Discussions will be of three types: traditional lectures, interactional lectures, and group presentations by students. Choice of presentation topics will be determined during class discussions and meetings with John Baugh. Students will work on two main topics, being largely responsible for gathering information from various sources in order to more fully describe one or more of the six categories that are outlined in the course description. All other matters pertaining to this course will be discussed more fully during class meetings.
What follows are core readings that all students should read, however, there is a wealth of additional material that is not formally assigned below, but which will prove extremely valuable to your study of the legal, linguistic, and policy implications of educational practices in California and throughout the nation.
Course Schedule and Readings: (Some readings are available on line through "hot-links" identified below)
January 10 : Introduction: We will review course requirements and student objectives. Students will begin to discuss topics pertaining to language and education that are of greatest personal interest. This information will allow us to formulate strategic plans for the review and evaluation of alternative sources of data that pertain to the politics of language education in California and elsewhere. This introductory lecture will include an overview of the major issues and controversies. Students should begin considering topics for presentations prior to February in support of class assignments.
January 17: Civil Rights Law and the Education of Language Minority and African American students
FINAL LOGISTICS FOR INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP PRESENTATIONS
We begin with brief discussion of how our laws are made, and how those laws regard language minority populations and African Americans. Brown v. Board of Education and its progeny, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII of the ESEA (1968), Lau V Nichols (1974) and 20 USC Section 1703 (f) will be reviewed. Failure of the desegregation strategy results in other approaches to assist African American students including educational malpractice (Peter W), and the King (Ann Arbor) case.
Readings: in Latinos and Education
Chapter 1. Mario Barrera: "A Theory of Racial Inequality."
Chapter 13. Donaldo Macedo: "English Only: The Tonuge-tying of America
Chapter 14. John Attinasi: "Racism, Language variety, and Urban Minorities: Issues in Bilingualism and Bidialectalism."
January 24: Languages vs. Dialects: Educational practice and language policies in linguistic perspective.
A portion of this class meeting will be devoted to logistics. Individual and/or group assignments will be allocated. If possible, we may meet with Cubberley Librarians who can discuss some of the various resources that are available for investigating alternative topics.
Several controversies in the courts and in schools require clear definitions of different languages and dialects spoken by children attending American schools, as the previous readings confirm. Linguists have classified languages and dialects in different ways, thereby creating special problems for language policies in the schools and courts. This lecture reviews some basic linguistic concepts as they pertain to conflicts and contradictions that surround recent controversies over bilingual education and Ebonics
Readings: Beyond Ebonics (John Baugh), Foreword, Preface, and pp 1- 72
Growing up Bilingual (Ana Celia Zentella) Chapter 1 "Hablamos los dos. We speak both:" Studying BIlingualism in the Community Context." pp. 1-16
Chapter 2. The Community: el bloque pp. 17-40.
Chapter 3. The Bilingual/Multidialectal Repertoire of el bloque. pp. 41-55.
Chapter 4. Bilingualis en casa. pp. 56-79
Chapter 5. The Hows and Whys of "Spanglish." pp. 80-114
January 31: Linguistic Intelligence and Language Attitudes in Schools and Society
ABSTRACTS ARE DUE JANUARY 31: send by email as noted on syllabus
Linguistic stereotypes regarding many immigrants and minority populations have spawned false impressions regarding the intelligence of students (and others) who lack standard English proficiency. Several popular articles have appeared regarding the role of English locally and globally, as well as studies exploring Black intelligence. This lecture reviews a broad range of interdisciplinary studies that share relevance to "linguistic intelligence" as well as how such intelligence in perceived. Students will be encouraged to discuss personal linguistic experiences as they pertain to language (or dialect) attitudes.
Readings:
Ana Celia Zentella: Growing up Bilingual.
Chapter 6: The Grammar of "Spanglish." pp. 115-136
Chapter 7. Life and Language in Young Adulthood. pp. 137-159
Chapter 8. Isabel: A Special Case. pp. 160 -178
William Labov: Academic Ignorance and Black Intelligence
Claude Steele: Race and the Schooling of Black Americans
February 7 John Baugh: Efforts to direct bidialectal and bilingual education and related implications regarding "school choice."
California recently witnessed two major linguistic controversies regarding Ebonics and Proposition 227. Both controversies will be reviewed in this discussion, including a combination of legal and policy considerations.
Readings: Beyond Ebonics (John Baugh), pp. 73-116.
Robert D. King. Should English be law?
Howard Gardner: Who owns Intelligence?
Barbara Wallraff: What Global Language?
February 14: Civil Rights Law and the Education of Language Minority and African American students
ANNOTATED REVIEWS ARE DUE FEBRUARY 14. PLEASE SUBMIT ELECTRONICALLY TO THE ENTIRE CLASS.
This discussion will discuss the present and future by exploring additional newer approaches: Standards based reform, assessment and its impact on our students will be explored.
Readings:
Latinos in Education. Antonia Darder. "Creating the Conditions for Cultural Democracy in the Classroom." pp. 331-350.
Latinos in Education. Eugene E. Garcia. "Effective Instruction for Language Minority Students: The Teacher." pp. 362-372.
Sekhon, N. A birthright rearticulated: The politics of bilingual education. NYU Law Review, 74:1407
High Stakes Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation. Jay P. Heubert and Robert M. Hauser, Editors. National Research Council, 1999. Chapter 9, English Language Learners
February 21: Integrated discussion of linguistic profiling and language bias in the courts and society: Additional implications for the future.
Readings:
Michael Erard: Language Matters
http://www.legalaffairs.org/july_august2002/july_august2002_stories04.html
Erard's article provides an overview of linguistic profiling
Current research in law, linguistics, and education that relate to linguistic profiling in association with racial profiling will be explored in connection with experimental and legal evidence from work in progress.
Additional readings will be suggested and/or provided in support of this discussion.
February 28: Student presentations
March 7: Student presentations
March 14: Student presentations: