Immigrant and Refugee Experience:

Acculturation Process

DMPS Professional Development

Monday, Feb 21, 20112:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

Hy-Vee Hall 3

Goals:• Learn about DMPS Student Population

and Its Trend

• Understand the Acculturation Process

Thinking about English Language Learnersin the U.S.

• More immigrants arrived in the 1990s than any other decade on record.

• Today, students in our schools speak more than 450 languages.

• More than 12% of all pre-K-12 are considered English language learners.

• By the year 2015, more than 50% of all students K-12 in public schools across the US will not speak English as their first language.

Gray, T. & Fleischman, S., (2004), Successful strategies for English language learner

Thinking about English Language Learnersin the State of Iowa and DMPS

• In Iowa

• In DMPS

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

White African Native American Hispanic Asian Multi-racial

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

1980

1990

2000

2010

1970

14.6 14.7 14.9 15.1 15.4 1590.0% 16.5 17 17.8 18.816.9 16.8

4.7 4.7 4.4 4.6 4.6 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.9 5.3 5.2 5.57.3 8.3

9.410.7

12.113.2 14.2 14.8 15.8 16.7

20.1 21

72.7 71.770.5

68.967.2

65.764 63

60.958.8

51.449.9

5.9 6.2

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

10019

99

-20

00

20

00

-01

20

01-

02

20

02

-03

20

03

-04

20

04

-05

20

05

-06

20

06

-07

20

07

-08

20

08

-09

20

09

-10

20

10-1

1

DMPS Enrollment Trend (% of Ethnic Groups from 2000)

African-American

Asian

Hispanic

White

Multiracial -new

group as of 09-10

ELL PROGRAM ENROLLMENT FROM 2000 TO SEPTEMBER 2010

2669

3122 31673309

3514

37033722

3801

4104

45414525

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 As Sept

2010

ELL ENROLLMENT AS SEPTEMBER 2010 BY LANGUAGE GROUPS

Language

0%

Arabic

5%

Bosnian

2%Burmese

1%

Creoles English based

2% Dinka

1%Karen

3% Lao

2% Nepali

2% Rundi

1%

Somali

3%

Spanish

60%

Swahili

1%

Vietnamese

5%

Others

12%

Kareni, Krahn, KunamaCreoles French

• Acoli Afrikaans Akan Amharic

• Assamese Bambara Basa Braj

• Chinese Corsican Creoles and pidgins (Other)

• Croatian Ewe Faroese French Ganda

• German Grebo Hindi Hmong Igbo

• Kannada Kikuyu Kinyarwanda Kurdish Kwanyama

• Lingala Mandingo Mende Mongo Mon-Khmer

• Newari Nilo-Saharan Nubian languages Persian

• Pushto Romanian Russian Serbian Shan

• Somali Soninke Sorbian languages Sundanese

• Swahili Tagalog Tai (Other) Tamil Telugu

• Thai Tigrinya Yoruba Zapotec

…So What is an Acculturation?

Acculturation is a process in which members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and behaviors of another group.

Although acculturation is usually in

the direction of a minority group

adopting habits and language

patterns of the dominant group,

acculturation can be reciprocal that

is, the dominant group

also adopts patterns

typical of the

minority group. Main Culture

Sudanese

Bosnian

HispanicBurmese

Vietnamese

Factors Affect Students’ Acculturation

• Migration Experience– Tourist

– being a short term visitor

– being a long term visitor

– Immigrant

– Refugee – time living in the camp, family separation or loss

• Perceived Social Distance– Cultural identity and affiliation

– Language preference and use

– Social behavior orientation

• Support (Network) System– Family

– Community

• Others– Age

– Personality

Varieties of Acculturation vs. Language Development

Assimilation

C1/L1 replaced by C2/L2

Integration

C1/L1 blended with C2/L2

De-culturation

Neither C1/L1 nor C2/L2

Rejectionintentionally

C1/L1 without C2/L2Or C2/L2 without C1/L1

Cross Cultural Development, Collier 2004

Cross Cultural Development, Collier 2004

Mental Isolation

DisenchantmentAdjustment

Fascination

CULTURESHOCKCYCLE

The Intensity Shock of Culture is Cyclical

Acculturation Stages

• Discovery (Euphoria)

• Disillusionment

• Adjustment

• Recovery/Acceptance

Adapted from Caldwell & Vanlo, DMPS

Discovery

• Relief to be safe again.

• Excitement over the newness of the surroundings.

• Curious about the surrounding.

• Eager to learn new things.

• Setting unrealistic goals for the future.

Disillusionment• Feeling discouraged (outsider), estrangement Have a little desire to participate.

• Feeling angry, hostile with the surrounding Negative and defiant behavior.

• Feeling sadness, withdrawal, home sick, depression Identity crisis

• Reject new setting, culture.

Adjustment• Gradually feeling less like an outsider

Attempting to adjust and find their place in the new setting.

• Begin to accept the differences in thinking and felling that surround them.

• Experimenting a new lifestyles and values

Be willing to try out new things.

• Begin to appreciate (SOME go to the extreme of rejecting their own culture…

Recovery/Acceptance

• Cultural barriers are bridged.

• Accepting new culture and self-confidence in the “new person”

• Beginning to realize the full impact of the situation.

• Beginning to value the new culture

• Try to balance both cultures.

• Accepting fully the reality and living with the situation.

• Beginning to set realistic goals for the future. Working hard to achieve goals

• Mainstreaming as much as possible in the new environment.

• Establish new place (position) in the new environment.

Effects of Acculturation

• Heightened Anxiety

• Confusion in Locus Control

• Withdrawal

• Silence/Unresponsive

• Distractibility

• Resistance to Change

• Stress Related Behaviors

Cross Cultural Development, Collier 2004

Realities of Acculturation Process

• Many people remain stuck in 2nd or 3rd stage of the process.

• Lead to unhappiness and frustration

Stress, family problems, psychological issues.

• Children usually are easily acculturated than adults (what’s happened?)

• Not to give up on the second stage

So What We Can Do to Help…….

Self-

Actualization

Status (Esteem)a need to be respected

and to have self-esteem

and self-respect

Love/ BelongingFriendship

Intimacy

Family

SafetyPersonal security

Financial security

Health and well-being

Physiological Human survival (Food, clothing, shelter)

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Encourage cultural knowledge sharing

• Allow student to share their knowledge and experience

• Communicate that cultural awareness is bilateral

• Visit the families

Communicate with an attitude of unconditional acceptance

• Take time to learn each student’s family history: immigration experience, educational and social background.

• Be willing to learn and share something, general and specific, about them. Building a student profile.

• Learn and use students’ name, including proper pronunciation (if possible).

• Use small group instruction, cooperative learning (differentiate instructions)

• Establish and utilize a student support network

• Connect students and families to community support network. Assign buddies to each student

• Visit the families

Ensure feelings of belonging

Ensure that success is achieved • Take advantage of students’ strengths in learning styles

• Use small group instruction, cooperative learning (differentiate your instruction)

• Provide low-anxiety environment

• Seating students where they can be surrounded by other peers and have an optimal chance at observing and listening -> learning.

Differentiation, Tomlinson, 2004

We should ask,

– “What are their students’ particular interests and needs?” Rather than asking, ”What labels do my students have?”

– “What are their students’ strengths? Rather than asking, “What are my students deficits?”

“I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am

the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily

mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I

possess a tremendous power to make a child's life

miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an

instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor,

hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that

decides whether a crisis will be escalated or

de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”

-- Dr. Haim Ginott --