Education, Bilingual.

Drawing on the principles of critical multicultural teacher education, Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and bilingual education, this study
examined how pre-service teachers were prepared to educate Emerging Bilinguals (EBs)
in ESOL-infused teacher education programs in Florida universities. The textual analysis
of a purposeful sample of five elementary-level English Language Arts (ELA) methods
textbooks, utilizing a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, revealed that
authors overwhelmingly referred to EBs as English learners or English language learners,
rather than bilinguals or dual language learners, and devoted less than 5% of the total
content of four textbooks to topics about teaching methods, curriculum, and assessment
for EBs. Evidence of five forms of curriculum bias was found, including invisibility,
linguistic bias, fragmentation and isolation, stereotyping, and imbalance and selectivity. The findings suggest that textbook authors value knowledge about teaching EBs
less than knowledge about teaching native English-speakers. EBs were stereotyped as a
homogenous group of struggling readers and essentialized in terms of their limited
English proficiency. One author conflated students’ language differences with physical
limitations and learning disabilities, a troubling mischaracterization in the context of the
overrepresentation of EBs in special education. Meanwhile, a preference shown for ESL
methods over bilingual methods, based upon misconceptions about how EBs learn,
suggests that textbook authors undervalue the cultures and linguistic skills that students
bring from home.
The hidden curriculum in ELA methods textbooks may influence a majority of
pre-service teachers, who are typically monolingual and raised in the English-dominant
mainstream culture, to develop a deficit view of EBs and utilize a one-size-fits-all
approach towards ELA instruction. In order to prepare pre-service teachers to educate
EBs for academic success, the teacher education curriculum must include material that
explains linguistically responsive instruction and describes effective bilingual education
models, within a critical pedagogical framework. Without this knowledge, pre-service
teachers may continue instructional practices that contribute to a persistent “achievement
gap” experienced by EBs. A transformation of the ELA methods curriculum is required
so that pre-service teachers are prepared to implement a humanizing pedagogy that
facilitates positive identity formation as it develops bilingual and biliterate students.

Almost twenty-one percent of the United States population spoke a language
other than English in 2011. Furthermore, there has been a dramatic increase in the
enrollment of students of Hispanic and other ethnic backgrounds in U.S. post-secondary
institutions between 1976 and 2013 (from 4% to 16%) (National Center for Education
Statistics NCES, 2016).
Until now, no systematic research has focused on the differential effects of selfefficacy
on academic achievement in monolingual and bilingual undergraduate college
students. The present study aimed to investigate this relationship, as well as contribute
additional insight on whether the academic self-efficacy of monolingual and bilingual
undergraduate college students plays a role in their academic success specifically in
science and math courses. Additionally, the findings of this research study were expected to provide data to inform the development of educational programs that might
specifically target monolinguals or bilinguals in enhancing students’ self-efficacy.
Seven instructors of foundational undergraduate science courses and math
courses at a southeastern university agreed to contribute to the study by asking their
students for their voluntary participation in the data collection. A total of 361 students
participated in the study. Overall, 256 (70.9%) participants reported being monolingual
and 105 (29.1%) reported being bilingual; 335 (92.8%) students were enrolled in
science courses and 26 (7.2%) were registered in math courses; 237 (65.7%) were
female students and 124 (34.3%) were male. Demographics, self-efficacy, and
sociolinguistic data were collected using the Self-Efficacy Research Study Online
Questionnaire. Final science and math grades were also collected from the instructors at
the end of the semester for all students who volunteered to participate in the study.
The findings of this research study revealed that the self-efficacy levels of
undergraduate college students in science and math predict their academic achievement
in these subjects. They also showed that the self-efficacy levels of bilingual participants
are higher than those of their monolingual counterparts. Findings also indicated that
when the relationship between final grade and self-efficacy was examined separately in
each linguistic group the correlation was significant and positive for monolinguals.