Language and the Mind Prof. R. Hickey SoSe 2006

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Language and the MindProf. R. HickeySoSe 2006

• Natural Bilingualism
• Deborah Hengst GS LN
• Sebastian Krieg GS TN
• Juliane Schodrok HS LN

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Deborah 1. Introduction to Bilingualism
Education 2. Aspects of
Bilingual Education in the
United StatesJuliane 1. Educational Policies
for Guest Worker Immigrant
Children in GermanySebastian 1. Consequences
of Assessment Procedures
of Bilingual Children 2. Political
Ideology and Bilingual Education
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Introduction to Bilingualism and
Education Aspects of Bilingual Education in the
United States by Deborah Hengst
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Hornberger and Skuttnabb-Kangas Hornberger
(1991) recognizes 3 models -        
transitional-         maintenance-        
enrichment Skuttnabb- Kangas (1984)
variables and consequences involved in
types -         immersion-        
submersion- maintenance
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Introduction to Bilingualism and
Education  -         In general There are
many different ways and contexts in which
children become bilingual and there are many
different outcomes-         bilingualism and
education deals with bilingualism as a positive
or negative force-         by no means a modern
phenomenon
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A number of hypotheses about influences on
childrens achievement in school, e.g 1
bilingualism itself2 lack of exposure to the
school language3 linguistic mismatch between
home and school4 cultural mismatch 5 inferior
quality of education provided to minority
students6 factors associated with
socio-economic status7 disrupted patterns of
intergenerational cultural transmission as a
result of minority/majority status relations
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Bilingualism and school education School-     
    powerful role-         social
control-         endorses mainstream/
middle-class values-         conflict
working-class children/ children belonging to an
ethnic minority-         violence in
school children entailed removing them from
parents and cultural group
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Example 1 Physical aspects 9-year-old school
girl in Papua New Guinea  Hits them. Hell
hit them. Hell scold them for speaking pidgin.
If they speak pidgin, the headmaster will get
angry and hit them and write their names ?down on
a list?. Hell punish them.  Example 2
Psychological aspects Teaching Kurdish children
in Turkish. Skuttnabb-Kangas reports  ...
separation of minority children from their own
group has become institutionalised. The children
are not taught enough of their own language and
culture to be able to appreciate it. They are
made to feel ashamed of their parents and origin.
Although it is not usually done by physical
punishment or by telling children that their
parents are primitive and uncivilized, the school
is organized in such a way so as to convey the
same message.
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Typologies -         there are many typologies
of bilingual education-         same terms ?
different types-         different terms ? same
types-         transitional also refers to
compensatory or assimilation bilingualism-      
   educational models defined in terms of their
goals with respect to language, culture and
society program types defined in terms of their
characteristics relating to student
population,teachers and program structure
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Hornberger and Skuttnabb-Kangas Hornberger
(1991) recognizes 3 models -        
transitional-         maintenance-        
enrichment Skuttnabb- Kangas (1984)
variables and consequences involved in
types -         immersion-        
submersion- maintenance
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aim ? programenrichment ? immersion assim
ilation ? submersion ? less direct and
extreme assimilation ? transitional
bilingualism
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Aspects of Bilingual Education in the United
States
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The Bilingual Education Act Aim to provide
instruction in mother tongue ? to allow children
to proceed into mainstream classes ?
subtractive bilingualism Basis Civil Rights
Act of 1964  No person in the United States
shall, o the ground of race, colour, or national
origin, be excluded from participation in, be
denied the benefits of, or be subject to
discrimination under any program or activity
receiving Federal financial assistance.
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Americans belief Bilingualism learned
achievement stigma of recent
immigration bilingual education
ethnicity poverty compensatory
educationWhereasForeign language instruction
valuable ? economically and
culturally(worlds major languages)
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Conclusion United States no intention of
giving wider recognition to the students
minority languages  Although many experts
such as Padilla (1990) demand Bilingual
education as a strategy for all students
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Educational Policies for Guest Worker
Immigrant Children in Germanyby Juliane
Schodrok
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During the 1960s 1970s a new wave of
immigrants entered many of the western Europe
countries to serve as guest workers-
Foreigners account for instance 2 of the
population in Denmark, while 7 in Germany-
Economic expansions began to decline in the
1970s- As unemployment rates began to rise in
the European countries, people began to argue
that guest workers should be sent home
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Guest working may also disrupts family life (
man emigrates first )- In some cases work
permits were only given to unmarried men
without children- They are often untrained and
unable demanding their rights ? menial kinds of
labour- Different countries have different
policies regarding the legal status of guest
workers immigrants
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Some states have committed themselves taking
certain measures to care for the educational
needs of ethnic minority migrant children
( vary from country to country )- Tove
Skutnabb-Kangas ( a linguist from Helsinki )
makes a distinction between guest worker
immigrant
? guest workers have no
legal right to remain in the host
country, while immigrants do
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In the case of guest workers, some sending
countries may extend aspects of their legal
educational system to the host country (
Turkish police extremist organizations are
allowed to operate in Germany )- In
Germany there are 6 differen types of classes in
which guest workers children receive their
education
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1.Ordinary German classes with minimal
or no consideration 2.Special
classes for guest workers children only -
Follows the German Curriculum - Children are
segregated from German speaking
kids3.International preparatory schools -
Intensive training in German as a second
language - Transitional because children are
expected to be intergrated into the ordinary
German classes
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4.Another type of transitional program provides
instruction in the native language for
several years German as a second language

