Affirming biliteracy
- Bilingual students perform well in additive bilingual contexts, where their bilingual skills are recognised, valued, and (where possible) used meaningfully within the instructional programme in class.
- Biliteracy – the ability to read and write well in two languages – is most easily affirmed in additive bilingual contexts. It is important to the academic success of bilingual students.
- Even in mainstream contexts, teachers can employ a range of attested practices that promote bilingualism and biliteracy among Pasifika (and other bilingual) students.
- These practices include:
- the use of bilingual dictionaries
- providing Pasifika (and other) language resources in class
- providing opportunities for students to discuss their work in Pasifika languages during group work
- encouraging writing in a Pasifika language as well as in English
How to affirm biliteracy
Bilingual students perform well academically when they learn in an additive bilingual context. (See the inquiries Attitudes to bilingualism , Is bilingualism an advantage? , and Are languages linked? , and the video clip Bilingualism . The long-term educational success of Pasifika bilingual students is more likely when teachers and others affirm their biliteracy in English and their Pasifika language.
Jim Cummins argues:
In programs in which minority students’ first-language skills are strongly reinforced, the students tend to be more successful … Educators who see their role as adding a second language and cultural affiliation to students’ repertoires are likely to empower them more than those who see their role as replacing or subtracting students’ primary language and culture in the process of fostering their assimilation into the dominant culture.
(
ERIC Digest
, 1991.)
How can additive bilingual contexts , which affirm biliteracy among Pasifika students, be developed in mainstream schools?
A key place to begin affirming biliteracy is in the wider school environment. Many schools already do a lot to acknowledge and embrace Pasifika languages and cultures – for example, they may make extensive use of Pasifika languages for signs, newsletters, and so on, or provide books and other resources written in the various Pasifika languages. This is a crucial first step, particularly for schools with a high Pasifika student population. However, it is not enough. The wider challenge, particularly for teachers in mainstream contexts, is to find ways to incorporate Pasifika languages and cultures meaningfully into the instructional programme of their classrooms. This process is particularly challenging for the many New Zealand teachers who do not know or speak a Pasifika language. What can they do?
Activities and approaches teachers can use
Mainstream teachers and schools can provide opportunities for Pasifika students to work in their L1 in a number of different ways. Here are some specific examples of activities that any teacher can use with Pasifika students in a mainstream classroom. (See also the inquiry Affirming Pasifika languages in the mainstream .)
- Encourage your students to draw on concepts and explore and discuss their ideas in their first language by:
- promoting the use of bilingual dictionaries
- encouraging the students to make their own bilingual dictionaries and to build their vocabulary
- providing other resources in Pasifika students’ L1, such as printed and electronic materials. Print resources that are readily available from the Ministry of Education include the Tupu series in five Pasifika languages (at a range of early childhood and school levels), the Folauga series in Sāmoan (for primary schools), and the Folauga Ua Loa series in Sāmoan (for secondary schools). The Tupu and Folauga Ua Loa books have associated teachers’ notes
- drawing on other resources, including people who know Pasifika languages (for example, you could invite parents or caregivers to participate in class activities)
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providing group-based discussion in the students’ L1 as a basis for addressing curriculum content. (This process is discussed further in the inquiry A caring and inclusive classroom environment and is illustrated in the video clip Two languages at school .)
Elaine Lameta-Tufuga (1994) found that secondary school students who were able to use Sāmoan to discuss their curriculum content performed better in the English-language assessments of that content than the Sāmoan students who had discussed it only in English.
Reporting on her study of bilingual learners, Saville-Troike (1984) writes: “Most of the children who achieved best in content areas, as measured by tests in English, were those who had the opportunity to discuss the concepts they were learning in their native language with other children and adults” (page 216).
- Help your bilingual students to develop knowledge about their two languages and the relationships between them. (This is described in the inquiry Is bilingualism an advantage? as metalinguistic awareness; see also the video clip Metalinguistic awareness .) For example, you could encourage the students to choose particular languages for particular activities.
- Encourage the students to write in their L1, especially in the early stages of learning English. Teachers often feel worried about giving students the opportunity to write in their first language. However, in view of the key principle of language interdependence (discussed in Are languages linked? ), there is no need for concern. We know that it is helpful to provide support for aspects of writing – for example, helping students to plan and brainstorm reduces some of the cognitive load when they subsequently come to write their text. This is also true of giving students the opportunity to brainstorm, plan, or even draft a text in their L1. (See the inquiry Learning the language of education .)
Teachers can use any or all of these activities in their mainstream classrooms to foster an additive bilingual context and to develop Pasifika students’ biliteracy. The research shows clearly that affirming both additive bilingualism and biliteracy will lead to better educational outcomes for Pasifika students.
