Cognitive Vs. Confluent Approaches to Instruction Via a Weaker Language
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1973 Cognitive vs. confluent approaches to instruction via a weaker language. Robert Kenyon Walker University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Walker, Robert Kenyon, "Cognitive vs. confluent approaches to instruction via a weaker language." (1973). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2742. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2742 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COGNITIVE VS. CONFLUENT APPROACHES TO INSTRUCTION VIA A WEAKER LANGUAGE A Dissertation Presented by Robert Kenyon Walker Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION June 1973 Major Subject Educational Research (c) Robert Kenyon Walker All Rights Reserved COGNITIVE VERSUS CONFLUENT APPROACHES TO INSTRUCTION VIA A WEAKER LANGUAGE A Dissertation By Robert Kenyon Walker Approved as to style and content by: Dr. Daniel C. Chairman of Comi f l( Dr.mmDwight W. 'Allen Head of Department Dr. Jimmie C. Fortune /Member 0 i It A ij .iku Dr./D<k avid Day Membe r December, 1972 To my daughter, Shanta Navva'b. May she be immersed in many languages and cultures, and glory in their diversity even as she radi- ates the oneness she herself exemplifies. And may her head and her heart be united, even as the light and the heat of the sun. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In conducting the research for this dissertation and for the evalu- ation of the Lewiston Bilingual Project, I have had the privilege of con- sulting with outstanding scholars who are also warm human beings. Dr. Wallace Lambert, a pioneer in the study of attitudes and second language learning and of education via a weaker language, provided valuable in- formation and suggestions, as did his colleague G. Richard Tucker. In the area of language acquisition and its relation to second language learn- ing, David McNeill imparted a great deal of understanding during his short visit to Lewiston. M. C. Casserly, Research Officer for the Ottawa Roman Catholic provided Separate School Board, sent two hefty evaluation documents, Ottawa pro- numerous details about the operation and evaluation of the Lambert and grams, and sent test materials. Administrators of the St. observe teaching Montreal Protestant school systems kindly allowed me to and testing in their French immersion classrooms. attempting a partial Dr. Donald Dugas conceived of the idea of comparing confluent and replication of the immersion experiments, and of French. He masterminded and di- cognitive approaches to instruction via His expertise in linguistics, French, rected the Lewiston bilingual project. approach enabled him not only to bilingual education and the confluent successfully direct the project but also to educate me in these fields. The harmonious blend of head and heart in his own personality made it a joyful and rewarding experience to be associated with him. The members of my doctoral committee guided my studies at the uni- versity and later provided helpful assistance at long distance during the various stages of the dissertation research. Knowing Dr. Daniel Jordan, chairman of my guidance and dissertation committees, as a scholar and as a friend, has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. Dr. Jimmie Fortune has taught me much of what I know about educational research and evaluation. He was kind enough to come up from Princeton, where he is currently with Educational Testing Service, for the defense of the disserta- tion. I have worked closely with Dr. David Day, the third member of the dissertation committee, in the areas of language and early childhood edu- cation. His comments on the draft of the dissertation were particularly helpful. Dr. Thomas Hutchinson made the valuable suggestion that multi- variate analysis of variance be employed. Mr. Stanley Wileman of the University of Houston Computing Center provided valuable assistance in programming, adapting programs, and advising me about the use of the uni- versity computer system. My wife, Zlmarian, was working and completing her dissertation during a chaotic at the same time as I. Her stability and encouragement vi period in our lives deserve special thanks. Our daughter, Shanta, has had to sacrifice many hours with her parents. Hopefully the benefits of being immersed in a second language (with our Mexican-American baby- sitter) will partially compensate for her limited parental contact during this crucial period of her life. vii COGNITIVE VS. CONFLUENT APPROACHES TO INSTRUCTION VIA A WEAKER LANGUAGE Abstract of a Dissertation Presented by Robert Kenyon Walker Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION June 1973 Major Subject Educational Research ABSTRACT Cognitive vs. Confluent Approaches to Instruction via a Weaker Language. (June 1973) Robert K. Walker, B. A. , University of Michigan M. S., Cornell University Directed by: Dr. Daniel C. Jordan The evaluation of the Lewiston (Maine) Bilingual Project was un- dertaken to determine whether the successful results produced by programs in the Montreal and Ottawa areas (beginning with the St. Lambert experi- ment of Lambert, et al.) in which anglophone first graders were instructed via French could be obtained in a predominantly Franco-American city in which French is dying out among the young. A research qua stion was whether a traditional "cognitive" approach similar to the approaches taken in the Canadian projects or a "confluent" approach combining affective and cognitive elements would be more successful. These approaches were operationally defined by a number of process objectives, the accomplish- ment of which was monitored daily. In the Canadian classrooms, the children were immersed in French in which instruc- almost all of the time, except in certain Ottawa classes , This was the tion via French was restricted to seventy-five minutes a day. maximum average duration of the French period in the Lewiston classes. The Canadian classrooms relied primarily on whole group instruction. In contrast, the one confluent and two cognitive classes in one of the Lewis- ton schools adopted grouping arrangements such that one half or one third of the class was instructed via French at a time. This reduced the amount of time each child was exposed to French. In the other school, both classes relied on whole group instruction. In this school, the class which was assigned to be confluent actually adopted a unique approach which we termed mixed. Confluent activities were not begun until after two months of class. A wide range and large number of cognitive and confluent activ- ities were employed. Oral textbook reading and recitation were employed. Tests of French phoneme production, verbal expression, receptive competence, and reading were administered, as well as achievement tests. In addition, an aspect of empathy was tested by a test requiring the subject to match facial photographs on the basis of perceived feelings. In the school with grouping, figural form B of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking was also administered. Comparisons among all five classes and among the classes in each school were made by analysis of variance. In addition, a multivariate analysis of variance was executed within each school, using variables with little missing data. For evaluative purposes comparisons were made with various groups, including other Lewiston classes, data reported in test manuals, and the Canadian projects. Some cross-year and pre-post comparisons were made. x The results showed that the Lewiston project was not nearly as successful as the Canadian projects in promoting French language devel- opment, although it was much more successful than FLES (Foreign Lang- uage in the Elementary Schools) programs. There were no overall differ- ences among the five classes or among the three classes at the school with grouping. At the school in which whole group instruction was em- ployed, the difference between the classes by multivariate analysis of variance was significant at the .01 level. All comparisons favored the mixed class over the cognitive class except one, although only two uni- variate analyses of variance showed significant differences. The poorer results in the language area relative to the children in the Canadian experiments may have been largely due to differing socio- linguistic factors and to the program limitations of the Lewiston project mentioned above. In the Lewiston setting, neither the cognitive nor the confluent approach proved superior to the other. Likewise, neither whole group nor small group instruction proved superior. Between classes em- ploying whole group instruction, however, the class in which cognitive activities were increasingly supplemented by confluent activities and formal French reading proved superior to the strictly cognitive class in which French reading was barely introduced. xi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v ABSTRACT viii LIST OF TABLES xv Chapter I. INSTRUCTION VIA A WEAKER LANGUAGE: THE "COGNITIVE” APPROACH