Report Bilingual Day - Dornsife.usc.edu

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BILINGUAL DAY REPORT3.25.2017ParticipantsThe first bilingual day at the Francophone Research and Resource Center at theUniversity of Southern California gathered an audience that represented the multiplestakeholders involved in creating and sustaining a dual-language immersion program:teachers, principals, school district administrators, parents, prospective teachers,bilingual education and research specialists.PurposeWe continue to build a strong network of all stakeholders in local, public French duallanguage immersion programs. Within the network, we have an open dialogue toencourage and support mutual understanding of the development and maintenance ofthese programs. We hope to create an information hub with direct contacts andresources for anyone with questions concerning the development of French duallanguage immersion programs.What’s Next?Ø An information session at UCLA on obtaining California teaching credentials inpartnership with UCLA’s Department of French and Francophone Studies, GraduateSchool of Education and Information Studies, and the Los Angeles Unified SchoolDistrict. The following questions will be addressed:-How to get a credential to teach in a French dual-language immersion program?-How long does it take?-What are the costs?-What are the accelerated routes offered by districts?

This session is open to all and will be of great interest for current students, alumni fromthe Teaching Assistant Program in France, Francophone expatriates, and others withinterest in teaching in a dual-language immersion program.Ø A two-day weekend professional development workshop for French duallanguage immersion program teachers in Fall 2017. You will also be able to access allthe resources that were used during previous professional workshops for teachers ofFrench on the Francophone Research and Resource Center website.Ø We are here to listen to your ideas and concerns and will tailor our activities tomeet your needs. Contact us at frenchlanguage@consulfrance-losangeles.org. Followus on our Facebook and on frenchculture.orgØ Useful contacts: French Consulate, American Association of Teachers of French(AATF)PROCEEDINGSOpeningMr. Christophe Lemoine, Consul General of France, opened the day byemphasizing the growing number of French dual-language immersion programs in theSouthwest and the need to gather all major stakeholders to work together. There havebeen four programs created in the past four years, with more to come. Map of theseprograms HERE.Unfortunately, Senator Ricardo Lara was not able to be present. However, his initiativetestifies to the new era for bilingual education with the passing of Proposition 58 inNovember 2016.The various models of bilingual programsNext, Valerie Sun, Ed.D. candidate at CSU, Los Angeles presented a brief history ofbilingual education in the United States and California. She spoke of the growth of duallanguage immersion programs despite the English-only movement in California with thepassing of Proposition 227 in 1998. She explained the various models of bilingualeducation, focusing on the two models of two-way immersion, 90:10 and 50:50.

It was addressed that the selection of the language models used in a school or district ishighly dependent on the availability of teachers who are linguistically and academicallycompetent in the instructional language and educational resources in alignment with thestate standards.Download the presentation HEREWhy choose a bilingual program?Afterwards, Eve Ryan, Ph.D. candidate at UCLA discussed parents’ motivations forenrolling children in a French-English two-way immersion program, based on the surveyresponses from 45 parents at a French-English early elementary school in the LosAngeles area. It appears that parents decide to pursue bilingual education programmingfor their children for various reasons, including: fostering multicultural awareness,reviving ties to French heritage, improving educational and professional prospects, etc.Next, she discussed some of the challenges reported by parents regarding children’sFrench language experience (e.g., lack of availability of French materials, limitedexposure to the language outside of school, etc.), as well as some of the successes(e.g., emerging bilingualism, connectedness to family, etc.).Download the presentation HEREThe French Embassy’s tools for bilingual programsAntonia Rigaud, French Language Attachée at the French Consulate stressed theimportance for the French cultural services to help the creation of these bilingualprograms. A number of tools have been created to that effect, among them: IF cinema,the bilingual fund of the French-American Cultural Exchange Foundation or the LabelFrancEducation for well-established programs which should become in the future yearsa very useful network.Download the presentation HERE

DISCUSSION REPORTI.Parentsa. SupportHilda Maldonado of LAUSD spoke of the importance of having parent support in orderto start a program. It is with parental interest and support that the board members willconsider having a program in the district. Nevertheless, it is difficult to convinceimmigrant parents in this political climate to enroll their students in a dual-languageimmersion program. For example, LAUSD has 160,000 English learners but only 8000are enrolled in a bilingual education program.Parents who are interested in advocating for the development of an immersion programin a district will need to have a list of families interested in enrolling in the program if itwere made available, a description and justification of use of available spaces at aschool site, a list of possible educational resources and curricula to be used for theprogram, and if possible, teachers who may be interested in teaching in the program.Support from local area language foundations, consulate offices, and universities arealso encouraged.b. Expectations and commitmentIt is a necessity for the district and school to inform parents of realistic expectations andthe educational commitment that they are making for their children. This is especiallyimportant for parents who do not speak the partner language (instructional language) athome. Parents need to understand that enrollment in a dual-language immersionprogram is a long-term commitment of at least seven years. They also need tounderstand the process of language acquisition for their children in order to understandtheir foreign language academic growth. This will help decrease their anxiety during thefirst few years.Parent advocacy is needed throughout the entire school experience with anunderstanding that teachers and administrators have the best intentions in creating theoptimal learning environment for the students.Parents’ involvement can take many forms and responsibilities should be sharedbetween French-speaking parents and non French-speaking parents. Panelists offeredsuggestions for parents to get involved: e.g., hosting a teaching assistant from Franceduring the school year, creating a French homework club, setting up a book fair, helpingteachers translate forms, etc.Some references regarding books outside the classroom: Reading A to Z and École desLoisirs. Also, Albertine : the French Embassy’s bookstore sells online.

