| With an increasingly larger non-native English speaking population of children entering schools today, policy-makers have attempted to address the issue of language diversity in the schools by applying “problem-oriented” approaches to language policy. In these approaches, language policy has been a vehicle toward “delimiting the range of acceptable attitudes toward language, making certain attitudes legitimate, and determining what is thinkable about language in society” (Ruiz, 1984; p. 4). In this perspective, bilingualism is viewed as a problem to be resolved and corrected. For this research study, however, by applying sociocultural historical theories of learning and language (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Ochs, 1988; Rogoff, 1990, 1995) the goal was to identify the ways in which bilingual students in one classroom organized as a Community of Learners utilized their linguistic resources while learning literacy and developing a second language. In particular, the goal of the study was to identify how bilingual student's linguistic resources mediated their learning of literacy and development of language. With the application of ethnographic research methods and discourse analysis techniques, classroom literacy practices were examined. Specifically, the results showed that by organizing learning as a Community of Learners the students had routine opportunities to develop literacy and second- language competencies through interaction. Through the incorporation of a collaborative culture of learning where students assisted one another, structuring teacher and student roles symmetrically and mutually reflexive, and organizing meaningful, context-embedded literacy activities, the students had maximum opportunities to observe and practice language use in interaction. As such, a Community of Learners organization of learning offered students opportunities to utilize individual linguistic resources in the process of literacy and second-language development.; Specifically, the students utilized a variety of linguistic resources and strategies in the management of talk in interaction and in the management of activity. They include: code switching, repetition, repair, “ word searches”, and “wordplay”. The results show that the student's bilingualism played a productive role in the learning of literacy and development of language. |
