Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T12:51:49.400Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multilingual education policy and practice: Ten certainties (grounded in Indigenous experience)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

Nancy H. Hornberger
Nancy H. Hornberger*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania, USAnancyh@gse.upenn.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although multilingualism and multilingual education have existed for centuries, our 21st-century entrance into the new millennium has brought renewed interest and contestation around this educational alternative. Ethnolinguistic diversity and inequality, intercultural communication and contact, and global political and economic interdependence are more than ever acknowledged realities of today's world, and all of them put pressures on our educational systems. Now, as throughout history, multilingual education offers the best possibilities for preparing coming generations to participate in constructing more just and democratic societies in our globalized and intercultural world; however, it is not unproblematically achieved. There are many unanswered questions and doubts as to policy and implementation, program and curricular design, classroom instruction practices, pedagogy, and teacher professional development, but there is also much that we understand and know very well, based on empirical research in many corners of the world. Here I highlight Bolivian and other Indigenous educational experiences with which I am most familiar, and which capture certainties that hold beyond the particular instances I describe. My emphasis is on what we know and are sure of, and my goal is to convey my deep conviction that multilingual education constitutes a wide and welcoming educational doorway toward peaceful coexistence of peoples and especially restoration and empowerment of those who have been historically oppressed.

Type
Plenary Speeches
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 197 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albó, X. (1995). Educar para una Bolivia plurilingüe. Cuarto Intermedio 35, 3–69.Google Scholar
Albó, X. (1997). Causas sociales de la desaparición y del mantenimiento de la lengua: Desafíos de la Bolivia plurilingüe. Pueblos Indígenas y Educación 39/40, 73–102.Google Scholar
Baker, C. (2003). Biliteracy and transliteracy in Wales: Language planning and the Welsh national curriculum. In Hornberger, (ed.), 71–90.Google Scholar
El bilingüismo será herramienta clave para la educación. La Razón, 25 June 2006.Google Scholar
Brayboy, B. M. J. (2005). Transformational resistance and social justice: American Indians in Ivy League universities. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 36.3, 193–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canagarajah, A. S. (ed.) (2005). Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castillo Collado, M. (2005). Aprendiendo con el corazón: El tejido andino en la educación quechua. La Paz: PINSEIB/PROEIB Andes/Plural Editores.Google Scholar
Châtry-Komarek, M. M. (1987). Libros de lectura para niños de lengua vernácula: A partir de una experiencia interdisciplinaria en el altiplano peruano. Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft Für Technische Zusammenarbeit.Google Scholar
Châtry-Komarek, M. M. (1996). Tailor-made textbooks: A practical guide for the authors of textbooks for primary schools in developing countries. Oxford: CODE Europe.Google Scholar
Châtry-Komarek, M. (2003). Literacy at stake: Teaching reading and writing in African schools. Windhoek, Namibia: Gamsberg Macmillan Publishers.Google Scholar
Creese, A. & Blackledge, A. (2008). Translanguaging in the bilingual classroom: A pedagogy for learning and teaching? Ms., University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A. (1980). Bilingual education, language planning and English. English World-Wide 1.1, 11–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishman, J. A. (1982). Sociolinguistic foundations of bilingual education. The Bilingual Review/La revista bilingüe 9.1, 1–35.Google Scholar
García, O. (2007). Foreword. In Makoni, S. & Pennycook, A.. (eds.), Disinventing and reconstituting languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, xi–xv.Google Scholar
García, O. (2008). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Hoboken, NJ & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Garvin, P. L. (1974). Some comments on language planning. In Fishman, J. A. (ed.), Advances in language planning. The Hague: Mouton, 69–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hohepa, M. K. (2006). Biliterate practices in the home: Supporting Indigenous language regeneration. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 5.4, 293–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hohepa, P. (2000). Towards 2030 A. D.: Māori language regeneration – Examining Māori language health. Presented at Applied Linguistics Conference, Auckland, New Zealand.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (1987). Bilingual education success, but policy failure. Language in Society 16.2, 205–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (1988). Bilingual education and language maintenance: A Southern Peruvian Quechua case. Berlin: Mouton.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (1989). Continua of biliteracy. Review of Educational Research 59.3, 271–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (1990). Creating successful learning contexts for bilingual literacy. Teachers College Record 92.2, 212–229.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (1998). Language policy, language education, language rights: Indigenous, immigrant, and international perspectives. Language in Society 27.4, 439–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (2000). Bilingual education policy and practice in the Andes: Ideological paradox and intercultural possibility. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 31.2, 173–201.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (2002). Multilingual language policies and the continua of biliteracy: An ecological approach. Language Policy 1.1, 27–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (ed.) (2003). Continua of biliteracy: An ecological framework for educational policy, research and practice in multilingual settings. