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Education Commons

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Western Michigan University

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

Series

2018

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Education

Forms Of Bilingualism And Play Across Linguistic Boundaries In Dual Language Classrooms, Kristina Wirtz Apr 2018

Forms Of Bilingualism And Play Across Linguistic Boundaries In Dual Language Classrooms, Kristina Wirtz

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

This ethnographic study has followed a cohort of students from K through 3rd grade to examine the practices and attitudes of bilingual and “emergent” bilingual learners in a Michigan dual-language immersion elementary school. In our society, American-accented English predominates and has greater prestige over Spanish or Spanish-English bilingualism — a situation that sociolinguists describe as “diglossia.” The school’s mission is to develop balanced bilingualism (idealized as dual monolingualism) and to instill pride in Spanish language and Hispanic culture. And yet, bilingual speakers in the school often share a “code-switching” or “interlanguaging” norm rather than two monolingual norms. It is these …


The School Connection Program: Strengths, Challenges, And Next Steps, Luchara Wallace Apr 2018

The School Connection Program: Strengths, Challenges, And Next Steps, Luchara Wallace

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

The School Connection Program originally began as a WMU-initiated, community engaged effort to develop and implement an off-site alternative to school suspension for high-need Middle School students in southwestern Michigan county. The original purpose of the program was (a) to provide an off-site location for academic, social, and emotional supports to students separated from their K-12 school setting due to suspension and (b) to ensure that when the student returns to school, they are returning with tools that will help them stay better connected to school and less likely to be suspended again while addressing academic deficits in the areas …