Relationship between bilingual learners, exemplary teachers and literacy practices: A review of empirical studies

This paper reviews empirical studies on the relationship between bilingual learners, exemplary teachers and literacy practices, focusing on the impacts of teaching towards the literacy of bilingual learners. The studies include 'Cross-language transfer of early literacy skills' and 'Pedagogies of discomfort'. The paper also discusses the implications for educators, families and communities.

Introduction
As the bilingual learners continuously increasing in the classrooms within educational
context, therefore there is a high need for the teachers to prepare themselves for the
cultural as well as linguistic diversity. Hence, this paper elaborates on the relationship in
between the bilingual students, their exemplary teachers and literacy practices as well as
focusing on the impacts of the teaching of exemplary teachers towards the literacy of
bilingual learners. In the context of research literature, this review shall further examine the
empirical studies constituting the two articles- “Cross-language transfer of early literacy
skills: an examination of young learners in a two-way bilingual immersion elementary
school” by (Feinauer et al., 2013) and “Pedagogies of discomfort: shifting pre-service
teachers’ deficit orientations toward language and literacy resources of emergent bilingual
students” by Sharma & Lazar (2014). Both of these articles are based on the subject of
Literacy in challenging context extracted from the Exemplary teachers of students in poverty(
Munns & Cole, 2013).
Literature review-Literacy
In authors of the Literacy in challenging context (Munn & Cole, 2013), have elaborated
on an in dept context where the literacy is very complicated and hence there is a need for
recognizing multiple literacy skills, inclusive of the technology, social aspects, global changes
and the cultural traditions. The authors have further investigated the kind of literacy
practices right from the early learners to later years in context to the Australian educational
system.
The practices of early learners’ literacy begin from the pre-school to the year four. The
pre-school concentrates on the text variety, integration, effective practice in reading, writing,

listening and speaking, as well as developing letter-sound relationships. The practice of
literacy starts from 7 to 8 years in Australia up to middle years. There is also the possibility
for teachers who teach literacy to face challenges. This is because when literacy all over the
curriculum teachers will either work within a particular subject area or on a broad range of
areas. Likewise, in later years the teachers concentrate on integrating literacy learning within
a particular subject.
Shifting the focus from the illiteracies development, the authors have focused on the
issues of social inequity in the Australian education system. The authors have argued that
the students belonging from high socio-economic backgrounds have performed better than
the ones who belong from low socio-economic statuses. The results have shown that there
is a notable gap in the engagement and achievement of the students and hence it plays an
important part in the educational development.
Bilingual learners and bi-literacy
In the article ‘Pedagogies of discomfort: shifting pre-service teachers’ deficit
orientations toward language and literacy resources of emergent bilingual students’, by
Sharma and Lazar (2014), there is used a mixed-method to study the case. About 73 pre-
service teachers who were enrolled in the mid-Atlantic university were the participants. The
study was conducted with an aim of exploring the challenges that the monolingual pre-
service teachers who have limited bilingual proficiency could have to face while their
teaching disposition towards the language diversity and richness in culturally diverse
classroom of the United States.
In this study, 73 participants (5 males and 68 females) were considered in a required
course that is relevant to literacy, culture and language. Researchers have measured that the
teaching attitudes of these participant towards the bilingual students through applying both

pre and post surveys. Secondly, the qualitative data was inclusive of writing responses to the
given open-ended statements. Researchers have gathered their responses firstly, in the
month of January and then again in May. With the same, participants were asked to write a
self-analysis of the teaching experiences regarding the course that they were asked to enroll.
Furthermore, the researchers have also conducted individual interviews with 10 different
participants. However, the results were really surprising. The study suggested that pre-
service teachers demonstrate a positive disposition towards the students in both the
months. In context to the response statements, the capacity and responsibility of the
participants towards bilingual teaching was maximized from the month of January to May.
Overall, it was noted that participants must strengthen their critical understandings of the
literacy practices.
In comparison to focusing on the disposition of the teachers, Feinauer et al. (2013)
have explored the relation in between both the first language proficiency skills as well as
second language acquisition for the K-2 grade students in Spanish-English bilingual
immersion program. The researchers then carried out a study in the elementary charter
school where it included a 50/50 dual immersion framework. A total of 174 candidates were
participated in this study and among them 50% were males and 49.4% were females.
Literacy assessments and parents surveys were the main measurements along with
considering factors associated with home language dominance, family background, as well
as home income and parent education.
For data analysis, there were four groups- the English, Spanish, Bilingual taught in Spanish
and the Bilingual taught in English group were analyzed. The study showed a notable
difference. The English group scored the highest mean of 17.6 that showed that English was
their dominant home language and their parents mostly receives a higher level of education

