Biographical Statement
I have had an interest in immersion education as both a student and an educator for the past several years. The masters in teaching program that I attended in California strongly emphasized ESL instruction and bilingual education. I have taught in five language immersion settings in my career: in Japan, Bali, San Francisco, Mexico City, and now New Orleans. I have also studied six languages, so I have a personal interest in second language acquisition, and have found this to be one of my main focuses as both an educator and a researcher.
Traveling, living, and working in other parts of the world have led me to have a sense of empathy for the challenges of learning a new language in a new country. Consequently, I feel a connection to the EL students that I have taught in the U. S., and I believe that with the right accommodations, these students can be both successful and bilingual members of our society. I too often have seen these students falling through the cracks of our education system, when it seems apparent that there are ways that their learning experiences could be far more productive. I also believe that these students need more advocates for their learning; advocates who speak
the language of power in our country, and know how to navigate the educational system. Last, through reading the recent literature on immersion education, there appears to be a gap in the research conducted on these students in particular. For this reason, I am interested in learning more about their experiences, which hopefully will further contribute to research, and to education as a whole.
The Setting
Description of the Setting
Greenwood High, the immersion site in which I conducted my research, is a new public high school that was in its first year of existence during the period of data collection. During this year, Greenwood belonged to a local school district. This high school, however, had applied for and received a Type 2 charter, meaning that its second year would be as a charter school that reports directly to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). During the first year, the school was governed by an advisory board, which has for the most part continued as the governing body, as Greenwood transitioned into becoming a public charter school. Greenwood began with a group of approximately 110 9th grade students, and will increase in size each year with an additional class, until reaching its full capacity of approximately 600 9th through 12th graders in 2012. The school plans on giving students a choice between two alternative programs, or either the International Baccalaureate or the International Business program.
Greenwood is unique in that in its first year it had both a French and a Spanish-speaking cohort of students. Additionally, the school has a larger group of students who are in English- only classes, and are taking French or Spanish as an elective. There are several French and
Spanish Kindergarten through 8th grade immersion programs in the New Orleans area;
Greenwood High was originally created to offer these schools’ graduating classes a continuation of their immersion education. When Greenwood opened, however, there were not enough graduating immersion 8th graders who chose to attend this high school. Consequently, Greenwood had space for students who had never taken a foreign language before.
The French immersion strand had three students in the first year, although the school’s founders had hoped that this group would grow in size in the upcoming years, as more French immersion elementary schools graduate proficient French speakers. The Spanish immersion strand was larger in size, as it began the year with 14 Spanish immersion students, and ended with 10. Four of the original students were English native speakers who spoke Spanish proficiently, having recently graduated from Glover, the only Spanish immersion elementary school in the area. There were also three other Spanish native speakers in this cohort who had recently graduated from Glover. The rest of the cohort was made up of Spanish native speakers, many of whom had graduated from a local English-only school that serves a large Latino
population. Most of these students spoke Spanish as their home language; for many of them, however, this year was their first experience in an academic Spanish environment.
During the first year, the school’s administration had intended for the immersion students to spend 50% of the day immersed in their target language of either Spanish or French, which is the minimum amount of time recommended for middle and high school immersion programs. The program fell short of this goal for several reasons. To begin, there were four 100-minute core classes a day; two were to be taught in the target language, while the other two were in English. There was a fifth class, however, or a 50-minute advisory period. The administration had originally hoped to have the advisory conducted in Spanish, but this course ended up being
taught in English. For this reason, the Spanish cohort received 44% of their instruction in Spanish.
Additionally, the French cohort of three received less instructional time in their target language. In the fall semester, they did take two core classes in French, allowing 44% of their instructional time to be in the target language. In the spring, however, it became a challenge to continue with this 1:3 student to teacher ratio for 200 minutes of the day. The French teacher instead taught an additional section of English World Geography, meaning that the French immersion students had only 100 minutes of French a day, or 22% of their instructional time.
During this first year, there were two main immersion teachers at Greenwood. The French immersion teacher was Haitian, and the Spanish immersion teacher was Panamanian. Additionally, an English native speaking teacher who is proficient in Spanish taught one of the immersion courses during the spring semester. The rest of the staff taught in English only and were English native speakers. Of these English teachers, several were proficient in other languages, including French, Spanish, and German; additionally the principal was formerly a French teacher. Although the majority of the day at Greenwood took place in English, there was in general a sense of respect for bilingualism amongst the staff. Most of the non-immersion students, however, were coming from English-speaking homes and were not accustomed to being in a multilingual setting.
