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Over the past 40 years, Jim Cummins has proposed a number of highly influential theoretical concepts, including the threshold and interdependence hypotheses and the distinction between conversational fluency and academic language proficiency. In this book, he provides a personal account of how these ideas developed and he examines the credibility of critiques they have generated, using the criteria of empirical adequacy, logical coherence, and consequential validity. These criteria of theoretical legitimacy are also applied to the evaluation of two different versions of translanguaging theory – Unitary Translanguaging Theory and Crosslinguistic Translanguaging Theory – in a way that significantly clarifies this controversial concept.
Over the past 40 years, Jim Cummins has originated theories which have had a profound effect on the education of multilingual learners across the world. In this book he traces the development of these theories, and addresses the critiques they have received and their subsequent impact on his thinking and the application of his theories in schools.
The contribution of Jim Cummins to bilingualism and bilingual education has been substantial and profound. This reader provides a comprehensive compilation of his most important and influential texts. The book also provides a detailed biographical introduction and a commentary on the growth of ideas over three decades.
Population mobility is at an all-time high in human history. One result of this unprecedented movement of peoples around the world is that in many school systems monolingual and monocultural students are the exception rather than the rule, particularly in urban areas. This shift in demographic realities entails enormous challenges for educators and policy-makers. What do teachers need to know in order to teach effectively in linguistically and culturally diverse contexts? How long does it take second language learners to acquire proficiency in the language of school instruction? What are the differences between attaining conversational fluency in everyday contexts and developing proficiency ...
This is a remarkably interesting and useful book...it makes a significant contribution to our knowledge and understanding of both bilingualism and education.' Journal of Education Policy
This book examines the effectiveness of alternatives to assessment and pedagogical practices for bilingual children. A central theme of the book is that practice can be improved only by a thorough re-examination of the assumptions underlying the special education enterprise.
This volume provides a comprehensive account of the implementation of bilingual education programs in countries throughout the world. For academics, graduate students, and policymakers, this volume clearly outlines the social and educational goals that can be achieved through bilingual education. It highlights the need to take account of the complex political context of inter-group relationships within which bilingual programs are inevitably embedded.
The first book in the cultural literacy debate that also considers the new classroom technology available to students, Brave New Schools is a vision of schooling for the twenty-first century. A response to the work of Hirsch and Bloom, as well as a guide for parents and teachers, Brave New Schools describes a world of students, teachers, and parents globally connected by the Internet, thereby able to communicate across geographical and cultural barriers once thought impassable. Brave New Schools also contains a valuable section on K-12 networking resources, lists of published materials available, and descriptions of successful networking activities. Stunning in its implications for the future of learning guided by technology, Brave New Schools offers hopeful solutions to the problems of cultural difference and the future of our children.
Aimed at "empowering" teachers and students in a culturally diverse society, this book suggests that schools must respect student's language and culture, encourage community participation, promote critical literacy, and institute forms of assessment in order to reverse patterns of under-achievement in pupils from varying cultures. The book shows that students who have been failed by schools predominantly come from communities whose languages, cultures and identities have been distorted and devalued in the wider society, and schools have reinforced this pattern of disempowerment.