Papers by Patrick H Smith
Bilingual Research Journal, 2002
This article describes a highly successful bilingual education program at Davis Bilingual Magnet ... more This article describes a highly successful bilingual education program at Davis Bilingual Magnet School in Tucson, Arizona. After two decades of bilingual schooling in which children of all language backgrounds study content via both Spanish and English, Davis has developed strong community support through special attention to additive bilingualism/biliteracy and by creating a challenging and nurturing learning environment. By examining the school's long-term success from the perspectives of teachers, families, and dual language immersion students themselves, the study highlights successful bilingual schooling in a manner that acknowledges but goes beyond performance on standardized tests.
Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 2015
Few studies have explored how the literacies of immigrant parents are influenced by participation... more Few studies have explored how the literacies of immigrant parents are influenced by participation in their children’s emerging biliteracy. This study addressed this lacuna using a qualitative case study design to investigate the biliteracy development of Arab immigrant mothers in the U.S. Southwest. We used the framework of digital biliteracy to study participants’ literacy practices in Arabic and English and how these changed in the process of raising bilingual/biliterate children. As participants experienced life changes as immi- grants, mothers, and language learners, they navigated this work through forms of digital technologies previously unfamiliar to them. They learned new words in both languages and developed digital literacy skills needed to use computers, tablets, and cell phones; access the Internet; create e-mail accounts; and translate terms across English and Arabic. The study contributes to knowledge of the literacy practices of Arab immigrant families and offers implications for research and practice.
Teacher Librarian, 2020
A growing number of schools offer dual language (DL) programs, where students from two language b... more A growing number of schools offer dual language (DL) programs, where students from two language backgrounds learn together through both languages. Unlike transitional bilingual programs, which use children’s home language as a temporary bridge to English literacy, DL programs are “additive” forms of bilingual education that aim to help all children become bilingual and biliterate, most frequently in Spanish and English. This article provides guidance for teacher librarians in schools with a DL program. We describe challenges and solutions involved in building a dual language school library.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 2019
Research on discourse in African classrooms has shown the predominance of teacher centered instru... more Research on discourse in African classrooms has shown the predominance of teacher centered instruc- tional practices. Teacher centered discourse patterns have been blamed for student passivity and disengagement in knowledge production. In this article, we investigate teachers' use of the invariant tag isn't it in Kenyan primary classrooms during ELA and math lessons. Using Bernstein's pedagogical device theory, we submit that the tag plays a regulative function in classroom discourse. Based on our findings, we argue for greater attention to teachers' language choices and discuss implications for classroom discourse practice and research.
Online Conference Proceedings, Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics 2018, Mar 1, 2019
Schoolchildren in U.S. are officially categorized as “at risk” by virtue of being home speakers o... more Schoolchildren in U.S. are officially categorized as “at risk” by virtue of being home speakers of a language other than English (González & Artiles 2015). Like the constructs “language gap” (Avineri et al. 2015) and “word gap” (García & Otheguy 2017), the term “language barrier” reflects how schools come to equate bilingualism with learning deficits. The objective of the study was to explore how language barriers might be created, reinforced or challenged through use of digital literacies and educational technology.
In this conceptual article we invite multilingual researchers to consider the concept of translan... more In this conceptual article we invite multilingual researchers to consider the concept of translanguaging through the lens of human capital theory. Our thinking about the interconnections among human capital, multilingualism, and translanguaging is motivated by our research in border colonias and other minoritized communities in South Texas, and we begin by describing these globalized Mexican diaspora communities located on the U.S.-Mexico border. We provide a brief overview of translanguaging by connecting this concept to similar terms used in related disciplines of interest to multilingualism research. We discuss how human capital has been used in educational research before outlining six forms of capital that offer potential for understanding how multilingualism can be fos- tered in and out of schools. We conclude with suggestions for empirical research on multilingual literacies and translanguaging
Teacher Education & Practice, 2015
International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2015
Colonias are unincorporated neighborhoods found in the southwest US that may lack services such a... more Colonias are unincorporated neighborhoods found in the southwest US that may lack services such as potable water, electricity, and/or paved streets. In preparing a literature review of colonias for a manuscript we found that most research conducted was survey research in the areas of health and infrastructure. Research was conducted on colonias and their residents with little consultation with participants. Research we conducted with children and youth in one colonia used photovoice and oral history for data collection. This led to a very different portrait of a colonia and resulted in a discussion of the influence of data collection methods on research results. We argue that any work in colonias need to begin by engaging community members in the design of any research project. Research in colonias and similar communities can benefit from participatory action research methods to uncover data that is lost when the researcher is unfamiliar with the workings of a community. We suggest that the inclusion of colonias residents is essential in ensuring that results of research in these communities are sound. We discuss practices that can enhance research in colonias and similar communities.
Bilingual teachers in an established Spanish/English dual language program in Tucson, Arizona, Un... more Bilingual teachers in an established Spanish/English dual language program in Tucson, Arizona, United States rejected one-size-fits-all literacy testing. They created an alternative form of assessing children's biliteracy development that reflected the school's commitment to listening to children and recognizing that there are multiple paths to literacy. Dr. Elizabeth Arnot-Hopffer (qepd) was the lead author and Bilingual Curriculum Specialist/Spanish Reading teacher at the school.
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Papers by Patrick H Smith