Additionally, a certified, experienced ESOL teacher taught 12 of the Spanish native speakers during a daily, 100-minute ESOL class that lasted the entire school year. Of these 12 students, some were also in the Spanish immersion class, while others were taking mainstream English classes during the rest of their day. The biggest challenge for this ESOL teacher was in accommodating the wide gamut of English proficiencies in her class, which was made up of
three distinct groups, ranging from emergent English speakers to students who were rapidly approaching academic English proficiency.
Evolution of the Setting
Greenwood was originally intended to be a one-way foreign language immersion
program, meaning that it was designed for English native speakers to learn to speak either French or Spanish. As previously mentioned, Greenwood was created as an immersion high school that would allow local elementary students the opportunity to continue their education immersed in a second language. Many of these students, however, had chosen not to attend Greenwood for a variety of reasons. As the school was unable to begin its first year with a substantial population of foreign language immersion students, heavy recruitment additionally took place within the local heritage language population. This large population of English learners greatly altered the original plan for the immersion program, in that these students were approaching the school from the opposite direction; they were Spanish native speakers, who needed to learn to speak English, as well as to develop their academic Spanish.
An additional change took place in the direction of the program midway through the first year, when three of the four foreign language immersion students chose to drop out of the Spanish immersion program, leaving behind only one English native speaker in a cohort of ten. For all of these above-mentioned reasons, the immersion program rapidly evolved over the year from what was originally intended to be a foreign language immersion program, to what
essentially became a heritage language program. At the time of data collection and analysis, the school remained uncertain as to what it would become in the future, as the majority of Glover’s 8th grade foreign language immersion students were not planning on attending Greenwood in the upcoming school year.
With this drastic change, a unique situation has been created within this Spanish
immersion program, in that it has the potential of becoming a two-way immersion program if the school is able to recruit more English native speakers. With this two-way status, however, comes an additional set of challenges, as the academic and social language needs would differ greatly within such a wide range of students. There has been little discussion to date, however, as to whether the Spanish program will be a one-way foreign language program, a heritage language program, or a two-way immersion program. Additionally, there was a complete turn over of the school’s administration and staff between the first and second school year. Presently, the new administration has greatly altered the make-up and existence of the school’s immersion program. It remains to be seen what will take place within this immersion program in the years to come.
The Participants
Sampling Procedures
To learn more about the experience of the Spanish native speakers at Greenwood, I chose to observe and interview both the students and their teachers. I used purposeful sampling to select the participants, and my inclusion and exclusion criteria were based on choosing participants who could best provide a holistic picture of the phenomenon being studied. I observed and interviewed a sample totaling 22 participants, made up of 17 students and five teachers.
The student population at this site was small, and the number of students that fit my criteria was even smaller. For this reason, I was limited in my sampling of student participants.
I chose to observe and interview the 12 students within the school who fit the following criteria: they were Spanish native speakers who were in the ESOL class during the spring semester. Of this group of 12, five of the students also took Spanish immersion classes during the spring.
Additionally, I chose to observe and interview five other students who did not take the ESOL class, but were included in one or more of the Spanish immersion classes. Four of these five students were Spanish native speakers. The fifth student was the last remaining English native speaker in the immersion classes, after the other three ENSs chose to drop out of the program mid-year. Due to these limitations in sampling procedures, I do not assume that my research allows me to generalize from this group of 17 students to a larger population of all Spanish native speakers in all immersion programs. Instead, I formed this group with the assumption that my research findings would shed light on this particular phenomenon in this specific school setting.
I also chose to observe and interview a small group of teacher participants, so as to provide a greater understanding of the experiences of these Spanish native speakers. The staff at the site was also small, with only nine teachers at Greenwood High during the first year. I purposefully excluded four of these teachers from my sample because they taught few of the student participants during the fall and spring semesters. I included five of the nine teachers because they had significant contact with the student participants throughout the instructional day. These five teachers instructed the student sample in Spanish immersion Biology, Spanish immersion Literature, English to speakers of other languages (ESOL), Art, Math, and Advisory. Protecting the Participants
In order to obtain and document informed consent, I created five forms to use in this study: a letter of consent form for adult participants in English; a letter of consent form for the
parents of the student participants in both English and Spanish; and an assent form for the student participants, also in both languages. All five forms were printed on official UNO letterhead.
