Carlos'+Summary+of+findings

Submitted by Carlos

Summary This chapter reviews the research on the influences of sociocultural factors on language minority children’s literacy outcomes in either their first of their second language. How these influences at home or their community are related to those at school. The assumption was that their home culture does not play a positive or a negative role on the children’s academic achievement, what is important is the close relationship of the two (home and school). The research was organized in six sections, using these six questions as a premise: 1 What is the influence of immigration (generation status and immigration circumstances)? 2 What is the influence of differences in discourse and interaction characteristics between children’s homes and classrooms? 3 What is the influence of other sociocultural characteristics of students and teachers? 4 What is the influence of parents and families? 5 What is the influence of policies at the district, state, and federal levels? 6 What is the influence of language status or prestige?

1) What is the influence of immigration (generation status and immigration circumstances)?

The interaction of parents with their children’s school is affected. Parents will be reluctant to be involved in any school activities but, this does not mean that is an obstacle to promote early literacy at home. However, there is no evidence that this was a factor on the impact of literacy outcomes. In another study, refugee status did not influence literacy rate. In the study, students from Southeast Asia scored somewhat lower than other, however, what influenced the literacy outcome was the age child’s age, parents education, and the period of time they been residents of the United States. Immigration does not play a role on the students’ literacy achievement. What does play a role is the home language and literacy opportunities.

2) What is the influence of differences in discourse and interaction characteristics between children’s homes and classrooms?

In a study by Au and Mason, research was performed at the Kamehameha Early Education Project (KEEP) in Hawaii. Here research found that the instructional classroom interaction was compatible with the interaction at home (the interaction patters in Hawaiian children’s native culture) played a role in students high literacy rate. Compared with the United States interactions, where students wait to be called in the classrooms, in Hawaii the students speak freely during their instructional time. The program (KEEP) contributed to higher levels of measured student reading achievement. In another study where Spanish speaking students where the focus, Huerta-Macias and Quintero reported that code switching occurred more during oral language rather than written language. This study just looked at students’ language in the classroom, there was no reported outcomes from home. In a study by Wilkinson, Milosky, and Genishi, they reported that there was a positive correlation between obtaining high reading achievement and a positive response to request made by Spanish speaking students during cooperative student work groups. Kaucer and Silva investigated whether a discourse gap between school and home for language minority students, and in fact the study shows that if the gap gets smaller, students then will feel comfortable because the environment is a familiar one.

3 What is the influence of other sociocultural characteristics of students and teachers?

In this section, noninstructional sociocultural factors were studied. Factors such as family beliefs, learning styles, attitudes, motivation, behaviors, etc. In a study done by Kenner, it was found that bringing literacy materials from home helped promote and attain higher literacy. Student’s familiarity with either textbooks or even test content made a difference in their literacy achievement. Text language has more of an impact on a student’s success than their cultural background. On a separate study, where teachers spoke the same language as the students’ first language, seemed to have a positive impact on the students’ success. Reyes found in his study, that giving the students the opportunity to control what they were going to write in a journal, had a much better impact than giving them a topic to write about. Students wrote longer with more detailed entries. Their topics were mostly about their families and their culture.

4 What is the influence of parents and families?

Parents of language minority students play an important role in their child’s or children’s success at school. Research found that parents have the willingness, and most of the time, they has the ability to help their children at home. Language might be a barrier communicating with the school or their children’s teacher. The school or teacher underestimates the parents’ ability to help achieve higher literacy scores. When students experience literacy at a higher rates at home, their literacy outcomes are higher than when students do not have any literacy experiences at home. Also, home experiences in the first and second language promote a higher literacy rate in both languages. However, when one language is used more than other, it has a negative influence on the language that is being used less.

5 What is the influence of policies at the district, state, and federal levels?

Policies make a language the official language. However, in a study by Shannon, in a counterhegemonic fourth grade class, students were able to write, speak, and read in Spanish. This had a positive effect on the students literacy attainment. They felt that their first language was valued and it helped their learning process. This was a study to examine how such practices might help prevail over the negative consequence of a policy that prevails one language only. On a separate study by Brunell and Linnakyla, in Finland have two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. Here students have high literacy rates because both languages were the official languages. In conclusion, when policies and practices recognize the value of more than one language, lower status language, minimizes the negative effects of language minority students in achieving high literacy levels in the high status language.

6 What is the influence of language status or prestige?

Using the same studies as the previous question, the findings were that having a language with a higher status has a negative impact on literacy achievement. In the United States, Spanish has a lower status than English. We can see the gap in literacy achievement with students that Spanish is their first language. In contrast, when languages enjoy equal status, students’ experiences are different. They have a higher literacy rate because both languages are used in school and at home.