Rethinking the Education of Multilingual Learners

A Critical Analysis of Theoretical Concepts
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-1-80041-357-3
Verlag: Multilingual Matters

Buch, Englisch, 417 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 693 g

A ground-breaking and topical commentary from a leading thinker within the field of multilingual education.

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cummins, Jim

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Mehrsprachigkeit
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Fremdsprachenerwerb und -didaktik
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Teildisziplinen der Pädagogik Sonderpädagogik, Heilpädagogik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Lily Wong Fillmore: Foreword

Series Editor’s Preface

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas: Preface

Part 1: Evolution of a Theoretical Framework: A Personal Account

Chapter 1. Core Ideas and Background Influences

Chapter 2. Resolving Contradictions: Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism

Chapter 3. Linguistic Interdependence: Accounting for Patterns of Bilingual Academic Development

Chapter 4. Language Proficiency and Academic Achievement

Chapter 5. Power Relations in School: Constructing or Constricting Identities?

Chapter 6. Reversing Underachievement: An Integrated Framework

Part 2: Critical Analysis of Competing Theoretical Claims

Chapter 7. How Do We Assess the Legitimacy of Theoretical Constructs and Claims?

Chapter 8. Is ‘Academic Language’ a Legitimate Theoretical Construct?

Chapter 9. Are ‘Linguistic Interdependence’ and the ‘Common Underlying Proficiency’ Legitimate Theoretical Constructs?

Chapter 10. Unitary Translanguaging Theory and Crosslinguistic Translanguaging Theory: A Comparative Analysis

Part 3: Instructional Practice in Dialogue with Theoretical Concepts

Chapter 11. Teachers as Knowledge Generators: Learning from Inspirational Pedagogy

About the Author

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Cummins, Jim
Jim Cummins is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, Canada and has spent the past 40 years researching and working with multilingual learners across the world. His controversial theoretical distinction between conversational versus academic language proficiency is a key topic in pre-service and professional development related to the education of minority group students who are learning the language of instruction.

Jim Cummins is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, Canada and has spent the past 40 years researching and working with multilingual learners across the world. His controversial theoretical distinction between conversational versus academic language proficiency is a key topic in pre-service and professional development related to the education of multilingual students who are learning the language of instruction.