Joinfostering Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms

Preface This book was written with three audiences in mind: (1) education majors who are in the process of becoming classroom teachers, (2) established teachers who are interested in changing the way they teach to accommodate students who are adding English to their already-developed native language(s), and (3) teachers in dual-language bilingual education programs. As the number of students learning English as a second language grows substantially, regular classroom teachers must become better prepared to help these students join in all aspects of classroom and school life. Moreover, as bilingual education expands to include English-speaking children along with children who are learning English, there is a need for improving ways to invite children from both language groups into academic discourse. IDENTIFYING THE NEED FOR JOINFOSTERING It is important to understand that exemplary teaching in a multilingual classroom differs in significant ways from exemplary teaching in a classroom in which all students are native speakers of the same language. When students are learning thelanguageof instruction in addition to thecontentof instruction, teaching them as if they were native speakers is ineffective and unacceptable. Teachers must learn to adapt teaching to ensure that these students have access to and participate in all aspects of classroom learning. Anything less means that we are denying these students the benefits of classroom learning experiences. My experience working and teaching in bilingual and second-language education spans two decades, and I remain a strong advocate of native-language teaching in bilingual education. Over the years, however, I have come to realize that, in placing all of my energies into studying and improving bilingual education, I have effectively ignored what happens to bilingually schooled children once they are placed in all-English classrooms. Virtually all children who enter a native-language bilingual education program stay there, on average, no more than two years, and most of these children receive very little ESL instruction once they are exited from the bilingual program. This means that two-thirds to three-fourths of their schooling will be in all-English classrooms with all-English teachers who have little or no idea about how to help these children join in all aspects of teaching and learning! This is a social injustice. Joinfostering works to reverse this injustice. This book is a direct response to the critical need for teacher education in the 21st century. It is not, however, a cookbook of teaching behaviors for teaching second-language learners. Joinfostering stems from a strong stance about what good teaching and learning are, a stance that is informed by research and theory and propelled by the belief that all children are capable of learning in academic settings. In the joinfostering framework, teachers are responsible for finding the means to plan and implement the principles that will facilitate learning for the broadest range of students' abilities, needs, and interests. There are too many instances in school in which second-language learners are segregated from their native-English counterparts and placed into lower-level tracks; where second-language learners are denied access to field trips, after-school events, and music lessons because of their language differences. There are too many stories about non-English-background parents not knowing what is going on in their child's classroom; about not knowing how to help their child at home; about not being included in school-related events. Joinfostering addresses these injustices by presenting ways for teachers to change the existing social organization of their classrooms. Joinfostering improves teaching and learning for all students by more effectively including parents and significant adults in educational decisions that affect their children, regardless of their lFaltis, Christian J. is the author of 'Joinfostering Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms', published 2000 under ISBN 9780130179135 and ISBN 0130179132.