There is greater linguistic diversity in American public schools than ever before, and teachers and administrators report significant challenges in helping newly arrived bilingual students transition into an English language classroom (Center for Public Education, 2012; National Education Association, 2014). To support their linguistic and cultural needs, the majority of schools have adopted “English-only” or “English immersion” strategies as the best model, pushing them to “sink or swim” in English-only classrooms. With such pervasive interventions, newly arrived bilingual students are often placed into an English as Second Language (ESL) pull-out program. Given that they are unwillingly separated and miss class time, they may experience a…show more content… Several studies have shown that greater school support for the home language can lead to higher long-term academic attainment (see, e.g., Lindholm-Leary, 2001; Thomas & Collier, 2002; Krashen, Rolstad & MacSwan, 2007). Emergent bilinguals who receive instruction in their home language often outperform their peers receiving English-only instruction (Baker, 2006; Krashen & McField, 2005; Tazi,…show more content… In particular, this project aims to develop a technology-based instruction-aid program, “Easy to Land”, that enables emergent bilingual students to quickly pick up common discourse patterns and words frequently used in a classroom and that helps them learn content with both English and their home language in and out of the classroom. The central hypothesis is that newly emergent bilinguals can actively participate in class activities and as such, successfully transition in English language classrooms with the support of the effective translanguaging strategy. The long-term goal of this project is to help newly arrived bilingual students effectively transition into English language classrooms, minimizing social and academic problems and difficulties. Toward this end, this project proposes following two aims:
1. Aim 1: Develop a technology-based translanguaging intervention, “Easy to Land.”
2. Aim 2: Examine the effectiveness of the proposed intervention on newly arrived bilinguals’ transition and their competency with learning in an English language classroom
• Students with the “Easy to Land” program will increase their participation in class activities and exhibit a higher academic achievement as compared to students with the conventional ESL
