RESEARCH DIGEST: TESOL TOPICS IN OTHER JOURNALS This section presents brief synopses of empirical research and theoretical discussions in peerreviewed journals The aim is to disseminate findings and perspectives in fields related to TESOL and to provide access to the diverse conversations among scholars in the field Edited by SARA MICHAEL-LUNA Rutgers University ESL Parents and Teachers: Toward Dialogue? Language and Education, 8, 17–33 Yan Guo and Bernard Mohan, 2008 What lies underneath the miscommunication and difference between immigrant parents and ESL teachers? The authors examine intercultural (mis)communication between high school ESL teachers and immigrant parents by using a systemic functional linguistics perspective to contextualize the conflict that occurs Guo and Mohan examine the discourse during a Parents Night event that aimed to “increase understanding” of the high school ESL program ESL teachers and bilingual teaching assistances planned the Parent Night event to (a) present parents with general information on the Canadian educational system and the local ESL program, (b) assist parents in understanding the progress of language acquisition and learning for ESL students through the ESL program levels and into mainstream classrooms, and (c) “to demonstrate students’ strengths” in language acquisition through “presentations/ activity” (p 25) Guo and Mohan used observations, interviews, and focal groups to collect data over a 3-year period and found several tensions around teacher and parent aims during Parents Night: (a) Teachers focused on “the best use for student time in ESL” programs, and (b) parents focused on “their child’s progress to graduation” (p 24) The parents were further broken into two groups: new parents, who were interested in obtaining general information about the ESL program, and experienced parents, who were more interested in their child’s exit from the ESL program The parents’ concerns highlighted a tension between language learning and content learning suggesting “an almost insoluble dilemma of balancing language development with subject-matter development in the mainstream” (p 30) Guo and Mohan warn that these tensions, which in the case study presented led to immigrant parents’ negative perceptions of ESL programs, have played out in unproductive local and national ESL policies TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 42, No 2, June 2008 335 One Authentic Early Literacy Practice and Three Standardized Tests: Can a Storytelling Curriculum Measure Up? Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 28, 251–275 Patricia M Cooper, Karen Capo, Bernie Mathes, and Lincoln Gray, 2007 Does Vivian Paley’s storytelling curriculum make a difference for young children’s language and literacy learning in early childhood programs? The authors compared prekindergarten and kindergarten children’s vocabulary and literacy knowledge in a storytelling curriculum to a traditional skills-based literacy approach Just as in Guo and Mohan’s article, reviewed earlier, Cooper et al point to the tension in early childhood education between a child-centered vision, which focuses on learning (language) through play, and a subject-matter, skills-based curriculum Using pre- and postmeasures (AGS/Pearson Assessment’s Expressive Vocabulary Test, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and Whitehurst’s Get Ready to Read!) on the curriculum intervention, Cooper et al showed significant gains in vocabulary knowledge and literacy skills The storytelling curriculum begins by having a young child dictate (tell) a story to a teacher or caretaker who is free to ask questions of the child The child determines the story content and form After the story has been written, the child and her peers dramatize the story with the teacher acting as director Cooper et al note how the storytelling curriculum was adapted for English language learners in English dominant classrooms: “Teachers cooperate on a variety of methods, from key vocabulary and peer assistance to small objects and ‘show me’ to help the children see his or her story written down and acted out, however limited his or her English proficiency” (p 256) For English language teachers interested in learning more about the story telling curriculum, Cooper et al provide a number of resources The Role of Culture in Engaging Latino Parents’ Involvement in School Urban Education, 42, 145–162 Yvonne De Gaetano, 2007 How can schools work to actively involve Latino parents? De Gaetano presents the findings from a 3-year project working with Latino parents in urban schools Many of the questions posed and issues uncovered in Guo and Mahon, reviewed earlier, are directly addressed by the parent/ community-school partnership created and described in De Gaetano’s work De Gaetano begins by sharing her team’s assumptions: (a) “most parents want the very best for their children,” (b) “a great deal of learn336 TESOL QUARTERLY ing goes on in the home,” (c) “parental support for children’s school learning can take place in the home, at school, or at the district and community levels” (p 149) She then carefully describes the 3-year procedure her team used to gain entry, engage the parents, and support the parents and teachers (through workshops) The team emphasized “parents as learners, as teachers, and as transmitters of culture” (p 155) in the second year of the project, and in the third year, prepared parents “to present the culturally relevant approach of parent participation” (p 157) De Gaetano showed her intervention to have a significant impact in parent participation in instructional aspects of their children’s classrooms, reporting an increase of 30% in parental participation Because Latino parents are often marginalized because of language, race, and culture, the project’s Freirean focus on parental empowerment is especially salient for TESOL educators and researchers Language Learning and the Politics of Belonging: Sudanese Women Refugees Becoming and Being “American.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 38, pp 343–359 Doris S Warriner, 2007 How new immigrants navigate, resist, and reproduce the dominant discourse ideologies of an adult ESL program? Warriner examines three Sudanese refugees’ experiences as language learners and new immigrants in an adult ESL program over a 2-year period The three women’s distinct narratives and understandings uncover a tension between the dominant discourse of the ESL program and our larger society, which includes the assumption that English proficiency will lead to employment and membership in U.S society Warriner’s careful description of the women’s experiences suggests that the English language learning experience provided by the adult ESL program led to high or advance language proficiency but did “not always translate into economic selfsufficiency or social mobility” (p 344) While the women’s narratives took up the assumptions and values of the master narrative (English proficiency will lead to employment), their experiences suggest that, “English does not necessarily confer the social, cultural, economic, or political capital necessary to achieve ‘substantial citizenship’” (p 355) Warriner’s in-depth analysis and framing give a nuanced look at the complicated transformation of dominant ideologies to lived experience Warriner’s theoretical lens would be of great interest to TESOL researchers interested in globalization and immigrant experiences, and her description of the ESL program and the Sudanese women’s experiences would be of interest to TESOL professionals working with adult immigrant populations RESEARCH DIGEST 337