ERIC Number: EJ1020290
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Oct
Pages: 39
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0261-4448
EISSN: N/A
State-of-the-Art Article: Emergent Bilingual Students in Secondary School--Along the Academic Language and Literacy Continuum
Menken, Kate
Language Teaching, v46 n4 p438-476 Oct 2013
This article offers a critical review of research about emergent bilingual students in secondary school, where the academic demands placed upon them are great, and where instruction typically remains steadfast in its monolingualism. I focus on recent scholarship about the diversity within this student population, and center on "students with interrupted formal education" (SIFE, new arrivals who have no home language literacy skills or are at the beginning stages of literacy learning) and "long-term English language learners" (LTELLs, primarily educated in their receiving country yet still eligible for language support services). Little has been published about these students, making this a significant area of inquiry. Moreover, both groups are characterized by poor performance and together illustrate the characteristics of secondary students at various points along an academic language and literacy continuum. While existing research provides important information to help us improve secondary schooling for emergent bilinguals, it has also perpetuated deficit views of these students by focusing solely on their perceived academic shortcomings. Grounded in a new body of research in applied linguistics that examines the students' complex, creative, and dynamic language and literacy practices, I apply a translanguaging lens to critique the positioning of such students as deficient, with implications for research and practice.
Descriptors: Secondary School Students, Bilingual Students, Bilingualism, Student Diversity, English Language Learners, Language Skills, Code Switching (Language), Translation, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Literature Reviews
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Information Analyses; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Secondary Education; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A