When East Meets West: CrossCultural Understandings of American K12 Education

1
When East Meets West Cross-Cultural
Understandings of American K-12 Education

• Dr. Guofang Li
• Associate Professor
• Dept. of Teacher Education
• 350 Erickson Hall
• liguo_at_msu.edu

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My Work on English Language Learners

• Asian immigrant Childrens Home Practices
• Li, G. (2002). East is East, West is West? Home
  literacy, culture, and schooling. New York
  Peter Lang.

3
My Work on English Language Learners

• Cultural conflicts between mainstream school and
  immigrant families
• Li, G. (2006). Culturally contested pedagogy
  Battles of literacy and schooling between
  mainstream teachers and Asian immigrant parents.

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My Work on English Language Learners

• Immigrant/minority experiences and inner-city
  schooling
• Multicultural families and cultural models of
  learning

• Li, G. (In press). Culturally Contested
  Literacies Americas Rainbow Underclass and
  Urban Schools. New York Routlege.
• Li, G. Multicultural Families, Home Literacies,
  and Mainstream Schooling Albany SUNY Press

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Major Differences between East and West

• East
• Centralized
• Teacher-centered
• Large class size
• By subject
• Standardized curriculum
• Depth
• Home-school separation

• West/US
• Decentralized
• Student-centered
• Smaller classes
• By grade/class
• Non-Standardized curriculum
• Width
• Parental involvement

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NCLB

• Title III of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act
  requires that all English language learners
  (ELLs) receive quality instruction for learning
  both English and grade-level academic content.
• All ELL students' English language proficiency
  must be tested at least once a year.
• All ELLs have to take state academic achievement
  tests in language arts and math, except that ELL
  students who have been in the U.S. for less than
  one year do not have to take the language arts
  test for that first year. If available from the
  state, ELL students can take these language arts
  and math tests in their native languages.
• ELL students who have been in U.S. schools for
  three consecutive years must be tested in
  reading/language arts using a test written in
  English, although on a case-by-case basis, this
  period can be extended up to five years.
• Parents must be notified by the local education
  agency concerning why their child needs a
  specialized language instruction program. Parents
  have the right to choose among instructional
  programs if more than one type of program is
  offered and have the right to remove their child
  from a program for ELL children.

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Michigan Assessment

• In the State of Michigan, all students are to
  participate in the state assessment system.
• MEAP (3-9)
• MME (high schoolgrade 11)
• MI-Access (special needs)
• ELPA (Reading, writing, listening and speaking
  for ELL)
• During the students first year of enrollment in
  a U.S. public school, the school has the option
  of not administering the English language arts
  (ELA) portion of the state assessment (MEAP or
  MI-Access) provided that the student is
  identified as limited English proficient through
  the English Language Proficiency Assessment
  (ELPA) or the ELPA screener. For these students,
  ELPA participation counts toward the 95
  participation rate requirement for Adequate
  Yearly Progress (AYP) in ELA.
• The student is not exempt from the mathematics
  assessment. The mathematics score will not count
  for AYP because the student will have been
  enrolled less than a full academic year prior to
  the assessment. A student may only be exempt from
  one administration of the ELA portion of the MEAP
  or MI-Access.

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Info Links

• http//www.mi.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-22709_40192---,
  00.html
• http//www.michigan.gov/documents/MEAP_Test_Schedu
  le_2005-2007_113452_7.pdf
• http//www.michigan.gov/documents/MME_Schedule_200
  7_10_155406_7.pdf

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First Language and Culture Maintenance

• Should I teach my child first language at home?
• Should I speak in L1 at home?
• Does the first language hinder his/her English
  language learning?
• The faster my child assimilates to the mainstream
  culture the better.

• You dont have to lose your first language to
  learn a second.
• Children can lose a language within six months.
• First language enhances second language learning.
  
• Some interference, but mostly positive transfer
• Maintaining first language and culture is
  critical to their socio-emotional well-being and
  identity development.

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English as a Second Language Learning

• School programs
• Push-in
• Pull-out
• Mainstreaming
• Two aspects
• Social English
• Academic English

• Home
• Exposure
• Opportunities to read and write
• Help with academic English and/or academic
  content in L1
• Read with your child in L1

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Homework

• East
• Drill practice
• Individual exploration
• Paper pencil
• Workbooks
• Mock-tests

• West
• Experiential
• Collaboration
• Projects
• Reading story-books with parents
• Parental involvement
• What you can do
• Get involved
• Talk to the teachers
• Help out at school
• Get help

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Invented Spelling

• East
• Accuracy is key
• Misspelling
• Error
• Must be corrected
• Form a good habit from early on

• West
• Developmental
• Experiment with spelling
• Emergent knowledge of phonemes
• Non-habit forming
• Should not be corrected
• What you can do
• Talk to the teachers about your beliefs
• Ask for some correction

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Teaching Methods

• East
• Teacher-centered
• Direct instruction (telling)
• Text-based
• Textbook
• Skill-focused
• Subjects

• West
• Student-centered
• Indirect (implying)
• With teacher-selected materials
• Literature-based
• Meaning-focused
• Language across the curriculum

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School-Home Expectations/Communication

• West
• School
• Interests
• Ability
• Independence
• Parental involvement
• Teachers not as authorities
• Parents voice concerns

• East
• School
• Expectations
• Effort
• Interdependent
• Parent supervision
• Teachers as authorities
• Parents rarely raise concerns

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Childrens Socio-emotional Development

• East
• self-cultivation, self-examination and
  self-correction.
• other-oriented, hierarchical and role-directed,
  emphasising familialism and harmony in human
  relationships. (Lee Brennan, 2004)
• High expectations/goals and high pressure to
  achieve
• Less attention to socio-emotional

• A positive sense of self, positive feelings and
  positive attitudes to life and cooperation with
  individualistic others
• Respect for individual differences, individual
  autonomy and conflict resolution
• More encouragement, positive reinforcement

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Thank You!

• Questions?
• hkpark4534_at_hanmail.net
• huichen_at_msu.edu
• zhengmin_at_msu.edu
• qingfen_at_msu.edu
• guijun_at_msu.edu
• thihan_at_msu.edu
• hongliang576_at_gmail.com
• reggiechenhui_at_163.com