Charmian Kenner and her Contribution to on Biliteracy - Research Paper Example

Theorists in Educational Psychology Charmian Kenner and her Contribution to Research on Biliteracy among Young Children and the Development of their Early Writing Skills Abstract Kenner Charmian is a theorist in educational psychology who has researched on bilingual children and the development of their early writing skills in home and community settings. She has written extensively on the subject to provide insight into the world of such children, Her major research project, named Signs of Difference, involved six case studies of young bilingual children simultaneously learning two different writing systems. These children were found to be able to grasp both writing systems and their underlying principles well, which also led to an enhancement of their understanding as well. She therefore offers several recommendations for developing successful multilingual initiatives to promote biliteracy, especially for mainstream teachers who tend to disregard biliteracy. Introduction Kenner Charmian is a prominent present-day theorist in the field of educational psychology. Her main research interest is in bilingualism and literacy with a focus on the development of early writing skills among children based in home and community settings (Goldsmiths, 2013). Her main area of concern is with the lack of attention given to bilingual children, especially in mainstream education, and the potential that biliteracy offers if exploited properly. This paper details her background and discusses her main contributions in the field through mentioning her main publications, both books and journal articles, and highlighting her major research projects. The three articles chosen as representative works of the author for discussion in this paper are Finding the keys to biliteracy: how young children interpret different writing systems (Kenner et al., 2004), Living in simultaneous worlds: difference and integration in bilingual script-learning (Kenner, 2004), and The multisemiotic resources of biliterate children (Kenner & Kress, 2003). Background and Influence Charmian Kenner completed her doctorate at Southampton University in 1996 on the creation of multilingual literacy environments in early years settings (Goldsmiths, 2013). She is currently a full-time lecturer at the school of Culture, Language and Communication, Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London where she is a deputy director of the school and a member of the Research and other Committees. Previously, she has taught at the Open University, Lancaster University and Thames Valley University. She also contributes regularly in the training of early years educators and primary teachers. A look at the sources used by Charmian in the three articles selected show that she uses the publications of Kress, G. and of Sassoon, R. the most. She also quotes from renowned linguists such as Chomsky, N. Fairclough, N. and Hymes, D., as well as her own other publications so these aforementioned authors have probably had the most intellectual influence on her. For information on Chinese children, she lists Chan, L. in the list of references in particular, and Al-Khatibs work on Arab bilingual children. Major contributions She is also the author of a number of books on bilingualism and multilingualism, which include Becoming Biliterate: Young Children Learning Different Writing Systems (Kenner, 2004b), and Multilingual Europe: Diversity and Learning (Kenner & Hickey, 2008). The former was prepared to assist early years educators to better understand how children learn to write in more than one language at the same time, and the second is on successful multilingual initiatives that educators from different countries can learn about from each other. Another more recent book is titled Interconnecting Worlds: Teaching Partnerships for Bilingual Learning (Kenner & Ruby, 2012). All her books are published by Trentham Books in Stoke-on-Trent. The first book (Becoming Biliterate) mentioned above reports on the case studies of six year old bilingual children that is the focus of this paper. It presents the findings from a research project she conducted during 2000 to 2002 named Signs of Difference: how young children learn to write in different script systems at the London Institute of Education in collaboration with other advisers. This study was one of the first ever such case studies conducted in depth on the topic. Another project named Intergenerational learning between children and grandparents in East London conducted in 2003-2004 led to a pioneering study on the learning exchanges between the two generations within the home environment. Participation in a Multilingual Europe seminar series resulted in setting up a European wide researcher network. At present (as of 2013), Charmian is researching on the contribution of complementary schooling on childrens educational achievement, and on how links develop between mainstream and complementary teachers. The latest book on Interconnecting Worlds was prepared to assist mainstream teachers, teacher educators and policymakers in their classroom practices and in formulating school policies for taking advantage of the potential offered by being biliterate. This is in the context of many mainstream teachers being unaware of bilingual students other worlds, which leads to their identities being either hidden or marginalised. And, the book is inspired from two action research projects Charmian undertook in East London. Among the several articles she has written are the 3 that will be reviewed, as well as several more on topics relating to transliteration and intergenerational learning among others, mostly concerning bilingual children. One of her earliest of articles published in a journal was on The multisemiotic resources of biliterate children, which was published in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and one of her most recent was titled Transliteration as a bridge to learning for bilingual children, which was published in the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. She has also published in other journals including Literacy, Language and Education, and in Language, Culture and Curriculum. Charmians major research projects The Signs of Difference project involved six British children learning English alongside either Arabic, Chinese or Spanish through literacy activities at home, primary school or community language school. Teachers and parents of the children were interviewed about their childrens literacy experiences and learning progress. The focus was on what the children already knew and what they hypothesised about the different writing systems they were formally learning simultaneously. Further insight was gained from writing samples by observing sessions of peer teaching during which time the children were being taught how to write in the other language by their classmates. This provided the sociocultural basis for the childrens interpretations of the writing