immigrant minority languages; underprivileged multilingual families; language maintenance; FLP; educational policies

Research supports the conclusion that disadvantaged multilingual children benefit from instructional support in the home language. In addition to research summaries using meta-analysis of studies in the United States (NASEM, 2017), Reljić et al. (2015) conducted a meta-analysis of bilingual education programs in Europe and also found that bilingual approaches achieved better outcomes. Still, the underlying causes for the effect are not well understand, suggesting the need for empirical evaluation of competing theories.
This presentation considers three theories of language education program effects which vary in the degree to which they accept children’s home language as an asset. An asset perspective affirms and draws out community- and home-based knowledge, culture, and language as part of the school curriculum, permitting these to form a bridge to school-based teaching and learning for non-dominant groups just as they do for dominant groups (MacSwan, 2018). While the time-on-task theory rejects the home language in educational contexts altogether, the threshold hypothesis accepts the home language as an instructional resource but not as an asset, as it incorporates semilingualism, a deficit view of children’s home language. The transfer theory, however, accepts the home language as both a resource and an asset.
This presentation summarizes recent research (MacSwan et al., 2017) evaluating these three theories. Participants were 196 sixth graders with Spanish language backgrounds who started learning English in kindergarten and then were continuously enrolled in a U.S. school. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the extent to which first and second language and literacy – skills that are emphasized differentially in these competing theories – predict academic achievement. Results indicated Spanish literacy, over and above English language proficiency, was substantially predictive of academic achievement, favoring the transfer theory.