Before the school year began, I spoke to the principal at this site about the potential of conducting research there in the spring, and I received her full support. Additionally, the principal wrote and signed a letter permitting me to conduct research within this high school. After receiving IRB permission to begin data collection in January, my next step was to obtain consent and assent from the participants and their parents/guardians. I personally requested participation from the five teachers in the study. I sent a letter of consent form home to the students’ parents and guardians, and offered to meet with them or speak to them on the phone to address any questions or concerns. I individually discussed the assent form with the student participants, and requested their signatures on this form in person. I informed all participants of their role in the study during our first meeting and continued to answer further questions as they arose throughout the duration of my research. I have kept all letters of consent and assent on file for the extent of this dissertation project and will continue to do so for three years after the completion of the study.
I have provided the special protections entitled to the participants in several ways. First, I requested the signed consent of their parents or guardians, as well as the signed assent of the student, or minor participants. There was minimal risk involved for these student participants, and the benefits of the study for both the participants and the program outweighed any risk. These students’ participation was entirely voluntary, and they were free to leave the study at any time with out risk of penalty. The confidentiality of these minors was protected through the use of pseudonyms, and all transcripts and files were kept and read by only the investigators. I also
conducted interviews and assessments at times of the day in which data collection would least interfere with the students’ instructional time.
Additionally, I fully protected the rights of the five teachers in the study. As this research site is their workplace, I ensured that all interviews were entirely individual and confidential, and that none of their words were shared with the administration or other staff members. I conducted teacher interviews at the location of their choice so that they would feel more comfortable with the process. I also tried to be considerate of their busy schedules and conducted all interviews at times that were convenient for the teacher participants. As with the student participants, a pseudonym was used for each teacher throughout the study.
Additionally, the needs of the minority participants was considered and respected in the design of this research project. The possibility of undue influence or coercion was eliminated, in that participation was voluntary, and minority participants could choose to leave the study at any time. Both the consent forms and the interview guides were written in Spanish and English so that these materials could be easily accessible to the participants. All other materials were translated for participants when needed so as to further enhance their full understanding of the research project.
I audio taped all interviews with participants, and transcribed these tapes myself to ensure confidentiality. I aggregated the data during the analysis stage to further ensure that all materials remain confidential. Although I may present or publish the findings of the study, I will not distribute the actual interview transcripts to anyone other than the primary investigator. Additionally, for the purpose of protecting confidentiality, I conducted only individual
interviews with the student and teacher participants, as opposed to focus groups. I did not share the words of the participants with anyone else within this school setting.
The use of electronic email within the research project was minimal, since I collected the majority of the data through face-to-face interviews and classroom observations. I did not using email as a primary method of data collection, as I did not distribute any questions or surveys via the Internet. However, I will delete any emails pertaining to this research at the termination of the project.
I also safeguarded all data that include possible identifiers by retaining this information under my personal possession and by only sharing it with the primary investigator. I did not use identifiers in any written documents, including the interview transcripts of the audiotapes. Instead, I used pseudonyms throughout the duration of the study.
I stored all data in my password-protected personal computer, and I backed-up the files on my hard drive. This included all data that were collected, such as the informal reading inventory assessment, the interview transcripts, and the observation notes. I will destroy any data with potential identifiers upon completing the project; I will do so by deleting the audiotapes and transcript files. In particular, I ensured that no teachers had access to student data, as this could have created the potential for influence on the students’ grades. I did not print out any transcripts, as I prefer to conduct all data analysis on my personal computer. All hard copy data that I used, however, will be shredded at the termination of my project.
Methods of Data Collection
In order to gain a deeper and more thorough understanding of the phenomenon that I have studied, I collected a wide variety of data over the course of the spring semester. I have divided these methods of collection into three main categories: assessment, observation, and
interview. Additionally, this was basically the order in which I collected these data. Although assessment and observation were ongoing throughout the school year, I began the period of formal data collection by focusing on assessment, then continued with observation, and ended with final interviews. Below, I describe in greater detail the specific data collection methods that