systems. The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The other advisers in the project were Hayat al-Khatib for the Arabic students, Gwen Kwok and Kuan-Chun Tsai for the Chinese students and Roy Kam for fieldwork and analysis. The participating schools were the Arabic Community School in Hounslow, the Lambeth Chinese Community School, the Latin American Saturday School, and other primary schools. In Finding the keys to biliteracy, Charmian discussed how young bilingual children understand the underlying principles of different writing systems. She reports on the above mentioned Signs of Difference project in which six case studies were conducted of bilingual children. Her findings showed that the young emergent biliterates grasped different writing system concepts by producing interpretations of the input they gained from their family and teachers on their own. This helped them to understand the principles underlying the different writing systems, and the children also used available vocabulary for verbalising their thoughts. She then discussed whether having to deal with multiple writing systems contributed to heightening such understandings, and whether there is a general propensity to search for principles present in graphical representation. Her study supports previous research in finding some instances to enhance understanding when dealing with more than one writing system. She remarked, “...Their simultaneous encounters with other writing systems seem to have engendered reflection about the principles involved... at an abstract level”. In short, the children were found to cope well with the different writing systems together. They were not confused; rather, they were able to comprehend the principles of each system and experienced cognitive benefits. Moreover, the stimulation and enhancement of their awareness suggests the usefulness of providing biliterate experiences not only to bilingual but also to monolingual children. Charmian Kenner thus believes there is a need for greater recognition of the potential cognitive gains made by children from minority families who become biliterate among mainstream educators so as to offer the biliterate children better support, as well as offer non-biliterate children the same opportunities. In another article on Living in simultaneous worlds, the researcher suggests the linguistic and cultural experiences of bilingual children are not as separate but simultaneous entities. This was based on her finding that the six bilingual children were able to not only differentiate between the two writing systems, but that they also made connections between the representations of each of them, which gave them greater semiotic flexibility. The children were able to integrate their resources and synthesise them. The graphic symbols were seen as signifier material for transforming meaning across the two systems. Knowledge and understanding of multiple writing systems thus provided the children with a greater range of semiotic resources for representing and constructing their own identities as writers. The third article continues with exploring the enhancement to childrens communicative resources due to their familiarity with two different writing systems. The different scripts can be perceived as separate modes, which allow bilingual children to make meanings. This is understood as the children in the six case studies were seen benefitting from their bilingual knowledge with respect to the characteristics of symbol design, directionality and spatial framing of the different writing systems. Charmians multimodal analysis of the children showed they constructed embodied knowledges based on actional and visual dispositions from using the multiple scripts. The flexibility that this situation offers from using multilingual and multimodal communication has the potential to become an asset for young children. The multimodality aspect is due to writing having both actional and visual modes, and due to the different modal possibilities of each script. This enabled the children to conceptualise multifaceted written symbols and multidirectional textual spaces. Charmians contributions to the field Charmian Kenners contribution to the field is significant because little research has previously been done on biliteracy. This is despite the recognition of the importance of bilingualism because it is believed that children are prone to become confused if they have to deal with another writing system. Evidence however, points to the contrary in that young children are found to be flexible as learners who can easily adapt to different teaching styles and can understand and use different writing systems, including their scripts and symbols. Moreover, the children who participated in the Signs of Difference project were found to be able to make effective use of input from teachers, parents and siblings for creating their own ideas of the writing mechanism. As Charmian remarked, the multilingual and multimodal abilities developed by bilingual students provide them with considerable advantages within a global context in which there is an increasing use of communication in several languages and modes. On the other hand, this potential from being biliterate is largely restricted in societies in which the English language is dominant as a first language and other languages and bilingualism are not valued and therefore received little, if any, support. Charmian Kenners research supports the case for promoting biliteracy so that young children can benefit from their enhanced communicative capacities in a world that is increasingly being shaped by multilingual and multimodal requirements. Her suggestions for ways of doing this are clearly specified in her latest book on Interconnecting Worlds in which she recommends cooperation between the mainstream and complementary teachers, establishing rapport with students, helping them to become independent learners, creating a learning community, etc. In short, she recommends connecting the different worlds of the bilingual child together in a way that supports biliteracy and helps to make their learning thrive. References Goldsmiths. (2013). Charmian Kenner. Goldsmiths, University of London. Retrieved March 2013 from http://www.gold.ac.uk/educational-studies/staff/kenner. Kenner, Charmian & Kress, Gunther. (2003). The multisemiotic resources of biliterate children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 3: 179-202. Kenner, Charmian. (2004). Living in simultaneous worlds: difference and integration in bilingual script-learning. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7(1): 43-61. Kenner, Charmian. (2004b). Becoming biliterate: Young children learning different writing systems. Trentham Books. Kenner, Charmian; Kress, Gunther; Al-Khatib, Hayat; Kam, Roy & Tsai, Kuan-Chun. (2004). Finding the keys to biliteracy: how young children interpret different writing systems. Language and Education, 18(2): 124-144. Kenner, Charmian & Ruby, Mahera. (2012). Interconnecting worlds: teacher partnerships for bilingual learning. Trentham Books. Read More