{"id":167813,"date":"2021-01-11T13:33:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T18:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=167813"},"modified":"2021-04-28T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T13:56:11","slug":"uconn-researchers-reimagine-dual-language-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2021\/01\/uconn-researchers-reimagine-dual-language-education\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Researchers to Reimagine Dual Language Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Connecticut has been awarded a $179,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Office of Postsecondary Education<\/a> for a new research project centered on reimagining dual language education. The project\u2019s purpose is to improve the ability of dual language programs to promote the equitable bilingualism and biliteracy development of all students through a greater focus on sociocultural competence.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe research is important now due to equity concerns that are increasingly being raised within the field of dual language education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Associate Professor Elizabeth Howard<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Neag School associate professor Elizabeth Howard<\/a> will serve as principal investigator and project director for the three-year interdisciplinary project, and Manuela Wagner<\/a> from UConn\u2019s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) will serve as co-principal investigator. The research team will also include the Neag School\u2019s Aarti Bellara<\/a>, alumna Elena Sada<\/a> \u201920 Ph.D., now assistant professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, as well as UConn doctoral students Sandra Silva-Enos in the Neag School\u2019s Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Dominique Galvez in CLAS\u2019 Department of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research is important now due to equity concerns that are increasingly being raised within the field of dual language education,\u201d says Howard. \u201cIt seems likely that the lack of attention to sociocultural competence is part of the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sociocultural competence is the ability to communicate in a language appropriately, situationally, and culturally,\u00a0and comprises the knowledge of customs, rules, beliefs, and principles of a given society.<\/p>\n

Criticism of Dual Language Education Programs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dual language education \u2014 an approach that promotes grade-level academic achievement, bilingualism and biliteracy, and sociocultural competence to integrated groups of students through content-language integrated instruction \u2014 is a rapidly growing program model in the U.S. According to current estimates, there are more than 2,000 such programs in place nationwide.<\/p>\n

The reasons for this growth include a mounting body of research on the benefits of bilingualism, awareness of the competitive advantages of multilingualism and sociocultural competence in a global economy, and the demonstrated efficacy of these programs for students from diverse backgrounds. However, the rapid increase of these programs and their embrace by white, affluent, English-speaking parents has led to criticisms of such programs as being elitist, biased toward the interests of the dominant culture, and failing to serve the needs of students of color in general \u2014\u00a0and English learners in particular.<\/p>\n

Critics have called for programs to respond to the cultural needs of minority students and interrogate the power dynamics that may be influencing program design and outcomes. This call aligns with sociocultural competence\u2019s goal, which has been excluded from accountability systems, thus relegating it to a low priority for overburdened educators who are evaluated based on their ability to promote students\u2019 academic achievement.<\/p>\n

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Elizabeth Howard shares remarks at a Dual Language Symposium she co-chaired in 2018. (Frank Zappulla\/Neag School)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSociocultural competence is one of the three core goals of dual language education (along with academic achievement as well as bilingualism and biliteracy development), but it has received the least attention in the field,\u201d says Howard. \u201cThere\u2019s no clear consensus of what it is, no pedagogical recommendations for how to teach to it, and no assessments of it to determine the extent to which students are developing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is problematic, as sociocultural competence is not only important in its own right, but may also be a factor in the equitable attainment of the other two goals of dual language education,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

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Strengthening Dual Language Education<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Through the project, Howard and her fellow researchers seek to strengthen dual language education by:<\/p>\n