Spener 1991

Spener, David. 1991. "Transitional bilingual education and the socialization of immigrants." In Minami and Kennedy 1991. (Reprinted from Spener 1988.) Interest level: academic..

Refers to research about the relative merits of English-only instruction versus the use of the students' mother tongue. Discusses the fact that individuals from racial, ethnic, and linguistic minority groups have tended to occupy low-status positions in Western society. Examines Ogbu's comparison of immigrant minorities and caste-like minorities, and his contention that immigrants are not as likely as native-born minorities to internalize the host society's caste ideology. Believes that transitional bilingual education programs provide only a limited period of mother-tongue-language instruction and do not guarantee English mastery. States these programs often prevent children from attaining fluency in either their mother-tongue languages or in English. Argues that, as a result, immigrants are only prepared to fill the menial labor positions that are needed by society.

• Bibliography module: Spener 1991
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): S
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 19 September 1996

© 1999 SIL International