Jennifer M. Worden Harvard Graduate School of Education February 11, 2011

Agenda for today  What we think we know  The U.S. Case Doubly Damned (neuromyths) Problems of Definition & Identity  MBE, Policy, and the big question

Scaffolding, and the Transfer of Knowledge across Generations

The Social Construction of Mind Vygotsky ( ) Social Learning Theory We are essentially social beings Tomasello (1999) builds on this tradition, including connecting biology and culture.

Language as a cultural tool Infant Family Community Country World Bi- or Multilingualism is now the norm for large percentages of the global population, with estimates that as much as 2/3 of the world population speak at least two languages (Baker, 2006).

Kovelman, I., Baker, S.A., and Pettito, L.A. (2008). Bilingual and Monolingual Brains Compared: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Investigation of Syntactic Processing and a Possible “Neural Signature” of Bilingualism. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 20(1): 153–169.

What we think we know about Bilinguals/Multilinguals  Overall, meta-cognitive skills and meta-linguistic abilities tend to be more complex in bilinguals (Bialystok, 1988; Bialystok, 2001; Cromdal, 1999; Kotz, 2001;Ransdell, 2006 ).  Bilinguals are able to draw on greater meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive resources to transfer skills to other areas, in particular literacy.  These and other advantages appear to transfer beyond linguistic competence to other cognitive areas such as attention and memory (Bialystok, et al.,2009).  There is some evidence that the process of learning a second or third language increases and extends neuro- plasticity, allowing for increased cognitive flexibility and memory retention that extends across domains ( Kovelman, et al., 2007, 2008; MacSwan & Rolstad, 2005; Mechelli, et al., 2004; Moreno, et al., 2008; Rodriguez-Fornells, et al., 2002 ).

The Flip Side  There do appear to be some disadvantages to bilingualism, most notably in terms of vocabulary development (Bialystok, et al., 2009).  What happens outside of the laboratory? In schools and families Influences on identity and cultural competence Citizenship and civic participation

Shift and Maintenance  Studies seem to indicate that once language shift has begun, it is incredibly hard to reverse (e.g., Fishman, 2001)  In the U.S., historically and currently, we expect to see shift from the mother tongue to English as the preferred/dominant language with formal schooling (Bayley, et al, 1996) and total loss of productive abilities in the mother tongue in the 2 nd generation (Portes & Hao, 1998)***

The U.S. Case

Doubly Damned  Neuromyth One: Critical periods What does this mean for what “we” expect ELLs to be able to do in school?  Neuromyth Two: Cognitive Load Limits How does this affect overall attitudes towards bilingual language development?

Definitions Matter  Confound between ELL & Bilinguals Education SES Prior linguistic experience