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (2006). Voice and biliteracy in indigenous language revitalization: Contentious educational practices in Quechua, Guarani, and Māori contexts. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 5.4, 277–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (ed.) (2008). Can schools save Indigenous languages? Policy and practice on four continents. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. & Hult, F. M. (2008). Ecological language education policy. In Spolsky, B. & Hult, F. M.. (eds.), Handbook of educational linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 280–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. & Johnson, D. C. (2007). Slicing the onion ethnographically: Layers and spaces in multilingual language education policy and practice. TESOL Quarterly 41.3, 509–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. & López, L. E. (1998). Policy, possibility and paradox: Indigenous multilingualism and education in Peru and Bolivia. In Cenoz, J. & Genesee, F.. (eds.), Beyond bilingualism: Multilingualism and multilingual education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 206–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. & Skilton-Sylvester, E. (2000). Revisiting the continua of biliteracy: International and critical perspectives. Language and Education: An International Journal 14.2, 96–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hult, F. M. (2007). Multilingual language policy and English language teaching in Sweden. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. H. (1974). Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. C. (2007). Language policy within and without the school district of Philadelphia. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Lewis, E. G. (1976). Bilingualism and bilingual education: The ancient world to the renaissance. In Fishman, J. A.. (ed.), Bilingual education: An international sociological perspective. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 150–200.Google Scholar
Lin, A., Wang, W., Akamatsu, N. & Riazi, M. (2005). International TESOL professionals and Teaching English for Glocalized Communication (TEGCOM). In Canagarajah, (ed.), 197–222.Google Scholar
Lincoln, P. C. (1975). Acknowledging dual-lingualism. Working Papers in Linguistics (University of Hawaii) 7.4, 39–46.Google Scholar
López, L. E. (2005). De resquicios a boquerones: La educación intercultural bilingüe en Bolivia. La Paz: PROEIB Andes y Plural Editores.Google Scholar
López, L. E. (2008). Top–down and bottom–up: Counterpoised visions of bilingual intercultural education in Latin America. In Hornberger, (ed.), 42–65.Google Scholar
López, L. E. & Küper, W. (2004). La educación intercultural bilingüe en América Latina: Balance y perspectivas. La Paz & Cochabamba: Cooperación Técnica Alemana (GTZ)–PINSEIB–PROEIBAndes.Google Scholar
Luykx, A., Julca, F. & García, F. (2005). Estrategias de comunicación interdialectal en quechua. Proceedings of the Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America-II. Austin, TX: University of Texas. http://www.ailla.utexas.org/site/cilla2_toc.html.Google Scholar
Martin, P. (2005). Talking knowledge into being in an upriver primary school in Brunei. In Canagarajah, (ed.), 225–246.Google Scholar
May, S. (1999). Language and education rights for Indigenous peoples. In May, S.. (ed.), Indigenous community-based education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 42–66.Google Scholar
May, S. (2002). Accommodating multiculturalism and biculturalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Implications for language education. Ms., Waikato University.Google Scholar
May, S. & Hill, R. (2008). Maori-medium education: Current issues and challenges. In Hornberger, (ed.), 66–98.Google Scholar
McCarty, T. L. (2006). Voice and choice in indigenous language revitalization. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 5.4, 308–315.Google Scholar
Menezes de Souza, L. M. T. (2005). The ecology of writing among the Kashinawá: Indigenous multimodality in Brazil. In Canagarajah, (ed.), 73–95.Google Scholar
Mermann-Jozwiak, E. & Sullivan, N. (2005). Local knowledge and global citizenship: Languages and literatures of the United States–Mexico borderlands. In Canagarajah, (ed.), 269–286.Google Scholar
Monte, N. L. (1996). Escolas da floresta: Entre o passado oral e o presente letrado. Rio de Janeiro: Multiletra.Google Scholar
Monte, N. L. (2003). Novos frutos das escolas da floresta: Registros de práticas de formação. Rio de Janeiro: N. L. Monte.Google Scholar
Nucinkis, N. (2006). La EIB en Bolivia. In López, L. E. & Rojas, C.. (eds.), La EIB en América Latina bajo examen. La Paz: Plural/PROEIB Andes, 25–110.Google Scholar
Ryon, D. (2005). Language death studies and local knowledge: The case of Cajun French. In Canagarajah, (ed.), 55–72.Google Scholar
Saxena, M. (2008). Bilingual scaffolding: Linking New Literacy Studies approach and neo-Vygotskian theory. Ms., Universiti Brunei Darussalam.Google Scholar
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. London: Zed.Google Scholar
Swinehart, K. (2007). Whose proposal? Bolivian intercultural bilingual education (IBE) before and beyond neoliberalism. Ms., University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Tito Ancalle, F. (2005). Sunchu: El huayno en la formación de la identidad en los migrantes quechua–hablantes de Huaycán, Lima – Perú. Master's thesis, Universidad de San Simón, Cochabamba.Google Scholar
Utakis, S. & Pita, M. D. (2005). An educational policy for negotiating transnationalism: The Dominican community in New York City. In Canagarajah, (ed.), 147–164.Google Scholar
Varghese, M. (2000). Bilingual teachers-in-the-making: Advocates, classroom teachers, and transients. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Varghese, M. (2004). Professional development for bilingual teachers in the United States: A site for articulating and contesting professional roles. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 7.2&3, 222–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar