Bilingual Education in California IV

Which line of the table accurately matches a court case or legislation with a description of its effect on bilingual education in California?

• Lau v. Nichols (1974) was a landmark federal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the right of students whose primary language is not English to have equal access to the core curriculum. The court decision stressed that students whose primary language is not English do not gain equal access to the curriculum simply by being supplied with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum as native English speakers. Language programs for students not proficient in English were necessary to provide these students with equal educational opportunities.

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a landmark case that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.

• Plyler v. Doe (1982) was a case in which the Supreme Court struck down a state statute denying funding for education to undocumented immigrant children.

• Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) was a case that struck down a state law restricting foreign-language education.

A bilingual education student who has had six years of previous schooling in his home country has been placed in the fifth grade in a California school. Which of the following effects will the student's previous education most likely have on his English language development?

• Social Skills the student learned in the educational system of his home country will lower his affective filters in the new learning environment and facilitate his acquisition of English.

• The student's primary-language skills will hinder second-language acquisition because they take up cognitive resources the student needs for learning English.

• The linguistic concepts and learning strategies the student has already learned in the educational system of his home country will enhance and support his English language development.

• Divergent educational approaches between the two educational systems will require that the student undergo an extended period of school orientation before beginning to study English.

Which of the following best describes the primary advantage of creating culturally relevant content lessons within a bilingual education setting?

• Students will be more likely to pay attention in class and to complete their assignments on time.

• Students will be more likely to grasp new concepts that are grounded in their day-to-day life experiences.

• Students will be more likely to transfer linguistic knowledge from their primary language to the target language.

• Students will be more likely to explore classroom topics further at home or in the community.

The family of a bilingual education student is almost entirely monolingual, using the primary language for most everyday communication. During a conversation with the student's teacher, family members express concern that their limited proficiency in the target language is hindering their child's development in that language and ask for suggestions for ways in which they can help their child learn the target language. The teacher could best respond to the family members by encouraging them to:

• use the primary language as much as possible when interacting with the child, as that will help the child's overall language development.

• have the child serve as a translator for family members, as that will help the child learn the major differences between the two languages.

• ask the child to tutor family members in the target language, as that will help reinforce the child's understanding of the language.

• enroll the child in additional language classes outside of school to improve proficiency.

An elementary school bilingual education teacher coordinates a monthly reading group with the other bilingual education teachers at the school to discuss current research and methodology for bilingual education. This activity shows that the teacher is aware of the importance of:

• preparing teachers at the school to conduct their own research on new ideas for bilingual education.

• reflecting actively on teaching practices and considering a variety of viewpoints when planning bilingual education instruction.

• identifying problematic areas of bilingual education at the school that need to be addressed by all teachers.

• implementing the newest techniques and strategies for bilingual education at their schools.

Which of the following small-group activities would best help bilingual education students synthesize the information they gain through reading a passage in their primary language?

• Writing a summary of the passage in their primary language.

• Discussing the passage in their primary language.

• Translating the passage into the target language.

• Creating a visual representation of the passage's main ideas.

Which activity helps students demonstrate their comprehension of content-area materials and identify connections among various main concepts?

• Talking about their expectations of what they will find out in the passage before they begin reading.

• Highlighting any unfamiliar vocabulary and expressions they find in the passage and discussing their possible meanings.

• Answering a series of questions about the information that was presented in the passage.

• Creating graphic organizers showing the connections between different ideas they encountered in the passage.

How does using language in a meaningful and purposeful manner benefit students in a bilingual education class?

• Allowing them to compare their target-language abilities with the abilities of other students.

• Providing them with an opportunity to practice communicating in different language registers.

• Giving them a chance to use the language in a meaningful and purposeful manner.

• Helping them use technological tools such as spell-checking software to verify their language usage.

During a unit on electricity, a bilingual education teacher asks students to discuss types of electronic equipment they use at home or have seen used in the community. This activity is most likely to promote students' learning by:

• helping them understand the relationship between culture and language.

• focusing their attention on learning new vocabulary words used by their classmates.

• raising their awareness of the differences and similarities between their various home cultures.

• helping them create connections between previous knowledge and experiences and new content.

Which of the following statements best describes an advantage of using observational assessment in a bilingual education setting?

• Teachers can devote time to focusing on students' language skill development during the school year.

• Students rely less on formal primary- and target- language interactions with the teacher.

• Teachers can track development of students' primary and target languages in varying contexts.