along with higher incomes. Secondly, the group of bilingual taught in English, scored high
both in English and Spanish with children who come from the highly educated families
where their parents speak both English and Spanish. Furthermore, the Spanish group
achieved 17.1 and this revealed the fact that the children in this group belongs from
comparatively low income families and low level of parental education. The group of
Bilingual taught in Spanish has a preference for speaking in Spanish at their homes. However,
the study suggested that the cross-language transfer showed evidences in between four
language groups.
Exemplary teaching
In authors in Literacy in challenging context (Munns & Cole, 2013), emphasized on the
models and approaches that teachers incorporate the method of integration within the
subject areas with an objective for gaining literacy learning on the varying levels in
Australian educational system. Similarly, along with Munns and Cole (2013), a research was
conducted by Sharma and Lazar (2014) that focused on the teaching dispositions of teachers
that the bilingual language teachers are expected to develop and maintain the awareness of
bicultural literacy and bilingualism practices in their classrooms. Similarly, the research that
was conducted by Feinauer et al. (2013) suggested the importance of understanding
language capacities as cultural continuum especially when the teachers work with the
emergent bi-literacy and bilingual skills.
Contrast
The two articles as well as the chapter Literacy in challenging context share common
similarities on the teaching dispositions of the teachers, their attitudes, models and beliefs
towards the concept of bilingual literacy teaching and taking into consideration the factors
that are associated with cultural diversity and language richness in the classrooms. In

Literacy in challenging context (Munns & Cole, 2013) the researchers have investigated the
case studies in every levels of classrooms with an objective to explore the varying levels of
literacy development of students in the Australian educational context. The research by
Sharma and Lazar (2014) has focused on the importance of pre-service mono-linguistic
teaching dispositions of teachers towards the language diversity and bilingual literacy with
the emerging bilingual young children. The study sustained a limitation because only two of
the responses cannot reflect the philosophies and beliefs of teaching all 73 participants.
Unlike Sharma and Lazar (2014), the study conducted by Feinauer et al. (2013) has
highlighted the significance of the potentials of K-2 students’ cross-language transfer skills.
Overall, three of these studies shared common similarities on the objective for gaining the
literacy learning on the varying levels of classrooms and the different age groups of the
learners.
Implications
On Educators- There is a growth in the challenges that might be faced by the bilingual
educators during their teaching of the literacy of bilingual students on varying levels within
the classroom setting (Rodríguez &Guiberson, 2011). Firstly, the early bilingual learners may
or may not have enough bilingual literacy skills (Feinauer et al., 2013). It means the early
childhood educators might include proper language literacy practices and apply their earlier
knowledge when they work with the very young bilingual kindergarteners (Cirino et al.,
2007). Secondly, the increase in the emergent bilingualism on the primary and the
secondary school students calls for realization of the significance of the shifting instructional
behaviors and pedagogies of the teachers depending on linguistic and academic
requirements of the bilingual students (Estrada, 2004). In this context, in teaching pedagogy,
instructional approaches and teacher quality contributes to the achievement of the student

(Foorman & Moats, 2004).
On Family and Community- There are some bilingual families that lack resources for the bi-
literacy development of their children (Valdes, 2011). Because the home language is a
cultural continuum for the bilingual families, the parents might therefore, make their
children learn dance and songs in their home language in order to maintain the sense of
cultural identity and home language (DeCapua &Wintergerst, 2009). The language input in
the bilingual families is therefore a cultural connection for preserving their history and home
culture (Rodríguez, 2015). Within a nutshell, the impacts for maintaining a language diversity
and cultural identity lead positive learning outcomes for the children (Valdes, 2011).
Moreover, the community participation in the schools is very crucial for the achievement of
the students (Anderson, Houser, & Howland, 2010; Bryk, 2010; Coleman, 1988; McAlister,
2013; Sanders, 2006). In this context, the educational professionals and researchers suggest
that the idea- a community partnership with the schools would be developed as an impact
of the community leads for a satisfactory outcome for the grade levels of the students (Gross
et al., 2015).