II.Teachersa. Credentialing and recruitmentThe need for teachers keeps growing with the number of new programs opening andnew classes opening every year. To this must be added the need for substitute teacherswhen teachers take professional development workshops throughout the year. Criteriafor recruiting involve linguistic and academic competence.Two teachers explained their credentialing process to teach in the French duallanguage immersion program. Both attained their CA Multiple-Subjects TeachingCredential, then demonstrated French knowledge through obtaining a French singlesubject credential. One teacher has her B.A. and M.A. in French, so she obtained theFrench single-subject credential through a Subject Matter Preparation Program. Toreceive the BCLAD that is necessary to teach in a dual-language immersion program,both teachers took CSET LOTE: French III, IV, and V.Principals have a close relationship with HR at the district. Both parties are constantlylooking for teachers who are qualified to teach in the program so that there is an eligiblepool of teachers to select for the growing programs. Districts have looked intoincentivizing teaching assistants to obtain their teaching credentials as well, to meet theteacher demand. Nevertheless, in the grand scheme, the California Commission onTeacher Credentialing, higher education institutes, community colleges, and highschools will need to work together in order to create a language teacher pipeline tomeet the growing need in dual-language immersion teachers.It will be important to work with universities to support the development of bilingualauthorization programs, creating a pool of local teachers. Note: UCLA’s FrancophoneDepartment and School of Education are looking into opening a French bilingualauthorization program in 2018. Note: districts who have signed a Memorandum ofunderstanding with a district in France can recruit teachers from the French nationaleducation system. This however is not a very sustainable route as teachers can only berecruited for a limited number of years and the teachers shortage in France makes itdifficult to recruit there.One of the reasons for the shortage of bilingual teachers is Proposition 227, our hope isthat Proposition 58 will change this.b. Protection and retentionMost dual-language immersion teachers work beyond their contract hours because theyprepare materials to ensure standards alignment. They also address student needs andparental anxiety involved with student achievement. Thus, it is vital to protect teachersfrom overworking and burning out. Administrators can help reduce parental anxiety inthe programs by ensuring they are informed of second language acquisition theory,practices, and reality in the context of student linguistic achievement.

Furthermore, administrators will also need to be attentive of supporting and listening tothe teachers’ needs over that of the parents’ demands. Lastly, teachers will needprofessional development to ensure that they using best practices for student languageacquisition.Some teachers create a class webpage with activities and information which is a greatway to answer parents’ questions and fears, but much more work for the teacher! Hereis an example of Jacqueline Olson’s webpage at Franklin Magnet Elementary inGlendale, CA.III.Administrative aspectsa. EvaluationThe school board has a hard time approving the development of a program when itdoes not see immediate positive results. However, research has shown with secondlanguage acquisition, it takes 3-7 years before impactful positive results are available.Thus, it often takes a leap of faith and a commitment to funding the program in order tosee the benefits. Publishers should consider creating dual-language immersionevaluations with an understanding of second language acquisition so that teachers,parents, administration, and board members can see the academic and linguisticprogress students are making. It would also be interesting to push testing companies tocreate monitoring tools which do not exist in French.b. Program structureIt involves all stakeholders, including the community, to find the best fitting model (50:50or 90:10) and structure. Administrators, teachers, and parents all have an important rolein the development of the program although the school district should set up thestructure that will be followed.c. CurriculumThe curriculum used in dual-language immersion programs should be standards-based.Moreover, it needs to be authentic to the culture of the language. Thus partnershipsshould be created with publishing and testing companies so that the teachers’ andstudents’ educational needs can be met in the instructional language.A new network will be set up in the USA next year for teachers of French, to help gatherressources: IF Profs

IV.RecommendationsMany conference participants expressed the need for sharing resources about FrenchEnglish bilingual programming at several levels. For instance, parent and educationadvocates who have been unsuccessful in establishing a French-English two-wayimmersion program in their school district would benefit from going over the applicationmaterials of a successful program with similar characteristics. On the other hand,educators would benefit from sharing ideas, materials, and resources with educators insimilar French programs. Parents could also glean ideas from parents in other schoolsto initiate afterschool programs in their community.Clarifications should be made regarding the pathways to credentialing, including fornative French speakers with foreign credentials.It is suggested to remember to focus on dual language programming from grades 6through 12. Indeed, the issue of long-term programming arose, with some participantspointing out the fact that the majority of resources is spent on elementary schools,begging the question of what happens to the students beyond the elementary level.We believe in the importance of supporting dual-language immersion programs.

Ø An information session at UCLA on obtaining California teaching credentials in partnership with UCLA’s Department of French and Francophone Studies, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. The following questions will be addressed: