native
Speaker

• Expertise in the language e.g. in the heritage
  or dominant language
• Allegiance
• --Inheritance toward the heritage language group
  
• --Affiliation to the dominant language group
• (Rampton, 1995 Wang, 2004)

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Forming Performing Identities Heritage and
Dominant Discourses-in-Contact
Heritage Discourses Inheritance
Identity Dominant Kit Discourses
HYBRID
Variety Affiliation Expertise
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Biliteracy in Use Effects and Benefits of
Learning a Language

• Rethink Language Capacity as Capital Building
• At least three types of capital can be
  deconstructed in language education
• Human/Linguistic Capital
• Cultural Capital (including family educational
  and cultural heritage)
• Social Capital (how we use language culture to
  engage others to achieve our social, economic and
  political goals)

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Questions for a STARTALK Language

• How does the environment of the language field
  look?
• What are historical and present efforts in
  spreading the language in the US?
• What is the status of the language as a heritage
  language in the community and schools?
• What is the status of the language as a
  Foreign/World Language in the educational system?
• How are the language and its speakers and
  culture(s) viewed in the public discourse?

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Lessons Learned

• Take a system approach, connect all sectors
• Enhance teacher development capacity
• Take an incubator approach to build programs and
  infrastructures simultaneously develop and field
  test curricula, materials, assessment, and
  research
• Build high human capital identify and develop
  teams of specialists who know the language,
  understand cultures, SLA, pedagogy, curriculum,
  material, assessment, research, and K-16 contexts
  and heritage communities in the US

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Build an Infrascture of A Learner-Centered
Language Field

• Teachers Teacher Preparation Capacity
• Quantity/Numbers and Quality/Effectiveness
• K-12 public schools Certification Requirements
• Curriculum
• Instructional planning and strategies
• Materials
• Assessment evaluation
• Learner outcomes
• Program evaluation
• Research
• The role of technology
• Program establishment and sustainability

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• A System Approach
• Think about supply, demand, infrastructure
• Create flywheels that convert energy into synergy
  (Wang, 2007)

Heritage Communities
Learners
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National Language Policy Implication Biliteracy
for All
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Rethink Cultured-ness

• Mono-cultural
• Bicultural
• Cross-cultural
• Inter-cultural
• Multi-cultural
• Trans-cultural

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Some References

• Wang, S. C. (2008). The Ecology of the Chinese
  Language in the United States (pp. 169-181). In
  Hornberger, N. H. (Ed., 2nd Ed.), Encyclopedia of
  Language and Education. Germany Springer.
• Asia Society the College Board. (2008). Chinese
  in 2008 An Expanding Field..
• Hornberger, N. H. and Wang, S. C. (2008). Who are
  our Heritage Language Learners? Identity and
  Biliteracy in Heritage Language Education in the
  United States (pp. 3-38). In D. M. Brinton O.
  Kagan (Eds.), Heritage Language Acquisition A
  New Field Emerging. Mahwah, NJ Lawrence
  Erlbaum.
• Wang, S. C. (2007). Building Societal Capital
  Chinese in the United States. In J. Lo Bianco
  (Ed.), The Emergency of Chinese, Language Policy,
  Special Issue, Volume 6, Number 1. Germany
  Springer. 27-52.
• Wang, S. C. (2004). Biliteracy Resource
  Eco-System of Intergenerational Transmission of
  Heritage Language and Culture An Ethnographic
  Study of a Chinese Community in the United
  States. Ph. D. Dissertation. University of
  Pennsylvania.