Bilingualism, Second Language, and Literacy Development
Time: Asynchronous with no face-to-face meetings
Location: Online
Who Should Enroll?
The course is designed for K - 12 educators who are seeking to partially fulfill the subject matter knowledge requirements for Massachusetts bilingual education endorsement, or for any teacher who is interested in deepening their understandings about contemporary theory and research in bilingualism and second language acquisition as they pertain to daily classroom practice.
Course Description:
This course is designed to provide practitioners with exposure to contemporary theory and research in bilingualism and literacy, with an eye toward instructional applications. The content covered in this course applies across any instructional context in which multilingual learners are present. Such settings include: Transitional and dual language bilingual education, ESL, SEI, and “mainstream” classrooms. The course is a hybrid course model, with a majority of coursework taking place online, with periodic face-to-face meetings, and assignments that are meant to interface with your day-to-day responsibilities as a teacher, interventionist, specialist, or administrator.
Course Benefits:
Completion of the course will provide exposure to the following topics:
- First language development, bilingual language development, and second language acquisition;
- Processes of literacy and biliteracy development and their relationship with first language development, bilingual language development, and second language acquisition;
- Theories of bilingualism as a social, cognitive, educational, and political phenomenon;
- Issues of assessment, the measurement of bilingualism, content knowledge, and English proficiency;
- Bilingualism, exceptional learners, and special education;
- Ideologies, identities, and language maintenance: Who gets to be bilingual, and who gets celebrated for it?
Certification of Completion:
Please note participants will not receive academic credit nor a transcript documenting their participation in this workshop series. However, all participants will be awarded a certificate of completion and Professional Development points to apply to their professional development plans.
Fees and Policies:
Payment is due by credit card at registration. Tuition includes all instructional materials.
Refunds will only be granted up until the course begins. No refunds will be granted for registration or technical errors on the participant's part (such as incorrect name/email, login failure, etc.).
Additional offerings from the Lynch School Professional & Continuing Education Office can be found on our website.
Course Facilitators
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Brenda Luo is a first year doctoral student in the Curriculum and Instruction program at Boston College. She is interested in studying the many issues surrounding bilingual education and multilingual learners with a focus on early elementary grades. Prior to entering her doctoral studies, Brenda taught for 10 years in the New York City public school system as a Spanish-English bilingual educator in grades K-2. She is passionate about creating learning environments that celebrate and uplift students' many linguistic and cultural identities. She holds a B.S. in Social Policy from Northwestern University and a Master's Degree in Bilingual Childhood Education from CUNY-Hunter College. She speaks Spanish and English, and is working on rebuilding her proficiency in Mandarin. |
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Mariam Gorbea Ramy has a Bachelor's in Applied Psychology and a Master's in Elementary Education, with a Urban and Bilingual focus, from Boston College. She worked in BPS as a Spanish teacher in Dual Language schools. She now creates curriculum that integrates Puerto Rican experiences with STEM skills as Director of Curriculum and Programs in an NPO in Puerto Rico. Ms. Gorbea Ramy is a native speaker of English and Spanish, is proficient in French, and continues to learn Lebanese Arabic. |