? 5.Some of these lead to compulsory
transfer to ordinary German classes after
grade 6
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6.Mother tongue classes which
follows the Curriculum of the home countries
are organized by them - Segregationist
model does not aim at bilingualism -
Maintenace of the native language culture -
From the perspective of the childs chances
of returning to the home country
reintergrating ? only the last option is a
resonable one
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Bilingualism and education

• by Sebastian Krieg

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Some consequences of Assessment procedures of
bilingual children
- unacknowledged relationship between
bilingualism and special education - Cummins
(1984) discussed why a large number of minority
language children have been placed into special
education classes. - He blames the misguided use
of psychological assessment tests for presenting
ethnic minority children in mentally retarded
classes. - educators poorly understand
intelligence, learning disability, language
proficiency and bilingualism
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Some consequences of Assessment procedures of
bilingual children
-This refers to a low verbal IQ, which many
children of ethnic minorities have. The result of
a low verbal IQ is that these children are
classified as mentally deficient. Cummins draws a
conclusion that a low verbal IQ reflects
inadequacy abilities to speak proper English. -
These tests are in English, so that no valid
assessment can be made about minority children. -
Cummins says that there is tom much credence
attached to these results. Research has proven
that tests which focus on knowledge which
minority children have, are likely good as test
of majority children.
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Some consequences of Assessment procedures of
bilingual children
-IQ tests are constructed to exclude all cultural
ways of gaining intelligence. -Intelligence is
learned through specific cultural ways in the
particular language. So it is impossible to
generate a test of intelligence which is not
bound to the cultural and social context. -
Cummins mentions that teachers tend to have
negative expectations of minority children. - He
also states that there large achievement
differences between different minorities. These
differences often tend to be ignored.
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Some consequences of Assessment procedures of
bilingual children

• - Cummings claims that bilingualism is the
  scapegoat to legitimize discriminatory
  educational practices.
• - The identification of cultural differences
  depends on ethnographic observation in the
  community.
• - The negative attitudes of the majority towards
  the minority may result in low self-esteem. Their
  worldview is projected onto the view of the
  minority. This would extend the power of the
  majority.

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Some consequences of Assessment procedures of
bilingual children

• - Patterns of bilingualism cannot be regarded as
  the cause of failure since the are determined by
  social and educational factors.

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Political Ideology and Bilingual Education

• - Political and sociological idealogy is an
  important mediatorial feature in issues between
  bilingualism and bilingual education.
• - Fishman (1992) says that if transsitional
  education helps in the acqusition of the majority
  language, then it will soon be phased out and all
  instruction will soon be in the majority
  language.

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Political Ideology and Bilingual Education

• - He continues to state that if transitional
  bilingual education produces unsatisfactory
  results, it will be blamed and ist recipients
  threaten it for not solving the problems that the
  mainstream is largely responsible for.
• - People tend to react quite shocked and
  astonished when transitional or any kind of
  bilingual education does not lead to maintenance.

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Political Ideology and Bilingual Education

• - Bilingual education needs to be established as
  a strategy for all students and not as a special
  program für disadvantaged minorities.
• - Only a few educational systems are usiing the
  childs bilingualism as a begining to genreate a
  resource across the school curriculum.

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Political Ideology and Bilingual Education

• - Edwards (1981) states that schools end to
  reflect society. He concludes that if bilingual
  programs can be recognized as a response to the
  appeals from the minor groups, which are a part
  of the attempt to define themselves with the new
  context, which means the new language.

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Political Ideology and Bilingual Education

• Conclusion Bilingualism, education and society
  are strongly interweaved. Bilingualism always
  develops in a particular social context. Every
  society has their own goal on context to invole
  bilingual children from minor social classes. It
  is nearly impossible to create a perfect type of
  skill-school because there are to many factors
  to consider.

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Thank you for your attention